Heritage Cases

Together with the City Hall and other historical buildings in the vicinity such as the Tatham Gallery, Publicity House forms a unique historical and architectural group in the Piermaritzburg CBD. The group and the urban landscape is currently undergoing an upgrade. The building is in the Renaissance style, has a symmetrical facade with an imposing entrance portico at its centre. The roof of the portico is supported by columns in the Greek fashion. The front of the building is ornamented and has vertical sliding sash windows, The building was designed by J.S. Brunskill for the Pietermaritzburg Borough Police and was completed in 1884. The original building consisted of nine dormitory rooms for the staff, a dining room and eight cells on the Langalibalele Street side of the building. It’s current use is as municipal offices. Scope of current Project – Limited to External Renovation only. Methodology : Detailed technical specifications will be prepared by the architect with the assistance of D.E. Osborne an experienced Pietermaritzburg- based Chartered Building Surveyor and Senior Architectural technologist who has an extensive heritage building renovation and alteration experience. Mr. Osborne’s scope of work will include supervision during construction. The specifications and scope of work will be included in a Bill of Quantities to be prepared by a professional quantity surveyor. The Bills of Quantities and specification will form the basis for the tender enquiry. The municipality will be urged to consider invited tenders for the construction phase of the work to ensure that only contractors with proven heritage refurbishment experience are permitted to submit tenders. Title no T12509/1935