TOPIC: The British Period: 19th Century Influences on Vernacular Architecture in the Eastern Cape
SPEAKER: John Rennie
DATE: Tuesday, 19th April 2011
TIME: 20h00
VENUE: The Athenaeum, Boundary Terraces, Newlands, at the intersection of Mariendahl and Campground Roads.
John Rennie, a past chairman of VASSA and a highly esteemed architect, has been responsible for many notable restorations, including the Anglican Cathedral in Grahamstown, City Halls in East London and Cape Town, and the Centre for the Book in Queen Victoria Street (originally the University building of 1906).
He will show us slides of his early work in the Eastern Cape, from his Grahamstown days, and in the Western Cape, where he has worked at a farm near Nuy and at Kanetvlei, both in the Worcester district, and more recently at Helena in Daljosaphat, near Paarl.
One of his more recent restorations was at the corner of Harrington Street and Roeland Street, where he restored and extended two buildings which became the head office of SAHRA.
Most recently, he restored the old Drill Hall on the Grand Parade and adapted it to become the Central Library.