Heritage
Built as a testament to success, security and strength, the Mutual Building was completed in 1940 as the headquarters of the South African Mutual Life Assurance Society. Commissioned architects spent two years travelling the world to find inspiration and source materials. With strong influences from the Met Life Tower in New York and the Eastern Columbia Building in Los Angeles, the Mutual Building is a striking example of art deco architecture and design.
On completion, it was the tallest building on the continent and housed four of the fastest lifts in the world. The building is clothed in marble imported from Italy, brass and chrome fittings from England and granite from a single boulder in the Paarl mountains. The foyer is lined with black gold-veined onyx and the ceiling is gilded in gold leaf.
In 2003 Old Mutual initiated a residential conversion of the building that was the first in a series of projects that helped revitalise the centre of Cape Town. In 2015 Old Mutual sold the remaining heritage sections including the banking hall, directors' suite and the assembly room. With the sensitive redevelopment of these sections, and the cosmopolitan daily life the historic centre attracts, Mutual Heights is the reinvention of a colonial legacy as a contemporary urban African home.
For a more detailed history of the building, see Wikipedia.