10 minute read
Feature: Civil engineers
The public hardly pays attention to the calculations that make it possible for buildings such as the Leonardo to stand.
– snippet from the SRC faculty songbook, 1964
Defying gravity
BY JACQUELINE STEENEVELDT
The ever-evolving Sandton skyline in Johannesburg has been changed significantly by buildings such as the Michelangelo Hotel, the Michelangelo Towers, the Raphael, the DaVinci Penthouse Suites and Nelson Mandela Square. Wits alumnus Bart Dorrestein (BSc Eng 1971), founder and CEO of the Legacy Group, had a hand in the development of them all. It seemed fitting that Bart hosted the 50thyear reunion of the Wits 1971 Civil Engineering graduating class at the Leonardo, his most-recent project, which has been recognised as the tallest building in Africa.
The Leonardo was completed in 2020 and its construction involved fellow classmate Don Midgley (BSc Eng 1971, GDE 1981), owner of Ritchie Midgley Consulting Engineers. The firm received a commendation in the category of megaprojects (with a value greater than R1-billion) at the 2021 Consulting Engineers of South Africa-Aon Engineering Excellence Awards.
In a Zoom interview a few months after the reunion, Bart and Don seem uncomfortable to be singled out as among the “stars” from their class, though the two Witsies share a mutual admiration for each other’s work and have a long history of collaboration.
“Bart has the drive and technique and contacts to get these things going – a great combination of negotiating skills and persuasion. The Leonardo is a case in point. It was an abandoned site for nearly 10 years before Bart put this iconic building into the hole in the ground, which no one wanted,” says Don.
Bart Dorrestein, CEO and founder of the Legacy Group.
Bart remembers Don during their time in the Wits lecture halls: “Don sat in the front row and the intellectual capacity of the class diminished as you went backwards; I sat in the third row. He was a cool looking guy – he had a pin-up image and was a confident fellow. I started ahead of him, but we graduated in the same year,” Bart jokes. “We worked together when we started on Nelson Mandela Square. The partnership between Legacy Development and Ritchie Midgley Consulting Engineers involves almost every project development we’ve done since. I place great trust and value in them, that they would do it safely first and secondly cost-effectively.”
They attribute their achievements to a combination of factors such as “being at the right place at the right time”; the particular opportunities in South Africa’s history; “blind bliss and enthusiasm” as well as committed lecturers at Wits.
“One of the overriding things that I came away from university with was something Prof Jeremiah Jennings (DSc honoris causa 1978) said. He told the class that many of us would not go on to work as civil engineers or apply what he taught – in soil mechanics. But one thing he would leave with us, which would stand us in good stead for the rest of our lives, was the concept of ‘engineering judgement’. We would learn to judge a situation and if we made the wrong decision something would collapse or fall down,” says Bart.
Over the years they seem to have had a hand in many landmark buildings around South Africa which have stood the test of time: Bart has worked on projects such as the construction of the Rand Afrikaans University (University of Johannesburg), and building the Sun City complex from scratch, with another classmate, Donald King (BSc Eng 1972), for Sol Kerzner. Don (Midgley) was also involved in the construction of the Johannesburg General Hospital (Charlotte Maxeke) among others.
“Our motto was ‘We did’. We built on relationships and values forged at university: Be honest, do it correctly, check carefully and use your engineering judgement.”
The classmates show no sign of slowing down, if anything, there seems to be a greater urgency to overcome “the blockages” that hinder their aspiration to develop opportunities for others. Don gives the example of the Charlotte Maxeke Hospital: “It’s been 11 months since the little fire happened, we still can’t get onto the site because of paperwork…There are hundreds of people employed telling you why you can’t do the job as opposed to those who can just get on with it.”
“There aren’t enough hours in the day,” says Bart. “I am flummoxed by a society that puts you out to pasture after 60 years. You’ve got all those years of experience that should be passed on to others – so they can learn from the mistakes we’ve made and learn how we fixed it.
“I’m 72, I’ve got about 10% of my life left and there’s a hell of a lot still to do. The legacy is not what we leave in the bank, but what we did and what’s our contribution. I think that’s very important and what makes you relevant... I am incredibly motivated by the fact that I work with an amazing bunch of people who have the energy to make things happen. There’s loads of good things out there,” says Bart.
Don agrees and feels the need to build up something for the next generation, who he feels seem overly reliant on and trusting of machines: “The difference is between an analogue and a digital watch – with an analogue watch you can see how late or early you are; but with a digital watch, it just tells you the time. There is little context and it’s quite different. The analogue watch gives you a sense of the space you’re in – not looking through a keyhole, but you’re actually in a room. My idea of retirement is when my team are inside the room, not looking through the keyhole.”
Don Midgley, owner of Ritchie Midgley Consulting Engineers and his wife of 34 years Margie.
INFLUENTIAL LECTURERS
“We all owe and have expressed a debt of gratitude to the University, professors and lecturers at the time for the excellent education we received and how it enabled us to contribute in the way we did,” says Dr John Sampson.
Professor Desmond Midgley
Described by historian Bruce Murray as a “very goal orientated, if rather shy person, Professor Midgley’s long-term contribution was to make Wits the centre for hydrological research in South Africa”. Prof Midgley was Don’s father and he remembers begrudgingly accompanying him on trips around the country. “He did what was called the magnetic survey of the water resources of South Africa. From Namibia on camel, navigating by stars through to the Atlantic Coast and everywhere else. As a youngster I didn’t really enjoy that, I wanted to have a holiday instead!”
Professor Jeremiah Jennings
Jennings was head of the department from 1954 to 1976. He is described “as an able teacher who got down to the fundamentals and knew all his students personally.” He emphasised the need for engineers to learn from people – from the labourers on site to the final users of the structure – and not just from data. He urged university authorities to encourage lecturers to remain in contact with practical problems and won for them the right to act as consultants on civil engineering assignments. He was involved with virtually all major geotechnical projects in Southern Africa from 1955 to 1979. He arranged for several black students to graduate as civil engineers at Wits during the apartheid era, and he received an honorary doctorate from the University in 1978.
Professor Geoff Blight
Professor Blight excelled as a teacher and particularly as a supervisor and mentor to senior students and emerging academics. During his time as the professor of soil mechanics and construction materials, he made enormous contributions to developing the undergraduate teaching laboratories. Students remember him as a lucid and challenging teacher who was able to make complex subject material more accessible and with just the right dose of empathy. He was recognised as being generous in the intellectual and financial support that he gave to his students while being very demanding and uncompromising in the quality of the work that he expected.
Professor Allan Ockleston
Ockleston specialised in structural engineering and conducted tests on the floor slabs of the Bok Street Dental Hospital at the time of its demolition. His tests provided a deeper understanding of the yield-line behaviour and membrane action. A feature of his research and teaching was its precision, which was a trait he inculcated in his students.
Additional source and images: Wits: The 'Open' Years by Bruce Murray (WUP, 1997)
A view from the Leonardo building.
The Wits 1971 civil engineering class reunion.
A CONSTRUCTIVE BUNCH
On a clear day, the 56-storey Leonardo offers panoramic views: the Magaliesberg mountains are visible in the west, the Voortrekker Monument in the north, OR Tambo International Airport in the east and Joburg city in the south. The sparkle of the surrounding city lights on the evening of the 9 November 2021 added to the magic of the Wits 1971 civil engineering class reunion.
Dr John Sampson (BSc Eng 1971, PhD 1992), organiser of the reunion and ex-partner and consultant to JG Afrika says: “There is probably not a single major civil or environmental engineering project, be it road, dam, bridge, water, sewerage or refuse plant, mine or building in this country in the last 50 years where at least one of the class has not had a hand, whether in the planning, design or construction.”
John recently received a distinguished Fellow of the Southern African Transport Conference Award, making him one of only eight people who have received this prestigious award. He offers an overview of the group’s accomplishments: “Many classmates, such as Alan Robinson, Brian Tromp, Duncan Peters, Mike Pavlakis, and myself also founded and ran our own consulting engineering companies.
Dr John Sampson, organiser of the reunion.
“Howard Jones was CEO of Grinaker/LTA but many of our class such as Bryan Westcott, Chris Kirkwood, David Williams, Derek Berold, Gavin Byrne, Gavin Hardy, Ivan Vos, Peter Chivers, and Roy Kirkpatrick, formed and headed their own successful construction companies.
“We have also had a couple of professors, such as Raymond Levitt, who is at Stanford University, but was one of the youngest professors at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, not to mention half a dozen PhDs.
“Graham Pirie was the CEO of CESA, Duncan Peters was president of the Concrete Society, and I was appointed by the minister of transport as chairman of the board of the Road Traffic Management Corporation and a director of the Road Traffic Infringement Agency. Jacques Malan owns and runs a Stellenbosch Wine Estate.
“There are many names I have left out but each and every one has succeeded in one way or another, with almost all mentioning successful and happy families as important in the list of achievements,” says John.
Witsie structural engineers had a hand in the construction of the Oppenheimer Life Sciences Building (top) and the Sun City Complex (above).
