Sea Point 2026

Connecting our South African Modernist architects to the present is ROBERT SILKE & PARTNERS. Their latest project may be a building of two halves – THE COLE hotel and DOLCE VITA apartments - but in concept, build and location, it represents a link between past and present.

- STEVE SMITH

IT WAS A CASE OF JOINING THE DOTS FOR ARCHITECTS ROBERT SILKE & PARTNERS. The building occupies a corner with, on one flank, The Flamingo — a neo-Bauhausian apartment block they had designed in 2023 — and on the other, Mimosa Court, a Sea Point grand old lady that's been revered by Robert throughout his career.

Designed by Loris Pagano in the 1950s, the apartments in this stately, Deco-flavoured building remain highly sought-after.

"It was a tremendous opportunity, and a responsibility," admits Robert. "Mimosa is an amazing building - and then you've got The Flamingo, which is obviously important to us. How do you join the two? How do you complete the corner?"

Adding a Pascal or two of extra pressure was the fact that the new building had to accommodate both a 60-room hotel - The Cole - and 60 apartments under the name Dolce Vita.

Project developers Paul and Saul Berman of Berman Brothers Group insisted that each have a separate visual identity, and the proprietor of the hotel, Paul Kovensky of the Kove Collection, wanted his hotel rooms to all have sea views a challenge, given the building site on Main Road was a block behind the seafront Beach Road.