Raadsaal

President Kruger laid the foundation stone for the Raadsaal building and it was completed in 1891. This was Sytze Wierda’s first building in South Africa, bearing many similarities to his design for the Stock Exchange competition in Amsterdam (though his entry was not chosen for the construction thereof). The building stands 38.1m tall to the top of the Liberty figure, with all the doors and windows imported from the Scottish Orkney Islands. A white stone carving of the Transvaal coat of arms is placed above the portico.

Architect:
Sytze Wopkes Wierda
Sytze Wierda was born in the Netherlands and was renowned as the first Government Architect and Engineer for the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (ZAR). Over the fourteen years of working for the government, he and his team developed the Republican Style (also known as Eclectic Wilhelmiens), designing numerous significant buildings. His exact town of birth is disputed and even his architectural education is unclear, though it is known that he was originally schooled to be a carpenter. The suburb Wierdapark, in Centurion, is named after him.

Sources:
HOLM, D. 1998. Kerkplaats and Capitalists. In Architecture of the Transvaal. Edited by R.C. Fisher and S. le Roux, with E. Maré. Pretoria: the University of Pretoria. p.54-77.
artefacts.co.za/buildings (accessed 22 January 2014).
artefacts.co.za/buildings (accessed 20 January 2014).
af.wikipedia.org (accessed 20 January 2014).