The Fever Hospital was first constructed in a neglected area of downtown Joburg between working class Braamfontein and patrician Hillbrow. By the 1960s, rising land values led to the City Council conceptualising a 'Civic Hill' for Joburg that would encompass many of the city's legislative offices and the old hospital. A competition was held to choose the design for the Civic Hill, and the winning work, the monumentally brutalist Metro Centre, was later described by award-winning architect Clive Chipkin as “an overpowering bureaucratic presence above desolate, granite-chip piazzas.”<br /> <br /> Since 1994 various projects have attempted to beautify the facade of the brutally imposing Civic Centre, now renamed Metro Centre, that sits in the middle of the precinct, the largest and most recent of which is the construction of the new Council Chambers. The circular Council Chambers building has been given a consciously Afrocentric look and in contrast to the Metro Centre's soaring concrete facade the new building is entirely surrounded by glass walls, symbolic of a commitment to open and accountable bureaucracy.<br /> <br /> This is the first time that local heritage experts Johannesburg Heritage Foundation have led a tour of the new building and it is expected to be popular so don't delay in booking your place. The tour starts outside the main entrance to Joburg Theatre and lasts approximately three hours.