A love letter to La Concorde

There are buildings and then there are institutions. La Concorde is not just another office block on Main Road in Paarl. It is a concrete memory, a historical statement and now, thanks to the right developer at the right time, a second act done properly. Before La Concorde became a development opportunity, before it became a conversation about premium office space or asset repositioning, it was the beating administrative heart of one of South Africa’s most important agricultural strongholds — the KWV. You cannot talk about KWV without understanding what it meant to this country. For decades, KWV was more than a wine body. It was the backbone of the South African wine industry. It regulated production, stabilised prices and shaped how wine moved from farm to market. If you were part of the wine industry, KWV was part of your story. When it built its head office in Paarl circa the 1950s, it wasn’t just about needing space, it was about securing a presence. Construction began in 1956 and by 1958, La Concorde stood completed — a bold, deliberate building designed to reflect both authority and heritage. KWV certainly didn’t cut corners. The architecture drew from the Cape Dutch vernacular with its thick walls, symmetry and gables. This was a reinterpretation rather than a copy-and-paste of history. A modern building for its time, rooted in tradition but clearly looking forward. Every detail of the building tells a story. Take the front gable (picture a simple house a child would draw — a square with a triangle on top. That triangle? That’s the gable). At first glance, it is beautiful. But when you look closer, it becomes something else entirely. The sculptural work was done by Florencio Cuairan, a Spanish artist who spent more than two decades in South Africa. He modelled the pediment in clay before casting it, embedding mythology, symbolism and local references into the façade. At the centre sits Ganymede from Greek mythology, carried by an eagle — a symbol of elevation