ADDIS ABABA | Commercial Bank of Ethiopia HQ | Office | 52 F | Approved

[abesha]

LOCAL, GERMAN FIRMS DISPUTE DELAYS CBE HQ PROJECT

A dispute between Universal Consult, a local consultancy firm, and HENN Architecten, a German company, which won the bid for designing the headquarters of the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE) as partners, has led the project to lag one year behind schedule, bank president Bekalu Zeleke told The Reporter.

After winning the contract by beating some 20 contenders, the two parties found themselves sinking into an unending row over benefit-sharing from the project before launching it in the first place.

“It had been a challenging task to mediate between the two parties as the dispute involved benefit-sharing from the project,” Bekalu said. “However, we were finally able to bring the two parties to come to terms.”

After delaying the project for over one year, the partners last month resumed undertaking the designing project involving producing detailed design and bill of quantities as well as finally producing bid document and invite a prospective contractors to participate in the bid to build what will become the tallest structure in Addis.

Touted as an iconic tower, the headquarters project is in limbo. After one year, the bank announced the winner of the design of the project.

Of some 21 designs presented by consortia of local and foreign architects, the bank in late last December selected the work of Universal Consult and HENN Architecten, which contested in the bid as partners representing Universal Consult.

The bank and the winning company were expected to sign the deal that required the latter to produce a detailed design of the project and later consult the construction work after the announcement was made, had it not been for the dispute emanating between the two companies.

This made the two parties fail to sign the pertinent contractual agreement even several months after the date of the announcement of the winning company which, in effect, has failed to clinch the award contract, the Reporter learnt.

Continued here: http://www.ethiopianreporter.com/eng...ews&Itemid=511

Lazy journalism. They've obviously just copied and pasted a previous article with just a couple of new paragraphs.

Anyway, construction on track to start sometime in 2011.

[abesha]

Update:

CBE Abandons Previous HQ Design, Retenders for New

The Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE) has put out an international design-build tender for its headquarters, signalling it has abandoned the previous design selected through a joint local-international competition.

Universal Consultants, a local firm in partnership with Henn Architekten, a Germen firm, was announced as the winner of the competition in December 2009, taking the 200,000 Br prize money. SB Consult, a local firm and Geluk Treurniet Architekten of Netherlands came in second and Geretta Consult, a local firm in partnership with Al Ajmi Engineering Consultants of the United Arab Emirates third. They were paid 150,000 Br and 100,000 Br respectively in prize money.

Although negotiations have been going on with the first-place winner to prepare the working design of the 42-storey building, both parties couldn’t come to an agreement, according to sources who are close to the negotiations. The payment amount for the design and the contract agreement between the local firm and the international firm was a major bone of contention, according to the sources.

Officials in charge of the project said that they did not know anything about the new tender, while Beaklu Zelleke, president of the bank, was not available for comment.

However, before issuing the design-build tender, the bank had also been negotiating with the second-place winner going as far as an electrical, sanitary and IT infrastructure design, according to the source.

While the first tender, last December, only called for an architectural design, the new one calls for one company to do the design and the construction as well. The new tender also calls for a 52-storey building, 10 more than the previous winning design, making it the tallest-standing building in Addis Abeba to date.

The headquarters is to be built on a 10,528sqm plot in the Kirkos District, along Ras Desta Damtew Street, in what is known as the Commercial Business District.

Universal Consultants, which had also won the design competition for the headquarters of the Bank of Abyssinia (BoA), had been told informally that the bank was not going to use their design, according to the source. Universal had won 120,000 Br in prize money for its design of the 29-storey headquarters of BoA.

Universal Consultants has declined to comment on the issue.

“We are working on procedural matters with CBE and it is too early to comment,” Destalem Haileselassie, manager of Universal, told Fortune.

The first competition for the design of the headquarters was one that is considered by many in the industry as a step towards professional standards for competitions. It was the first competition endorsed by the Association of Ethiopian Architects (AEA), which advised on the preparation of the terms of reference (ToR) for the competition. It also recommended a list of names for jury members for the bank to evaluate, and had one of its members on the jury.

Many competitions since then have followed the same procedure including Ethiopian Airlines, BoA, Nib Bank and Zemen Banks for the design competition of their headquarters.

The executive board that were in charge of the association were replaced after they finished their term three weeks ago. However, Daniom Redda, who was the chair of the competition and exhibition committee of the association then, says it is also too early to comment.

“Since the bank has not issued a statement why they had issued a new international tender, it is hard to comment,” he told Fortune. “However, the final guiding document for both sides is the ToR, which was drawn to protect the interest of both the client and the architect.”

http://addisfortune.com/CBE%20Abando...0for%20New.htm

[Skyliner123]

Abesha,

Ayzosh,...cause the new building will be even bigger (52 stories) than the previouse design. Bigger is better right?

[Yoniii]

I really liked the design, this is dissapointing.

I'm worried that they will settle for less, just to get the construction starting as soon as possible due to existing delays.

[Skyliner123]

Yoniii,

The delay is indeed a disapointment. However, we are getting a 52 story building with the new proposal instead of a 42 story with the previouse proposal.

[Simfan34]

I hope Henn can persuade CBE to use a revised design.

[Skyliner123]

Another 'could have been' design for CBE






http://www.psp-architekten.de/184.html?&L=1

[Simfan34]

Never seen that before.

It greatly reminds me of the Commerzbank Tower in Frankfurt.

A shorter, stubbier version, that is.

[Simfan34]

Another proposal, this time by ABT Architects

http://www.abt.eu/en/news.asp?cid=1&nid=198

[Ras Siyan]

I prefer this over the boxy shape...Let's see how it goes...

[Simfan34]

I think I do, too.

[Tarrex]

this was also a proposed design




http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat...-proposal.html

[Simfan34]

Salini Aims to Make CBE HQ its First Building in Ethiopia

Salini Construction Spa, an Italian based Co, which has been involved in dam projects for over half a decade, is looking to get into its first building construction after showing interest in the headquarters of the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE).

It had responded to a call for interest of the design - build project, a turnkey endeavour, for the construction of a 52-storey building, the tallest in the country, along with close to 20 international bidders.

The state-owned bank had initially awarded the design competition of the headquarters to Universal Consultants, a local firm in partnership with Henn Architekten, a German firm, in December 2009, which took 200,000 Br in prize money. However, disagreement between the local and the international firms as well as with CBE over pay and working modalities resulted in an impasse over its 10,528sqm plot of land in the Kirkos District, along Ras Desta Damtew Street, in what is known as the Commercial Business District, remaining barren and fenced off.



Although the biggest bank in the country, the state owned Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE) has been headquartered in an old 11-storey building, seen in the foreground, while Awash International Bank (AIB), a relatively younger bank has a modern 17-storey building seen in the background. But this is to change soon as CBE prepares to build a 52-storey building, the biggest in the country.

Failing to get a working design out of this, the CBE issued two separate invitations – one for the design-build and another for consultancy services which will be responsible for design modification and supervision – close to three months ago.

A total of 12 local and international companies as well as a local - international joint venture (JV) have expressed interest in the consultancy work. The project office of the Bank then selected five companies and held a pre-bidding meeting with them on Wednesday, November 23, 2011.

Three of the companies selected are in a JV - MH Engineering, Geretta Consult, both local, and Al Ajimi of United Arab Emirates; Tata Consulting Engineers Ltd of India with Arup of South Africa; and A1 Consulting Group of the US with Perkins, Heery, Kothri of India and Beza Consult locally. Two of them, Arab Consulting Engineers Ltd of Egypt and Klings Cons. Of Germany came alone.

In the two-hour meeting, which started at 10:00am at the project site office located next to the construction site, the selected bidders held discussions about the bidding and its amendments. These companies have to submit their bid offers by December 15, 2011.

CBE has been positioning itself to reach to new heights. In the last fiscal year, the Bank performed well in major performance indicators, earning 4.1 billion Br in profits before tax. Its deposit mobilisation reached 86.5 billion Br. It seems that the management of the Bank is set on changing the image of the largest banking institution in the country by increasing their reach and planning to collect 127.4 billion Br in total deposits this year.

Perhaps indicative of that mindset is the annual road race, the Great Ethiopian Run, scheduled to be held today, November 26, 2011, which it sponsored. It is the same change of attitude that the management of the bank wants to see in the design of the building. An iconic building was criteria put in the first design competition.

The bank also changed the height of the building, initially set at 42-storeys, to the current 52, for which building height regulations did not allow based on the proportion of street width and plot area, after long negotiations with the Addis Abeba City Administration.

http://addisfortune.com/Salini%20Aim...20Ethiopia.htm

We'll see what happens, I wonder what will happen design-wise.

[mike7743]

Seriously? they're just going to hand the contract to a company with no experience in the construction of buildings? Unless they're gonna design and build it to look like a dam these guys are completely under qualified. this project isn't an experiment.

[Yoniii]

Originally Posted by mike7743

Seriously? they're just going to hand the contract to a company with no experience in the construction of buildings? Unless they're gonna design and build it to look like a dam these guys are completely under qualified. this project isn't an experiment.

My thought as well, but the article only states Salinis interest.

[lady gaga]

Originally Posted by Simfan34

Another proposal, this time by ABT Architects

http://www.abt.eu/en/news.asp?cid=1&nid=198

Wow Wow Wow looks very nice and elegant but i hop it doesn't became like chun hui hotel tower

[Simfan34]

Originally Posted by mike7743

Seriously? they're just going to hand the contract to a company with no experience in the construction of buildings? Unless they're gonna design and build it to look like a dam these guys are completely under qualified. this project isn't an experiment.

Salini has had experience building buildings, just not in Ethiopia. Check their website.

[Skyliner123]

Originally Posted by Tarrex

this was also a proposed design




http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat...-proposal.html

I love this! I wish it was the plan they went with!

[Kata-2]

Originally Posted by Tarrex

this was also a proposed design




http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat...-proposal.html

ugly...

[Yoniii]

It looks like something from the Flintstones. It's slightly better at night, but I don't like it either..