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Towering above Jeddah’s North Corniche, the Headquarters Business Park stands like the sail of a dhow that has
traversed the Red Sea coast for centuries – a fitting and iconic landmark for Saudi Arabia’s second largest city.
HEADQUARTERS BUSINESS PARK – JEDDAH, SAUDI ARABIA
Plain sailing in Saudi
Jeddah is recognized as the number one commercial hub in
the Middle East as well as one of the most innovative cities in
the region. It is also the gateway to Islam’s most holy city, Mecca.
With this in mind, the Headquarters Business Park was designed
to be not only an exemplary building, but most importantly,
one that is functional and intelligent.
Clad in glass and local limestone, the site comprises two
towers. The 70-meter east tower houses a hotel; while the
250-meter west tower features offices, sky villas and a fine-dining
establishment at the top. The towers are linked by an eight-story
elevated parking podium, with landscaped rooftop on which the
52-story west tower is poised.
Onwards and upwards
This building sits on a narrow strip of land that tapers inwards
as it reaches the coast. “One of our initial challenges was the
building’s location, and the difficulty in maneuvering materials
to the site,” explains
Mohammad Odeh
, KONE’s Site Project
Manager. “We navigated this early obstacle rather well, allowing
us to meet the demanding construction schedule.”
To facilitate such a tight timetable, two construction time
use (CTU) elevators were installed. KONE CTU elevators are
permanent elevators, equipped with temporary signalization
and protective materials and used during the construction
phase. These elevators speed up the transportation of
workers, goods and tools, thus saving hundreds of man
hours – plus use 30 percent less energy than external hoists.
“The KONE CTU elevators were a major factor in the
customer selecting KONE as a partner on this project,”
says Odeh.
Getting there – without wait
Odeh notes that the people flow criteria required limited
access to certain floors. To determine optimal traffic flow,
KONE experts conducted two people flow studies. Their
recommendation was for three types of access levels that
are integrated to the KONE Polaris
™
Destination Control
System (DCS).
“With DCS, we were able to incorporate touchscreen
technology where the passenger uses a keycard to access
the system and is then guided directly to a dedicated car,
all the while maintaining a minimum wait at peak times,”
explains Odeh.
“When I look at this building I see a prestigious KONE project.
We were up to the challenge and delivered – for now – the
fastest and tallest elevators in the area,” says Odeh.