The iconic Dar Al Awadi Complex shopping centre and office tower – claimed to be currently the tallest building in Kuwait – was poised for handover to the owner at the end of last month (June) following completion of structural and finishing works.

Rising 171 m high, the 34-storey pentagon-shaped tower is now a highly prominent landmark in Sharq in the heart of Kuwait City, with its stainless steel dome and a mast nestled in a wide stainless steel circular saucer-shape roof canopy.
Owned by the Real Estate Investment Company, the architectural masterpiece enjoys a strategic location in the capital with a panoramic view of the Arabian Gulf.
The striking shape of this high-rise is further enhanced by its eye-catching exterior finishes combining granite, glazed curtain walls, stainless steel ribs and skylights which enfold a state-of-the-art building complex comprising a commercial office tower and a shopping mall. High-class finishes – in marble, steel, granite are the hallmark of the interiors.
The tower has two basement levels and 36 commercial levels (including ground and mezzanine levels) while the mall has three basement levels and four above-ground levels.
The project sits on a 5,820 sq m plot of which the mall covers 4,700 sq m and the tower 1,120 sq m.  The entire development provides a total built-up area of 56,334 sq m (the tower accounting for 31,260 sq m and the mall, 25,074 sq m), of which close to half (25,000 sq m) will be offered as retail area – 15,000 sq m in the tower and 10,000 sq m with the retail mall.
Internally, the building is clad in Mountwhite, a sandstone imported from Australia – the first time this type of sandstone has been used in Kuwait, and possibly in the Gulf, according to a spokesman for the contractor Ahmadiah Contracting and Trading Company. Internal floors are a combination of various types of marble with motifs.
Ahmadiah Contracting and Trading Company started work on the construction of the KD15.2 million ($52 million) project in April 2002 and is expected to complete the 36-month contract shortly.
“The project initially started off as a residential/commercial tower complex. In the process of the work, the owner was convinced that the area needed more offices than housing apartments,” says a spokesman for Project Analysis and Control Systems (Projacs), the project manager.
“The redesign of the project required indepth architectural knowledge and experience to implement the required changes,” he adds.
Keo International is the consultant on the development.
Tower
The tower is clad in special blue-tinted curtainwalling accentuated by horizontal stainless steel cover caps or stainless steel sunshades. It tapers skywards in three distinct tiers and then curves outwards in the top tier, which accommodates three executive floor levels. The building is then crowned by the stainless steel ring above which is the unique dome.

The tower is connected to the mall at the mezzanine level by a concrete bridge that is covered with a skylight.
The basement levels of the tower are technical floors, while the ground, mezzanine and the 34 levels all offer commercial space. According to the spokesman, all the offices in the tower have been booked and tenants had started their fit-out works.
Shopping centre
The shopping mall has three distinctive entrances and is dressed in blue curtain-walling that curves outwards to the top of the structure, similar to the top of the tower. Two of the three basement levels of the shopping centre will provide car parking spaces for around 130 cars, while retail outlets will be spread over the third basement, ground and first floors of the mall. The first and second floors of the building have been dedicated as office spaces.
A highlight of the mall is a wide centrally-located atrium surmounted by a huge skylight dome. Below this space is a beautiful fountain – illuminated by fibre-optic lighting – separating two panoramic lifts.
Most of the outlets have been booked and their tenants are expected to start fit-out works shortly.
Parking
In addition to the easy access that the complex enjoys and the parking facilities for shoppers in the mall basement, attention has been given to provide ample and easy car-parking facilities in an adjacent car-park which can accommodate more than 650 cars. 
To ease pedestrian movement, an aesthetic and spacious air-conditioned pedestrian bridge connects the mall with the car-park area at the mezzanine level.
Services
Meticulous attention has been given to ensure optimum tenant and customer services at the Dar Al Awadi Complex, says the Projacs spokesman. These services are further enhanced by state-of-the-art information technology, Internet, television and satellite as well as efficient sound and paging systems for tenants of the shops as well as for the business areas - in addition to the comprehensive safety and security systems.

The centrally-placed dome at the entrance of the mall.

The complex is served by a total of nine elevators and eight escalators.
The smart building services include:
• IP telephony, Voice over IP: Use of IP (Internet protocol) data connections to exchange voice and fax data that have traditionally been carried over the public switched telephone network;
• Hot spots wireless network – where a wireless LAN (local area network) is publicly accessible, all around the shopping mall;
• Direct, fast and secure Internet – which just requires plugging in and accessing the server or local printer; and
• Help desk.
Projacs was involved in this project as a project manager in both the design and construction phase.
“In the design stage our objective was to optimise quality and ensure cost and time savings during the very early phases of the project life cycle,” says the spokesman. “In the construction stage, our goal has been to plan, monitor and control the construction efforts to produce the desired completed facility while meeting a prescribed budget and schedule – an objective we have now achieved.”