Work is well in progress on the Sofitel Hotel Al Khobar, which will boast the distinction of being the only five-star hotel in the city that has a waterfrontage, when it is completed next year.

Following the completion of the superstructure, work is well under way on the finishing including the curtain-walling works as well as the MEP (mechanical, electrical and plumbing) works on the landmark development, which occupies a 4,911.4 sq m on Al Khobar Corniche.
The project, which offers a built-up area of 25,952 sq m, was first envisaged in January 2003 and aims cater to the growing demand for hospitality facilities in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia.
Located in the heart of the city and right on the waterfront, this urban-style five-star leisure hotel will exude warmth, luxury and refinement combined with a high-performance communications system to suit both local and international needs, says AFM Consultants, the consultant for the project.
However, its seaside location combined with its restricted site brought a number of challenges both for the designing team as well as the contractor.
The hotel building comprises an 11-storey structure, where the ground, mezzanine and first floors are public areas housing the banquet hall, meeting rooms, restaurants and recreational facilities including a health club and swimming pool. The guest rooms – ranging from studios to duplexes – junior and executive and duplex suites are located on levels two to nine. More than 70 per cent of the rooms enjoy a seaside view while the remaining enjoy cityscapes.
The building also includes a basement level for parking facilities as well as services.
The hotel will feature a business centre, conference rooms, swimming pool, health spa, French cuisine restaurant befitting the brand it represents – the Sofitel, part of the Accor chain of hotels, a top-of-the-range product in business and leisure hotels.
“The architectural design of the project has been challenging both from the planning point of view due to a tight lot area and its location, where the goal was to maximise on the seafront view,” says Abdul Fattah Al-Mumen, the principal of AFM Consultants. “These challenges and the configuration of the lot have helped in creating a dynamic linear shape that looks different when viewed from various angles. The project stands out as being the only the five-star hotel in town that has an immediate waterfront edge.”
The main contractor Al-Latifia Trading and Contracting  started mobilisation work on its SR150 million  ($40 million) in June 2005 and is expected to handover the project in February 2008. Under the contract, Al Latifia is responsible for the construction of all structural, MEP, interior finishing of guest rooms and external finishing.
Elaborating on the construction of the hotel, Al Mumen says: “The building is located on a reclaimed site, where the soil is rather poor to support the structural loads. Hence, a deep foundation system with bored cast in-situ concrete piles has been used. The foundation works were started in June 2005 and completed in January 2006. The piling sub-contractor was Arabian Soil Contractors.
“The high water table due to the location of the site presented a number of challenges in the construction of the basement, particularly in the dewatering and shoring works until the waterproofing works were completed.
“The superstructure comprises a reinforced concrete framed construction with sandwich blockwork fillers on the façade and normal blockwork partitions internally. The suspended slabs are a combination of hordi slab with Styrofoam filler and solid concrete slabs. The superstructure works started in February last year.  Concrete specified for the project has a compressive strength of 4,000 psi with five to seven per cent microsilica added in all the underground concrete works.
“A focal feature of the front façade is the structural glazing element which is curved in plan and sloping in elevation from the second to the ninth floor. This glazing consists of laminated glass on the inside for security.”
“The curtain-walling and structural glazing consisting of a 24 mm insulated glazing unit of 6 mm thick high-performance tempered glass on the outer pane, 6-mm-thick clear tempered glass with low E for the inner pane and 12 mm air gap in between. Asamco, the subcontractor for all the curtain walling, structural glazing and façade aluminium cladding works, started work on its contract in January this year and is expected to complete by July. All international standard tests shall be carried out to ensure water-tightness and wind load stability.
All the aluminium profiles used in the project are Schuco systems, manufactured in Germany.
The floor finishing consists of very rich materials ranging from black galaxy granite, tiles and wood parquet to carpets in different areas depending on the use of the area. The wall finishing ranges from wood panelling, granite cladding, glass cladding and painting in different areas.  The ceiling finishing is generally gypsum board ceilings with patterns and acoustic ceiling tiles in some service areas.”
The complete furnishing of the hotel shall be done by the reputed international FF&E (furniture, furnishing and electricals) contractor Depa UAE.
The building is equipped with all safety and security systems namely fire alarm, fire fighting, CCTV (closed circuit television) and a public address system.
“An excellent safety and security system is provided through a fire alarm system, fire exit doors and signage for swift evacuation of occupants in case of fire,” he says.
To ensure the comfort of guests, the hotel is cooled by a total refrigerant tonnage of 1,750 tonnes nominal, achieved through a chiller system. A highly professional lighting system, to meet the requirements of an international five-star hotel, has been specified for both interior and exterior areas. 
According to Al Mumen, there were many project challenges right from the design to the execution stages.
He comments: “The lot area was very tight to accommodate all the facilities during construction. The groundwater table is high due to the close proximity of the sea, bringing about difficulties in the construction of the basement, which is around 3.0 m below the groundwater table. This problem was compounded by the fact that a neighbouring building has a shallow foundation. To ensure the safety of the structure, a series of concrete sheet piling was installed. In addition, most of the finishing materials and equipment are procured from abroad which is a big challenge in terms of lead time required.”
The client, Sheikh Saad A Abdul Wahab Al Dajam, has been in the hotel business since a long time and is running a four-star hotel at Riyadh. “The client has many hospitality projects envisaged for the near future, which are under feasibility studies or under conceptual design stage,” he says.
AFM Consultants is basically an architectural engineering consultancy involved in design, supervision and project management services of various types of projects, ranging from commercial, residential, industrial and hospitality. The know-how and expertise of the consultant for hospitality projects like hotels has grown multi-fold in recent past with many projects of such nature in hand for design and project management services.   
Al-Latifia Trading is classified as class A category and is involved in the construction of various prestigious projects in the kingdom. It is capable of handling a good size of projects with its available resources and manpower. The contractor is qualified to meet the international standards of construction with its high quality assurance/control programme.  The main strength of the contractor is general construction which includes structural, architectural, electrical, plumbing and fire fighting disciplines.
The MEP contractor on the project is Saudi Taab – a sister company of main contractor – which is  responsible for electromechanical construction including complete electrical power, all low current systems, plumbing and fire fighting disciplines.
HVAC (heating, ventilation and air-conditioning) supply and installation works are executed by Asmael Contracting.