The King Abdullah Financial District is a new development being undertaken by the Rayadah Investment Corporation on behalf of Public Pension Authority of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia development involves the construction of a new financial center for the City of Riyadh. The district includes over one hundred parcels, a new monorail system as well as numerous civic and infrastructure projects.

   Each parcel includes four levels of below grade parking, a podium with retail and office and mixed use towers and is bordered along one edge by a continuous, “Wadi” greenway.

The project consists of two mixed use tower parcels 4.07 and 4.08, parcel 4.07 is a 18 story tower while parcel 4.08 is a 32 story 132.0m high building sharing a common 3 story podium and 4 story underground car park. Structural system is conventional flat plate concrete slab supported by concrete columns, lateral system is coupled concrete shearwalls.

The complex geometry of buildings posed significant challenges to the design team, one of the biggest challenge was the resolution of thrust forces due to faceted shapes and the design of lateral system for long term dead loads due the resulting thrust, other interesting features include steel truss bridge between both towers spanning 30m and 3 story high. 

The design schedule was restricted to 10months. Construction drawings for foundation were delieverd  to contractor within 90 days of project kick off, further early packages were delieverd for podium levels to keep up with the pace of construction, project management plan was consistantly updated to meet the demand of client. 

Key project information

Engagement with               Buro Happold
Client                                    Saudi Bin-Laden Group
Architect                               FXFowle Architects [http://www.fxfowle.com/projects/international/king-abdullah-financial-dist]
Project value                      Confidential
Dates                                  2008 - 2011