CMA offices halfway to completion

Chairman of the Capital Market Authority (CMA) Abdul Rahman Al-Tuwaijeri visited recently the construction site of the CMA Tower at King Abdullah Financial Center in Riyadh, where 50 percent of the work is completed.
Al-Tuwaijeri and the administrative and technical teams accompanying him viewed the various completed areas of the tower, which is expected to be complete in 2013.
The 385-meter long project sprawls over 5,962 sq. m with four floors underground and 80 floors above the ground, in addition to three areas of three stories elevation, where the centralized cooling chamber and other mechanical services are housed.
The facility has been designed in the latest international standards to fulfill the needs of financial establishments.
Al-Tuwaijeri also viewed the system, which has twin cabins operating on the same cable. The system reduces the number of elevators by 30 percent at the core area and saves 50 percent energy for their operation.
The tower’s transparency creates internal openness and access to natural light within the workplace.
The tower’s unique construction system allows a combination of reinforced concrete with iron pillars. There are two areas in the tower of 17 meters high and involving a mix of reinforced concrete and huge steel structure with a total weight of 5,800 tons — the first of them 3,400 tons and the second 2,400 tons compared to the 1,100 tons of steel for the same system for the Burj Al-Khalifa in Dubai.
The high-performance solar control system includes an external layer of fins, gantries and perforated panels that provides shade, amplifying the thermal efficiency of the triple-pane, unitized glazing.
The tower’s building style also helped it to win a LEED Gold rating, making it the first tallest office building in the Middle East and also one of the tallest office buildings in the world to win the rating.