Baku News

2008-02-04 – Skyscrapernews – Baku in Azerbaijan is set to become the home of a shiny new skyscraper that will become the new head office for the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan or SOCAR for short. The stunning design comes from the drawing boards of Korean based architects Heerim Architects and Planners Co Ltd who have also recently opened new offices in Baku. Construction will be undertaken by Local builders under the supervision of Heerim and will be located on Heydar Aliyev Avenue, part of Baku's business district. The two towered project rises from a elongated, canopy like podium made of glass and aluminium and snake their way skywards. Curving into each other the seemingly shorter tower almost looks like its resting its head on the chest of the taller tower, the taller towers peak slightly bending over it in a confident, reassuring and comforting manner. The facades are glass which have a mesh-like pattern to them and allows people below to see what's going on in each different floor of the tower and gives workers inside exceptional views. The towers will have 32 floors, 2 basement floors and have a maximum height of 173 metres. Covering 12000 square metres it will mainly house office space but will also have conference facilities, a guest house with 20 rooms to accommodate out of town business people, sports facilities and retail spaces and presumably food outlets to keep the expected 2000 workers in the tower firing on all cylinders. Construction is expected to begin in the first quarter of 2008