ABSTRACT
Rising 412 meters in the center of Kuwait City, Al Hamra Tower is a landmark office tower of iconic sculptural form that offers breathtaking views of the Arabian Gulf.
When construction began on the site, the owners, a joint venture between a local developer and a general contractor, had planned a 50-story tower with a fourstory podium, all designed by a local architect. Then the building boom elsewhere in the region prompted the Kuwaiti authorities to change the zoning to allow for a much taller tower on the site, to compete with the supertall, iconic structures springing up in Kuwait’s neighbor countries. By the time SOM was brought in, the site was fully excavated and construction on the four-story podium was underway. As the owners wished to retain the original podium design, SOM was commissioned to design a new tower at the northern tip of the site.
