ALMATY | Almaty Financial District Development News

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Almaty Financial District
Almaty, Kazakhstan

General Information

Developer
Capital Partners (KZ)
Participating Architects
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, Leslie E. Robertson Associates and others
Buildings Count
30+
Construction Begin
2006
Construction End
4Q 2007 (Phase I)



Project Brief

Almaty Financial District, with its 35 floor Capital Tower, is situated in Al-Farabi Avenue,
the main business, shopping and residential street in Almaty.

Project Description

The new Almaty Financial District will benefit from a fantastic location at the foot of Kazakhstan’s impressive Alatau mountain range. Furthermore, it will serve as the financial hub for the entire Central Asian region.

“With ultra-modern conceptual design from New York's Skidmore Owings and Merrill architects, the 30+ buildings that will form the Almaty Financial District will open between in a series of phases with the first phase scheduled for completion by December 2007.”

http://www.hotlinkfiles.com/files/249246_limey/AFD.jpg


Related Links

Official local forum discussion(RU/ENG)
http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=307836

Homepage(Offline)
http://www.afd.kz/

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Almaty Financial District(AFD) Recent Phase I Renders

Category
Class "A" Offices
Architect
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, LLP (US)
Clients/Tenants
AFD B LLP
Kazkommertsbank
AFD C LLP
Bank TuranAlem
Total Area
161 520 sq. m (4 buildings)
Construction Begin
2006
Construction End
3Q 2007 and 4Q 2007


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Kazkommerts Bank Office Building


Developer
Capital Partners (KZ)
Architects
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, LLP (US)
Structure Design Engineer
Leslie E. Robertson Associates RLLP (US)
Construction Begin
2006
Construction End
2007

This project consists of a new 7-story financial building with two below grade parking levels. The total gross area will be approximately 517,000 sf (48,000 sm).

http://www.lera.com/pimg/kazkommertsbank/8979464_large.jpg

http://www.lera.com/pimg/kazkommertsbank/2310423_large.jpg

http://www.lera.com/pimg/kazkommertsbank/9437953_large.jpg

[Excelsior!]

I didn't think Almaty, Kazakhstan would surprise us this way. I almost had a hart attack (j/k).

Congratulations!

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Progress Update as of July 07
Photo originally uploaded by Dizzyk

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photo originally uploaded by Kashelop

[el palmesano]

wow,

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Master Plan Developers Speak

Brown Sardina (http://www.brownsardina.com/) has been assisting the architects through design development for projects within the 290 acre Almaty Financial District Master Plan area consisting of 13 project sites sequenced to meet the demand for state-of-the-art facilities in Almaty. The majority of the proposed space is office use (approx. 1,000,000 sf). The plan also contains residential units (approx. 1,000) and 65,000 sf of retail space. All projects have at least 2 levels of below grade parking for approx. 14,000 cars. Amenity systems consist of internal drop-off loops, pedestrian systems linking all of the projects and open space systems over structure that include seasonal-interest plantings, fountains, seating and quiet spaces for relaxation. The large central spine was created to unify the entire district and contains a proposed city cultural center. With more than 100ft of grade change from north to south, each of the project sites had to address challenging grade change occurring at their perimeters.

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Al Farabi Business Center

Information from: http://aesthetechtonik.com/2007/08/15/spec-office-v01-concept/

On the tail of the Repbulic Square competition, another *small* project competition emerged in the heart of Almaty’s financial district that was simple in the challenge it set forth; a speculative office complex 160,000 sm, consisting of four buildings, 2 large (flanking the site), and 2 smaller (in the middle). Our team, since having won the competition, is finding in the midst of its development, that the project has grown considerably in size, scope, and complexity. I will try to document this ongoing effort, to bring to light design issues put on the table, challenges faced, and what it might mean for the client, city, and occupants.

http://aesthetechtonik.files.wordpress.com/2007/08/afbc-05.jpg

The Concept

The client’s interest for the project is one which predicates a desire to create a formidable presence in a burgeoning financial district at the southeast corner of the city. The Kazak culture as a whole has strong ties to the landscape, which for centuries was the enabler of their nomadic lifestyle. They were a people who farmed the steppe between the lowlands, and the southern mountain ranges. It is this affinity for their environs, coupled with a desire to participate in a dialogue with western society that led them to the development of this project.At its rudiments, the buildings of the Al Farabi Business Center have the advantage of being the third project in an on-going collaborative between NBBJ, E/Ye Design, and TS Engineering (TSE). TSE is the client, developer, and shared user of the complex. As stated above, the formal nature of these investigations resonated highest with the client because of their simultaneous addressing of both the desire to create buildings which become part of, and speak to, a larger landscape, as well as situating themselves in a contemporary discussion with the richness and technology of western architecture. The goal of the project is synergistic with this ideal; to create place beyond the realm of speculative office (the parameters of which were dictated by the client to be four buildings of a specific size and location), which amplifies this discussion. Thusly, an attitude held by the project at its inception was to accommodate the programmatic, ecological and metric requirements of the speculative typology by pushing the Architecture to both the perimeter and interstitial space between the buildings, leaving the interior potential to be a flexible as possible for the future tenants.

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Differentiation of these spaces is evoked through a shared formal relationship with the building and ground-plane through manipulated splines, to create an abstracted relationship to the life of the landscape and landforms of the steppe in opposition to the imposed gridded geometry of the city and its gardens (as residual from Soviet occupation). These geometries are subverted, however, described only by rigorous deployment of linear construction methodologies, speaking to a degree of machined western refinement, and adapt to certain situations afforded by the site.

[ZZ-II]

not bad :okay:

[MasonicStage™]

OMG...This is stunning! An excellent project for Almaty. ;)

[^Anton^]

I love the project, it's not just skyscrapers popping all over the place, but some really nice and different modern architecture :)

[Energia_positiva]

what???? are you f..ing with me??? :poke: ... this is amazing..... :uh:

Almaty, Kazakhstan??? come on.... its just... WOW...:eek2: :bow: :bow: :applause: :applause: :applause: :eek:


When its going to be the moment that Venezuela will star such a amazing proyect :|?


Congratulations Almaty :D

[Velkan]

The renders look fantastic! according to the info at the top of the thread the first phase of the financial district was supossed to be finished by the last quarter of this year, is everything going as scheduled?

[Sound.]

WOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

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08/30/07 by Evertraveler

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[Athenax]

Great project! Almaty's rapid development is due to the discovery of vast oil and mineral reserves in KZ.

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Great project! Almaty's rapid development is due to the discovery of vast oil and mineral reserves in KZ.

True, but the current growth is also defined by leaps and bounds in the financial sector, moderate inflation, and increasing consumer spending.

[Melinda]

I am totally impressed. Almaty is going to be the best town in Asia!

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Phase I Works
September Update

TuranAlem Bank building: current progress:

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Excavation works for the future Kazkommertz bank building along the Markov street are in progress:

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October 2007 Update

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All photos courtesy Solorama

[Second City]

Those new buildings look very modern.

[Nikkodemo]

Oh my God!!

Almaty surprised me!!

[Gordion]

Nice projects!

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Two more hi-res renders of the new Al-Farabi business complex has just become available. You can read more about this complex in one of my previous posts (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=14910621&postcount=7)here.

http://img176.imageshack.us/img176/2619/alfmo9.png

General view:

http://aesthetechtonik.files.wordpress.com/2007/08/afbc-04.jpg

[Sukino]

Impressive architecture.

[samsonyuen]

Really beautiful buildings!

[IleoI]

one more:
http://aesthetechtonik.files.wordpress.com/2007/08/afbc-03.jpg
foster towers:
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[Shezan]

great wiews for Almaty..........

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AFD Map Full (2007-2015):

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AFD Phase II (2009 Q1):

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AFD Phase III (2009 Q1):

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AFD Phase IV (2009 Q2):

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AFD Phase V (2010 Q1):

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AFD Phase VI (2009 Q4):

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AFD Phase VII (2010 Q3):

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AFD Phase VIII (2010 Q3):

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AFD Phase IX (2010 Q4):

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[Metroland]

These projects are just so damn sophisticated and slick. I'm amazed and jealous. Love it!

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Without adding too much oil into the fire, as was discussed earlier, the 215-meter tall Foster twin towers (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=588943) will also eventually become part of this complex of more than 80 buildings.

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[Shezan]

wow!

really beautiful design!

[Mulefisk]

Wow, some of these projects are really ground breaking, especially for central Asia. Nice to see that Kazhakstan is working at fixing its image as a poor, backwards country.

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poor, backwards country.

In all honesty, I wasn't aware such image ever existed? :|

[Evertraveller]

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[Sbz2ifc]

I like these projects, but what I don't like is that all the buildings are duplicated. There should be some individual buildings as well.

[Mulefisk]

In all honesty, I wasn't aware such image ever existed? :|

Have you seen Borat? It's not a coincidence that the main character comes from Kazhakstan. It says something about how people generally view the country. (I'm talking about normal people who don't bother reading articles or finding out anything about what the country is really like). I know it's not true, so it's good that Kazhakstan is starting so many great projects. People will see that it's not the backwards country that's portrayed in Borat.

[Aibekesp]

Have you seen Borat? It's not a coincidence that the main character comes from Kazhakstan. It says something about how people generally view the country. (I'm talking about normal people who don't bother reading articles or finding out anything about what the country is really like). I know it's not true, so it's good that Kazhakstan is starting so many great projects. People will see that it's not the backwards country that's portrayed in Borat.

Yes Sir, you are right. It is really pleasant to talk with intelligent person. A lot of people from "Developed" countries are really supercilious and think they are "the hub of the universe" :lol::lol::lol:

And if they read a little bit from newspapers, books and see some TV programms ... .

[Triceratops]

Yeah, it seems Kazahstan is becoming a no.1 in at least Central Asia with it's booming cities! Maybe soon it will create competition with UAE.

[ScraperDude]

Very nice projects for KZ. Well deserved at that!

[Evertraveller]

http://img-fotki.yandex.ru/get/52/fog-nsk.16/0_f0f9_9a60dee1_XL

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Photos by FOG.

[montesky]

who would have thought that Kazakhstan will become a country with such a magnificent projects? worlds greatest design studios such as fosters or skidmore are competing to get projects there. oil is really nice thing to have, isn’t that so

[Evertraveller]

yes, oil makes sense, but Borat's movie brought us more money! :lol::lol::lol: