The Bank of Abyssinia, Ethiopia signed a contract with Universal Consultants for the design and contract supervision of the 
construction of its headquarters building last week.
The bank has requested that the consultants make changes to the original design which won the architectural design competition held a year ago.
An agreement between the two parties was reached after long and exacting negotiations according to the President of Abyssinia.
The design modification requested by the bank is a request to shorten the building from the original 30-Storeys to 21 although the building will retain its total floor area of 44,000 m2 said Destalem Haileselassie, Manager of Universal.The architectural design was awarded to Universal on Feburary 11th last year and the subsequent negotiations to establish the technical and financial parameters took a year according to Zelalem Getahun, Civil Engineer and Representative of the bank.
The construction of the building is expected to take four years and an estimated 300 million birr up to completion. Abyssinia will select a contractor to undertake the actual building work after the revision on the design has been completed explained Zelalem.
Source: Addis Fortune/Capital
