Pro-ge, the well known Construction Projects Management Company has gone under the challenge of renovating the Shopping Mall and enlarging the underground parking under and around Atakule Tower Complex without disturbing the foundation and the structure of the tower itself with successful construction project management. 

The shopping center also comprising Atakule, that is among the landmarks of Ankara, Turkey welcomed the visitors once again on the Republic Day, October 29th, 2018.

As located at the Çankaya District which was resided by the founder of modern Turkey - Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, Atakule had taken its name from the name of Atatürk and was once among the symbol buildings of Ankara with the tower rising in the middle of the commercial block with two floor levels.   

Following the groundbreaking in 1987, the building was opened on 13th November, 1989 comprising the 110m high tower-excluding its antenna and became an attraction center for both Ankara residents and the tourists for many years with its revolving restaurant and view terrace at the top. 

In time the building was decided to be revised under a large-scale renovation project, due to insufficient facilities like closed car-park capacity, as well as floor heights with regard to the requirements of today’s technology. 

Design activities under the new project were carried out not only implementing  approaches for achieving sufficient commercial functions complying with the new requirements, but also increasing the car-park capacity through additional basement floors to be constructed. With consideration of the fact that the existing tower building was included in the list of cultural values to be conserved issued by the relevant environmental protection agency, reconstruction of Atakule was not in question; resulting with excavation and structural works adjacent to the tower surrounding its foundation at a level approximately 8m. below. 

In other words, the new design concept approved by the investor had introduced a technically complex situation bringing out a number of unknowns regarding application. 

Pro-ge as the project manager of this unique project, carried out the tower foundation reinforcement activities under coordination with relevant multiple design groups and the collaboration provided by its sister company by Innocent (Innovation Centre for Design & Technology), with the academicians of Middle East Technical University who are experts in the fields of statics and soil mechanics. Such activities revealed good examples of contemporary human focused approaches. In other words, joint studies were carried out with emphasis on multiplism and integration, as proposed by modern governance approaches. 

Following the demolition works, while the tower standing alone for a short period of time was attracting the attention of the audience, on the other hand possible results to occur due to such situation unforeseen during previous design works had become a critical issue highly emphasized by the technical team. Moreover, with the addition of risk perceptions regarding the excavation works to be performed under the foundation level of the tower had resulted with a potential challenge to be managed under a multi perspective approach. Such challenge increased as influenced by the affects of the project site being located at a highly populated district.

Such "unknowns" created by the "tower" that were subject to the attention of not only the technical team but also the public attention, were turned out to be "known" one by one; through verified calculations relying on site measurements rigorously performed by expert teams using high capacity and precision tools, soil analyses by expert institutions and scientific contributions of international consultants. 

Entire activities above were carried out through project management performances provided by Pro-ge starting from the first day of the project. 

Within this context, Pro-ge has exhibited a unique project management performance regarding the following specific activities under the renovation of Atakule:

• Asbestos removal,
• Selective demolition with consideration of the items required to be conserved by the investor, 
• Phased demolition planning under methods considering the structural balance between the tower and the section of building to be demolished,
• Specific structural methodology regarding the reinforcement of the tower foundation under an entire construction strategy, 
• And implementation of quality control procedures regarding the healthy application of the above, in compliance with the relevant design and specifications,

Project facts

Architectural design: A Tasarım / Ali Osman Öztürk

Project Management: Pro-ge

Structural project: Yüksek Proje

Mechanical project: Metta Proje

Electrical project: Akay Proje

Landscape architect: Dalokay Design Studio

Drilling ground surveying: İksa Mühendislik

Consultants

Fire consultant: Zeytin Mühendislik

Renting consultant: JLL - Alkaş

Facade consultant: Priedemann

Lighting consultant: NA LightStyle

Acoustics consultant: Mezzo Stüdyo

İksa project consultant: Geopro Proje

Other projects by Pro-ge featured on WAC

Pro-ge also led the project management for the transformation of a power plant into a university & cultural centre in Istanbul, as well as the Project Management of the construction for the Turkish İşbank Headquarters Towers in Istanbul. 

Overall view of the campus, from across the water. Image courtesy of Emre Arolat Architecture

Image: Topping Out of İşBank HQ Towers. Image courtesy of Tepe Construction, Inc.

All images courtesy of Pro-ge, unless otherwise stated

Sponsored by Pro-ge International, Inc.