Africa’s incredible new multi-million-pound skyscraper will transform the skyline of a major city when it completes this year, taking a record title from Egypt in the process. Once finished, it will become the continent’s tallest building, surpassing Egypt’s Iconic Tower by just 21 metres.
The 77-story skyscraper will soon stand 421 metres above the city of Abidjan, the bustling economic capital and largest city in the Ivory Coast. Following the methodically named towers A to E, which were constructed in the early 1980s, Tour F (Tower F) will become the sixth skyscraper in the city’s administrative district.
Some 50 years may seem a long time to wait to complete the sixth piece of the puzzle, but the building has been in the city’s urban development plans for the entire time.
However, the Ivory Coast has experienced major political upheavals and civil wars in 2002 and 2010, making this completion ever more significant.
Designed by Lebanese Ivorian architect Pierre Fakhoury, the building represents economic confidence, while the angled planes of the building’s facets proudly represent identity, intended to evoke a stylised African mask.
The supertall skyscraper is being built for mixed-use office space in a city with just 6.3million inhabitants, as part of an initiative to centralize state services in the Plateau district, with expected completion around 2026.
Egypt had previously held the record for Africa’s tallest building with the Iconic Tower in its New Administrative Capital, which stands at almost 400 metres, about 90 metres taller than the Shard in London.
It has 77 floors, mostly for office use, and is one of 20 towers being built as part of the central business district in the new capital city.