Bureaucracy stalls CBN Lagos office Phase II project

Two years after talks ended on cost and professional fees for the phase two of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Lagos office complex, the project has been stalled by bureaucracy occasioned by the changes in government.
   
The Guardian’s investigation at the weekend revealed that the project is now in the cooler, much to the chagrin of industry watchers and staff of the apex banking institution.
  
It would be recalled that the old banking hall was gutted by fire over three years ago as the phase one project was nearing completion. This necessitated the premature movement of the operations into the new phase one building with a promise that the old facility would be replaced immediately after wrapping up phase one.

“Right now, it is still in the cooler. This is one of the biggest downtown urban redevelopment programmes in recent times,” he added.According to The Guardian’s sources, towards the end of Sanusi’s era, the project was seriously being pushed. The contract had even been negotiated with and the cost had almost been concluded, then the CBN governor’s fallout with then President Goodluck Jonathan made the project to take a back sit.  
  
A new administration shortly after, notwithstanding, it did not seem enough to tackle the issue because it took a while for them to grasp what was on ground and it seems they had bigger issues than to start looking at phase two of the project. Then shortly after, a change of government took place again in May 2015 thus stalling the discussions, which began sometime in 2014.
   
As in the phase one, however, the expected phase two will be a high-energy efficiency building with high sustainability factor. Ladega whose firm Interstate Architects has been responsible for both the Abuja CBN Headquarters and the Phase one Lagos project revealed that this can be achieved through avenues of the building envelope that will be created, and the use of energy efficient lighting and other electro-mechanical fittings.

“When we design high performance envelopes, we try to simulate a situation where the heat from outside cannot get inside through a heavily insulated and very tight building envelope, we prevent the heat from coming inside and you are sure that this heat will not come in permanently all year round. So, straight away, the amount of air conditioning you need in the building is reduced”.
  
The project will equally retain the old crew of contractors from phase one including Julius Berger, Etco as the main electro-mechanical subcontractor, Permasteelisia (practically the world’s number one façade fabricators) and Abumet for the façade.

Ladega further revealed that sustainability on the building would be further enhanced by the use of high-level demountable features. This means that the entire building envelope is demountable and that at the end of life, rather than demolish everything, it can be dismantled.

For the glazed areas, will be what is called a unitized façade system. These are prefabricated panels brought into site, assembled and just lifted into place. Its efficiency is measured in terms of the ability to inspect each panel on ground, be sure that it is quality controlled before being installed. It is a façade that can be dismantled and taken elsewhere and you have just the frame of the building remaining and standing there.

Ladega emphasized the need for massive urban renewal in downtown, Lagos CBD if government wants the pressure on Ikoyi and Victoria Island to drop drastically; he explained that this is necessary to bring the area back to full functionality.

“Lagos Island has reliable infrastructure. It is one of the few parts of Lagos where you don’t see cables flying around. It is one of the few parts of Lagos where you open the tap and water runs because it was designed to be a business district, unlike Ikoyi, which was not. Ikoyi was originally to be purely residential.

“Secondly, is the support infrastructure in terms of car parking – that massive Marina car park. Then you talk of the office buildings – there are so many purpose-built office buildings on the island, which unfortunately today are unoccupied. So, a renewal scheme that cleans up Broad Street all the way to Marina.”not the whole of Lagos Island, just flush out Broad Street to Marina, within that axis alone there are no fewer than 20 high-rise purpose-built office buildings that are unoccupied. If you clean up that axis, you make it attractive again for business. The big guys will come back,” he stated.