The story of Tekfen Tower located at Büyükdere Caddesi, one of the busiest streets in Istanbul, actually started 51 years ago with another concept but under the same brand name. Tekfen Bulb Factory, the first industrial investment of Tekfen Holding, was established and remained on this spot until 1999. After deciding to build an office tower to serve as its headquarters and to create rentable areas for other industries, Tekfen Holding contacted Swanke Hayden Connell Architects (SHCA) operating in the United States and Turkey for this purpose. Thus, the Bulb Factory gave its place to Tekfen Tower which was constructed with modern architecture and Tekfen Tower, the first project of Tekfen Real Estate Development, was opened in 2003. From the very beginning of the project, Tekfen Holding wanted the tower to be a smart building complex which has a perfect atmosphere, is equipped with a complete electronic safety system and installed with a building management system (BMS) throughout the building. After preliminary concept design studies, SHCA and Tekfen Construction matured the project by making weekly discussions and started the project which would last 16 months in total. INSPIRED FROM SINAN THE ARCHITECT SHCA Project Designer and Coordinator Altan Gürsel who combined the Turkish construction regulations and American real estate standards on Class A office buildings told the fine details on the design of Tekfen Tower: “Performance-driven architecture and technical infrastructure were the top priorities in the design of tower and it was aimed to construct an office building complying with the Class A international standards. Thanks to this design approach, a perfect gross/net office area was obtained and each and every comfortable office with 360º view was well-lit without the need to use a flanked column.” However, a pair of fire escapes similar to those used by the famous 16th century Ottoman architect Sinan was used in order to minimize the building elements on each floor of Tekfen Tower. Thus, such a system was used for the first time in Istanbul. During the planning and designing of Tekfen Tower, the future city that would evolve around this building and street was taken into consideration. An entry was constructed on the west side of the building for this purpose and inner circulation of the building was designed to protect the east-west connection. Furthermore, the tower block was separated from the street in order to construct a wide plaza in front of the building and a transparent building canopy was constructed for adding a visual elegance and serving as a transition area between open and closed spaces. Additionally, special linear lighting elements which emphasize the road to passenger elevators and improve the welcoming atmosphere of the building canopy were designed. The project realized with a USD 50 million investment has been widely admired in Turkey since it was completed. Oktar Yaylalı, the Second Technical Coordinator of smart building Tekfen Tower, expressed his opinions about the success of the project: “The reason of positive reactions taken for our project to date is the success of our Tekfen Tower project in aesthetic and functional terms. Our project is still admired by domestic and foreign investors.” PREFERRED BY INTERNATIONAL COMPANIES AND EMBASSIES Tekfen Tower consists of 22 office floors, three office floors and the top floor serves as a cocktail terrace for watching the view. The floors can be divided into two. Thus, a space of 450 m2 or more can be reserved to office areas. Additionally, the Tower has podium floors which are connected to the tower block and extending towards the back. Parking garages, office areas, multi-purpose conference hall, café and gym are available on such podium floors constituting the vertical block. Of the usage areas of Tekfen Tower, 33,000 m2 serve as office, 750 m2 as multi-purpose conference hall and 950 m2 as exhibition hall. Designed with a detail-oriented architectural style and constructed with a strong infrastructure, Tekfen Tower has remained as one of the buildings setting the standards in office market of Istanbul since the day it was built. Today, Tekfen Tower serves many companies in a wide range of industries from finance to insurance, consultancy to pharmaceutical, marketing and airlines. Furthermore, Tekfen Tower, offices of which are also preferred by international Fortune 500 companies and embassies, hosts many affiliates of Tekfen Group, Deutsche Bank, McKinsey, Mitsubishi, PepsiCo, Canadian and Japanese Embassies.