2. As simple as that, when I was done with high school and it was time to choose a university,
I just showed the adults around me the models I made and asked them “ What do I need to
study to make these real?”. They told me “study architecture”, and that’s what I did. I got
so attached to my hobby that I turned it to career. I consider myself a lucky man, knowing
what I want from the beginning and managing to turn my hobby to my job. Working for me
is not just for finance, it is for pleasure.
I studied Architecture Engineering and Environment Design in Arab Academy for Science
and Technology and Maritime Transport. I had to move from my home city to Alexandria
to fulfill my dream. In Alexandria I had the best time, l studied a lot and learned a lot, also
as a young man who moved out from family home, I had to take care of myself and
manage living alone. Actually travelling and moving to other cities became a nice thing to
me, normally you can find many people don’t like to change or to leave there home cities
or there countries, this not the case for me. I like to travel to other cities and land, seeing
how people live and deal, how they build and interact, there is always something new to
see and learn.
After graduating I asked my professors what is the best thing to do? Architecture and
construction is a huge field, some do design, some do project management, others continue
with studying and be professors. I took the advice of one of my favorite professors, he told
me “go to a site, see how they really build” so I did. I was always on the site, I learned that
“design is a vision, planning is the key, implementation is the goal” that is how projects are
done And I am still learning…..
M.ElBaz
I was born September 1982 in Giza, Egypt. I lived right beside
the great pyramids of Giza, I spent my childhood playing
around this huge landmark, as a child couldn’t hold myself of
wondering how they built this monument, the more I read about
it, the more interested I got. From this point my story with
architecture and construction started. Building models was my
childhood hobby, through this hobby I learned a lot, patience
accuracy, creativity and most important being practical, using
available material to achieve my goal. Designing a model and
building is my passion.
INTRODUCTION
3.
4. 1. City Stars Project information,
Name:
Owner:
Location: Nasr City, Cairo, Egypt
Consultant: Cassia & Associates
Contractor:
Description: This US$ 550 million project is considered one of the most prestigious and
renowned touristic, commercial and residential projects in Egypt with a
land area of approximately 115,000 m² and a totally constructed area of about
784,470 m². five-star hotel (Intercontinental/Bass Hotels and Resorts) with 533
rooms and suites. This covers a constructed area of around 83,170 m². It
includes 4 basement levels, a swimming pool, bungalows, a banquet hall, a
ground floor and two connected towers of 17 floors each also Furnished
hotel apartments (Intercontinental),
Competence: Working in this project was like a dream, as a fresh graduated engineer I heard a
lot about this project, everybody in Egypt did, it was the biggest project at this
time. It was the time for the contractor to hand over the hotel, the consultant
had to hire a temporary group of engineers to be responsible for the inspection
and processing the handover in professional way. We were twelve young
engineers with three seniors managing us, they teaches us how to study shop
drawing and matching it to build up, inspection and bunch list was our main
task, this was the best beginning I can get in. Seeing a new five stars hotels
being built in front of me, top finishing quality, different material, unique
design, rooms, executive suits, pent houses, pools, electromechanical also,
couldn’t had been better.
1
8. 2. Jumeirah Islands Project information,
Name:
Location: Jumeirah Village, Dubai , UAE
Owner:
Consultant:
Contractor:
Description: The USD 12.3 billion project involves construction of Jumeirah Islands a self
contained community of 50 islands. The site was a massive 3km x 1km
(300Ha, 3 000 000m2) with its own artificial lagoon, created by pumping
water from the ocean over 3km away. The land within the Jumeirah Islands is
made up of 45 islands, each island containing 15 luxury villas for a total
of 720 houses.
Competence: At this period of time Dubai was booming, the new center of the Middle East,
huge projects and top media subject, one day I received a phone call from a
friend asking me to send the CV, so I did, after few days I was offered a job. I
didn’t think a lot, packed my bags and went to Dubai. It was the contractor
this time I am working with, a huge project with new idea, taking water from
the sea and building island in the desert, I was supposed to be technical
office engineer. When I went there, they was done with superstructure and
started with finishing, the contractor was local, and this was the first big
project for them. None of the engineers could speak English, also they didn’t
have much computer skills, on the other hand side, owner and consultant
engineers are all Europeans, my language and computer skills helped me to
be technical office head in no time. At this time the project faced a very
series threat, client changes, the villas owners started to change the design
while we are in construction phase, the contractor didn’t have a good
contract, and wasn’t professional enough to document and save the right of
work finished. The contractor started outsourcing project management claim
expert, here was my first interaction with project management, beside the
technical experience. I saw how project management work and learned how
important it is.
5
12. 3. Designopolis Project information,
Name:
Location: Km 38 Cairo- Alexandria Desert Road, Egypt
Owner:
Consultant:
Contractor:
Description: The Indoor-outdoor site integrates 55,000 square meters of shopping space with
the capacity to host 220 brand outlets. Designopolis includes art galleries, an
auction house, exhibition hall, interior design school, amphitheater and public
design library. The building will be Egypt’s first Leadership in Energy and
Environmental Design (LEED)-certified construction project.
Competence: I didn’t like Dubai that much, I felt like it is very artificial. So when I received
a phone call from a friend telling me that his master’s professor wants a project
manager for a new project in Egypt, it was easy decision. I went back to Egypt,
it was very special project, the biggest home mall in the Middle East. A mall for
everything a home need, from largest piece of furniture to the smallest. The
project owner was one of Egypt best developers, they build their own sales
building to sell their residential and commercial projects and besides this
building a mall with shops to furnish what you bought. Again working with the
consultant, but this time as the project manager in site, my boss was the
professor who designed the project, also supervising and managing
construction. I clarified to him that I didn’t do such a job before, he said that he
will be there in the beginning and help me, and that’s what happened. The first
three month he was every day in site, showed me how to do everything,
documentation, transmittal, submittal, revising shop drawings and payments. I
owe him a lot, the project was a fast track, we started construction while
drawings was not finished, that caused a lot of problems. I dealt with most of
problems myself, also we had civil and electromechanical consultants as
partners. I was the leader of the consultant team in site, a lot happened in this
project, the owner changed, also the design changed, another parties joined,
global financial crises in 2007 happened and impacted material cost, it was
really competence I have never seen before.
9
16. 4.New Giza Project information,
Name:
Location: KM22 Cairo Alex Desert Road, Egypt
Owner:
Consultant:
Contractor: Sister companies owned to New Giza
Description: One of Cairo’s new satellite cities, the schematic master plan for New Giza
is campus for Johns Hopkins University, an MGM resort hotel, and dense
cultural, leisure, office and shopping facilities for local residents and visitors
alike. Gensler capitalized on the dramatic landform of the 105-hectare former
quarry site to create distinct characters for each district. Two of those
districts ( the Hotel and the Hill Town )are planned on high ridges and sloped
plateaus to take maximum advantage of the site’s spectacular views to the
pyramids of Giza.
Competence: I became really interested in project management, I decided to study course in
International Project Management Association, IPMA. The professor
teaching us this course was one of few on earth to be classified level A, we
had a good relationship, and soon he asked me to work with him in one
of largest project in Egypt. A new build satellite city, the professor himself
had a project management consult house, the owners of the project
outsourced all consults needed for the job, including project management
consult, and that was my role. I was working for this project management
firm as the resident engineer in site, monitoring and reporting site progress to
consult and New Giza CEO. The project was huge, they just started and all
what’s happening in site was earthwork, but in really big scale, what was
remarkable is that the land was used for mining before. It was really difficult
to prepare it for foundation, outstanding experience with earthwork you had
there. Also seeing a time schedule for a project will take 15 years was very
interesting, but the real deal was watching how the whole process begins,
how such a huge construction will be implemented. Soon the project
management consultant and the owner’s board had financial problems,
which left me in critical position.
13
20. 5. NBD Project information,
Name: NBD
Location: Simon bolivars square, Tahrir.
Owner:
Consultant:
Contractor:
Description: Renovating head offices premises of NBD is a very special project, head
offices are mostly located in down town Cairo, special technical
requirements for every department, security is priority, developing and
integrating a plan to renovate the head offices premises while bank
.premises is operating , dealing with public owned organization and other
governmental organizations.
Competence: I received a job interview with a bank, I went there at the beginning having
no idea what will a bank want from engineer like me, but after the HR
finished his questions and started clarifying for me the task, I was very
interested. It was international bank called ADIB that decided to invest in
Egypt, the bought the national bank of Egypt NBD, which is owned to
public. The new bank decided to implement his new image on the premises
of old NBD, that means full renovation to the bank premises. I was
assigned the task of renovating the bank head offices, three standalone
building and three other locations, with total number of 4000 employees.
This was such an experience, first of all, renovation is a lot harder than
construction, dealing with paper work in official public owned firm is a lot
different than construction sites, also having top management of financial
and politics was a real challenge. People that does not speak my language,
but still they are the management. Seeing how it is deal with finance,
especially when you are working in bank, the money house, also planning
the renovation schedule, implementing a lot of temporary projects and
dealing with different departments with different requirements. Also
dealing with governmental institutions and ministers on top of all of that
the bank premises is located in Tahrir square, at the same time the
Egyptian revolution happened, unique experience to my risk management
skills.
17
24. 21
6. Partille Arena Project Information,
Name:
Location:
Owner:
Consultant:
Contractor:
Description : Sweden first convertible arena where the space function can be changed
from handball stadium to event space within the same day, The arena
contain different activities such as restaurants , bowling ,gym , workshops
for operational stuff, conference rooms and offices. Arena area is 18 700 M²
and it lays by the main highway goes by Partille, The walls build by the
highway side is designed to take explosions that might occur from accidents
of flammable transported products, also the roof is in double layers by the
highway side. Dynamic structure analysis is used to absorb the vibrations
from the crowd in different areas, The arena as in whole is resting on the
poles carrying the foundations.
Competence: Being there as assistant to project engineer and vice project manager for
such a project and in early phase was the best that can happen to me,
suddenly I am in practicing what I do best with the best, studied all the
project document, participating in most of the meetings starting from client
and consultants till subcontractors and internal meetings, updating
procurement plan, handling client changes, quantity survey and many more
managerial and technical assignments, but in fact the real achievement is
being exposed to new system, Thanks to the timing I went there I got to see
how things are planned and constructed also, the project was turnkey
contract, also the structure was prefabricated , priceless experience.
28. 25
7. Sahlgrenska Hospital Project Information,
Name: Bild- och interventionscentrum (Boic)
Location:
Owner:
Consultant:
Contractor:
Description: Sahlgrenska is high tech medical facility managed by Göteborg university,
Boic is an extension building to the existing ones as normal result of
technology development, The building contain the world most advanced
technology for diagnoses, Magnetic cameras and ultrasound , also gamma
radiation produced by cyclotron that exist in the basement. Operation and
intervention most advanced equipments. The walls and openings in the
building is designed to be dismantled to allow new equipments that develop
every day. Ventilation and isolation requirements is very high, that required
very special electromechanically specifications. The building is connected to
surrounding buildings which required special foundations implementation;
some of the medical equipment is very heavy, slaps to carry ten tons per
square meter in some areas.
Competence: Came to site after phase 1 of shell and core was done, the phase after was
implementing the electromechanically and the finishing's, and that exposed
me to a new level of high-tech construction, I came to assist the calculation
engineer and project engineer in quantity survey and procurement , which
got me a closer look in the details of the project and the market as a whole,
The project is general contracting contract, in addition to the technical
experience I gained a unique chance to see two different forms of contracts
managed and implemented by the same firm.
