Originally designed as a seventeen storey building that was later dropped to fourteen, the Chellarams Tower on Marina, Lagos was undeniably the cynosure of all eyes in the Marina and was completed in 1985.
One of the prime trading families in Nigeria, the Chellarams, wanted an office building for themselves, and also something to let out to the open market. The design principle of this nearly forty-year-old building was to maximize height which translated to keeping the floor plate reasonably small. To further achieve this principle, the building sits on a podium and is turned 450 on the side, giving it a unique look on the Marina.
The building was constructed using a waffle slab floor system that gave it a flat soffite, with no suspended ceilings. All the service ducts were put in dropped bulkheads over the internal circulation routes.
In 1985, a hand drawn sketch of the building was submitted and displayed at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, a prestigious annual art exhibition that takes place in London.
