Egypt to move ahead with record-breaking skyscraper designed by the late Zaha Hadid

Tower will be Africa's tallest

Zaha Hadid and a rendering of the Nile Tower in Egypt (credit: Zaha Hadid Architects)
Zaha Hadid and a rendering of the Nile Tower in Egypt (credit: Zaha Hadid Architects)

Egyptian developer Living in Interiors is finally ready to move forward with its Cairo skyscraper designed by late starchitect Zaha Hadid, which will be Africa’s tallest building upon completion.

Working alongside the Egyptian government, the developer is breaking ground on the 70-story residential and hotel Nile Tower, Forbes reported.

Hadid, the Iraqi-British architect who became the first female to win the Pritzker Prize, designed the tower in 2007. The Egyptian government put the project on hold amid political unrest in 2011, but it’s now ready to move forward amid an Egyptian building boom.

“The Egyptian economy and the development of the country is started again,” Farah Kamal, a spokesperson for Living In Interiors, told Forbes.

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There is one catch: The project is expected to cost $600 million, though the figure is likely to rise by $150 million because the Egyptian pound has weakened as the government pushes through economic reforms.

Hadid died suddenly at the age of 65 in 2016 of a heart attack in a Miami hospital, where she was being treated for bronchitis.

Here in New York, she designed the spaceship-like condominium building developed by the Related Companies on the High Line at 520 West 28th Street.

And before her death she drew up plans for the Moinian Group for a condo project in West Chelsea at 220 11th Avenue. [Forbes] – Rich Bockmann