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Last week, we went on and on about Lonrho House on Standard Street, Nairobi. But have you noticed that it resembles I&M Bank Tower in design and even its blue exterior?
Well, it so happens that the brains behind Lonrho House were the same ones that designed the 16-storey I&M building after its owners, the I&M Bank Group, approached Planning Systems Services and directed that the new skyscraper, that was opened in 2001, be a look-a-like to the symmetrical beauty of Lonrho House.
Indeed, even the contractors, Laxmanbhai Construction, were the same ones who put up Lonrho House in record time and within budget. And so work began along Kenyatta Avenue/Muindi Mbingu Streets.
But did you know that I&M building was erected in what went down as Nairobi’s deepest foundation for a building, four basements that could have swallowed the adjacent buildings?
That is not all.
I&M Bank Tower was also not built on site. Its blocks were constructed off site and re-assembled where it now stands! It is also one of the few buildings that can have one whole side deconstructed and re-plugged. The reason for this is that during its construction, its transformers and generators were to be installed in the basement, which had been allotted as parking space.
