Dubai’s Ocean Heights Wins On Regional Stage

Ocean Heights attracts top accolade at the MEED GCC Building Project of the Year Award

The Middle East's largest private luxury developer, DAMAC Properties, along with Arabtec Construction have won another prestigious Property Award for Ocean Heights, DAMAC's landmark high-rise in Dubai Marina.

The MEED GCC Building Projects Awards 2012 are part of a programme designed to recognise excellence in project delivery in the six countries that make up the GCC, and to promote the highest standards in all parts of the project supply chain. Winners have satisfied judges that they have achieved excellence in five critical areas in the process of developing first-class projects: economic and social viability; architecture and design; engineering; procurement and construction; and sustainability.

Ocean Heights won the ''MEED Emirates Steel GCC Building Project of The Year 2012'', making it the 13th industry award that DAMAC Properties has won in the past 6 months, and follows the recently won MEED UAE Building Project Of The Year Award, received earlier this year for the same project.

Ocean Heights stands 84 storeys tall at the entrance to Dubai Marina on Al Sufouh Road and has quickly become one of the areas' most iconic buildings with its twisting architectural design.

"For Ocean Heights to be ranked as the best in the GCC is a significant achievement, particularly as it propels DAMAC Properties and Arabtec Construction who were the main contractors on the project to the 'Regional Best' category. This official recognition from a judging panel of distinguished experts is one of the highest endorsements we could hope to receive in one of our projects" said Mc Loughlin, Senior Vice President of DAMAC Properties.

Greg Christofides, CEO of Arabtec Construction said: ''Ocean Heights is certainly one of the most iconic towers we have built and for it to receive recognition and win against such a strong list of other iconic buildings in the GCC is indeed a great testament to the entire team. Construction of Ocean Heights took less than three years which is a tribute to the fantastic team effort on site. There was up to 30 different contractors on site each day and at the peak of construction around 2,000 staff daily.''

The judging of the MEED GCC Building Projects Awards 2012 was carried out by an esteemed panel of international judges. This year's judges included Abdul Majeed Al-Gassab representing Bahrain, Matar Ali al-Mutairi representing Kuwait, Sulaiman al-Hudhaili representing Oman, Ahmad Jassim al-Jolo representing Qatar, Ghazi Mohammed Alahmadi representing Saudi Arabia and Rashid Bukhash representing the UAE.

"These awards are validation from our industry peers that our strategic approach to sustainable development has been the right course of action" concluded Mc Loughlin.

DAMAC Properties has a proven track record of designing and developing world-class luxury projects across the Middle East, North Africa and the Levant. This latest recognition in the MEED GCC Building Projects Awards 2012 reinforces DAMAC Properties' pedigree as a luxury developer. The appointment of a world-class contractor such as Arabtec is also further recognition of the company's commitment to quality as they deliver some of the most luxurious residential, commercial and retail properties in the world.

It is also worth noting that the Ocean Heights Architect was Aedas, Engineers Meinhardt & IBA, and the Project Manager was ECG