The Building

Introduction

Desiderata is an exquisite, ultra-modern, A-Grade office development situated at Plot 5A Abuja Street, within the commercial nerve centre of the highbrow Banana Island Foreshore Estate, Ikoyi, Lagos.

This efficient and landmark development has been developed to provide both functional office spaces and a world class experience to prime clients who desire to take up office spaces within the serene Banana Island area of Lagos; unarguably the most sought-after zone of Lagos.

To this end, Desiderata possesses complimentary features to provide the expected unequalled and unrivalled satisfaction to its end users.

The area is unarguably the most sought after zone of Lagos. To this end, Desiderata possesses complimentary features to provide the expeted unequalled and unrivalled satisfaction to its end users.

The project design was developed by an award winning team of foreign and indigenous consultants.

The construction was also executed by a team of qualitative and reputable contractors with emphasis on the best quality of materials and workmanship.

The project was conceived, designed and constructed within a record breaking duration of 30 months with the construction completed ahead of schedule to the excitement and applause of the developers and commendation of the entire Project Team.

The beautifully crafted internationally styled Architectural expression embodied by the building is conspicuously visible from the main entrance of the Banana Island Estate and redefines the outlook of the commercial zone with its very alluring features. Indeed, Desiderata has set a new precedence for future reference.

Design Philosophy

The design of this building has been undertaken to create a speculative office building that explores all of the opportunities available to the site; and to create a truly inspiring building. The proposal will set a high standard for development as the surrounding plots are developed.

The entrance is located on the south west corner. Moving north across the end there is a visual focus of the building when viewed from 1st Avenue.

On the roof of the six floor there is a provision of a restaurant terrace. From the terrace it will be possible to take-in the afternoon sun. Occupants and users should also be able to view the lagoon which is approximately 260 meters to the north.

IN NUMBERS

0
Sqm Lettable Space
0
Sqm Terrace
0
Parking Spaces
0
Sqm/Floor
0
Lettable Floors

The long north elevation provides the majority of the glazing for the façade. This elevation should have the least solar gain and by placing the glazing on this elevation it should be possible to help to also mitigate excessive heat gain in the building.

The building’s core providing the lifts, stairs and toilets is located on the South elevation. By locating the mass on the south elevation the design avoids the use of extra fenestration and reduces the possibility for the building to gain more heat to forestall an increase in energy requirements.

Throughout the building both vertically and horizontally there are steps in the building façade to enhance visual interest. These steps also provide for recesses in which to change materials. This positive introduction and termination of material changes is aesthetically pleasing to the eye and helps to simplify detailing.

Overview

Desiderata comprises of a total gross floor area of 6,700sqm which includes 4,000sqm of lettable office space; 1335sqm of reception, core, services and circulation spaces; 220sqm of skyview terraces and 1145sqm of vehicular circulation and parking spaces on the ground and first floors.

The building consists of 8 suspended floors excluding the ground floor. The lettable offices are situated on the 2nd floor to the 8th floor.

The tastefully finished reception on the ground floor is of double volume with modern features, fittings and fixtures and appropriate access control and security monitoring facilities.

    9 floors (including the ground floor)
    7 rentable office floors
    2 parking floors
    Remarkable Reception area
    Flexible office space from 600 sq m
    Raised floors & suspended ceilings
    Apt interspatial functionality and efficiency
    Each lettable Floor can be divided into two tenancies
    2 passenger lifts
    50 regular Car Parks
    3 nos. Physically Challenged Persons’ Car Parks
    Water Treatment Plant
    Sewage Treatment Plant
    Standby Generators for uninterrupted power supply
    Fire alarm, detection and fighting equipment  (sprinklers, dry risers and hose reels)
    Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) in all public areas
    Access Control at the Reception
    Conveniences with top  quality fittings
    Water efficiency with use of compliant fittings
    Great indoor air quality, Air Conditioners with Green Gas and fresh air supply
    One Disabled Toilet per lettable floor and Reception Area
    Low energy consumption
    Dedicated emergency exit staircases
    Lush and verdant landscaped areas

Specifications

Office Building

The building is designed to be a category A Office Building

Grids

The office floor plates are designed on a 5400mm – 6000mm grid in the one direction and a 7800mm – 10000mm grid in the other direction. There are 18 columns in all, all internalized on the lettable floors with majority aligned towards the perimeter.

Imposed Loads
  • Office area 3.0 kN/sq m
  • Partitions 1.2 kN/sq m
  • Storage None
  • Plant areas 7.5 kN/sq m
  • Loading bay None
Floor to Floor Heights
  • Main entrance 3.2m
  • First Floor Parking 3.2m
  • Typical Office floors 3.75m
Floor to Ceiling Height
  • Main entrance 2.5m
  • First Floor Parking 2.9m
  • Typical Office floors 2.9m
Raised Floor

Nominal raised floor zone: 150mm

Office Level Toilet Ablutions

Male/female fittings are based on 1 person per 10m². Separate male and female WCs are provided to suit a range of multi-tenancy layouts on each floor. One disabled WC is provided on each typical office floor. The toilet fittings and fixtures are concealed units with double flushing mechanism to deliver the highest level of personal hygiene standards while maintaining a quality consistency with the rest of the building.

Public Ablutions at Ground Floor Level

One Handicap WC

Driver Ablutions at Podium Parking Levels

One WC on the ground floor

Parking
  • 50 Regular Parking Spaces
  • 3 Physically Challenged Parking spaces
Refuse Disposals

There is provision for a refuse collection point along the property fence line with an access that open directly on to Abuja road of the estate. From here, the refuse truck will pick up and discharge at the estate’s refuse facility.

Occupancy Levels
  • Office floors 1 person/10m²
Fire  Management – Detection & Fighting
  • Smoke Detectors & Alarm System
  • Addressable Fire Alarm Panel
  • Sprinklers
  • Fire Hose Reels
  • Dry Risers
  • Extinguishers
  • Pressurized Emergency Staircases
Stairwell pressurisation
  •  Escape routes allowing 1 person/8m2 on the office floors.
  • Mechanical smoke extraction from the basement.
External Design Conditions

35ºC db/28ºC db

Internal Design Conditions (offices)

22ºC db/ 24ºC db

Minimum Fresh Air Rate

8 Litres per person

Cooling/Power Loads
  • Lighting (Offices) 15 W/m2
  • Equipment (Offices) 20 W/m2
Illumination Levels
  • Office (open plan) 300 lux – 500 lux
  • Toilets 100 lux – 150 lux
  • Staircases/corridors 100 lux – 150 lux
  • Toilets 100 lux – 250 lux
Acoustics
  • Location Max NR(dB)
  • Reception 45
  • Open plan offices 40
  • General circulation 45
  • Toilets 45

B U I L D I N G  – G E N E R A L
B U I L D I N G  F A B R I C

Substructure

Pile foundation was adopted with pile caps integrated with the ground beams and slab to form a monolithic component for improved foundational strength. The lift pit was constructed with concrete strengthened with waterproof additives to prevent water ingress into the building.

Superstructure

The superstructure generally consists of concrete columns and flat slabs with central concrete cores providing lateral stability.

Office Cladding

The external cladding consists of sandcrete block wall along office window areas, concrete walls along the core, alucoboard panels preformed from the factory over the core and glazed curtain wall prefabricated materials stacked vertically and fixed to concrete slabs.

The first floor parking  is cladded with perforated aluminium screens fixed to the face of the building. The cladding modules align with the structural bays of the building.

The performance shading to the double glazed solar glazing panels has been matched to the performance specifications of the air conditioning. The solar coating to the glass has a silver appearance which will be textured externally by the frit pattern. All curtain wall façades will be equipped with a cleaning rail designed to facilitate the use of cleaning equipment and maintenance cradle for repairs.

Roof Structure

The roof construction above level 8 comprises a proprietary extruded aluminium louvered screen which conceals the roof plant area. The north/south curtain wall screens have been extended to a level 5000mm above the roof level to provide adequate visual screening.

I N T E R I O R S

Reception Lobby

The main entrance to the building is close A off Abuja road within the Banana Island Foreshore Estate, Ikoyi. The reception opens to the right of the property onto Abuja road. This facilitates both vehicular and waterborne access to the building.

The reception lobby is double volume and offers a grand view of feature walls, dropped chandeliers with effective space cooling. The main doors to the reception lobby incorporate one, fully glazed, revolving door. The revolving door is an electrically controlled motion sensitive door. It has also been recessed to offer protection from the driving rain for its users as well as serve as an adequate drop off point. An additional glazed, single swing door is provided for emergency and disabled access.

The reception space comprises a receptionist desk, grand waiting space and access to entry turnstiles which provides controlled access to the staircase and lift lobby

Two lifts provide means of accessing the upper office floor areas. The main public lobby will be furnished and has adequate “way finding” signage as required, to be tastefully positioned within the space

The reception desk, which can accommodate up to three receptionists, will be fitted with equipment related to the adequate running of the facility and communication to all floors and 24-hour monitoring of the tenanted area.

The floor to the lobby is porcelain tiled surface. Toilets are provided for the reception lobby. A dedicated data room is provided for the overall building management function.

Passenger Lifts

The building is served by two passenger lifts operating in sync, with stops on all floors. The lifts have been designed to shut down in the case of fire and have sufficient back up power to self operate during emergencies.

The lift car walls are made up of brushed stainless steel panels to the sides and a full height mirror to the rear panel, polished stainless steel doors, porcelain tile floors, stainless steel COPs and stainless steel ceiling with line lighting.

Office Areas

The walls of the office areas are made up of full-height, glazed perimeter cladding to the north/south façades, with a strip window configuration to the oblique facades facing north/east, north/west, south/east, and south/ west respectively.

Walls of the cores, facing the office space, will be plastered and painted. Core smoke and draft doors are full height glass and aluminium double swing doors. A fully accessible 600mm x 600mm mineral fibre, acoustic ceiling tile grid system, incorporating light fittings, sprinklers, smoke detectors and motion sensors has been designed for the office ceiling, which  co-ordinates with the 1200mm planning grid. Power skirting is provided to the entire perimeter, providing for power and data reticulation.

Office Restrooms

The toilet areas have a traditional layout, with separate WC cubicles and vanity units. The fittings and materials are selected to be simple, functional and low maintenance. Porcelain tiles (600mm x 600mm) are used for the floors and walls. The toilet cubicles are full height and are made from IPS Panels. Cantilevered WC pans with concealed cisterns are installed in the cubicles.

Recessed Wash hand basins, are provided to both male and female toilets. The mirrors to the WC area are centre positioned oval mirrors placed over the vanity counter.

One disabled toilet is located on ground floor. Further disabled toilets are positioned on each office floor space. The disabled toilet cubicles have the same finishes as the main toilets. Manual light switches installed in the toilet areas will control the lighting supply when not in use. Similarly, the toilet fittings and fixtures are manual controlled to deliver the highest level of personal hygiene standards; and energy and resource efficiency while maintaining aesthetic consistency with the rest of the building.

Hand dryers and soap dispensers are recessed into wall cabinets for ease of supply and maintenance. Waste bins have also been adequately provided.

Suspended Parking Floor

The parking area is internally banded by a concrete upstand of 900mm beam and external cladding of aluminium screens on the face of the building on the first floor. Parking bays are painted on the floor plates, with numbers for identification.  Epoxy paint floor finish is applied over the entire power floated floor finish. Directional signage are provided for ease of ingress and egress.

Partitioning

The office spaces have been designed to be an open floor plan, but consideration has been made with the services for any tenant that may wish to partition the spaces allocated. The line for partition will be communicated upon tenant request.

S E R V I C E S  I N S T A L L A T I O N

Electrical

Electrical power is provided to the building at 11kV. Electrical services for each floor are supplied from a main floor DB which is designed to accommodate up to two occupants per typical floor, with separate metering of electricity consumption for each tenant.

Standby Generation

A total of three prime rated diesel generators complete with exhaust systems will be provided. These will be housed in the designated area at the left elevation of the building. These generators will supply full back-up during a power failure or severe voltage fluctuations and will be used as the secondary supply for the building. Primary source of electricity will be from the estate mains supply point.

Exhaust emission and noise levels will be minimised by means of catalytic converters and sound attenuation systems, respectively. Noise levels and exhaust emissions will comply with the relevant by-laws.

The generator sizes and setup are as follows:

  • 3no 500kVA Generators

A 40,000L fuel tank is provided in each instance above, one or both generators will work at any given time, dependent upon the load. The third generator will only operate as a replacement in the case of any of the other two units undergoing regular maintenance or in the case of failure.

HVAC

A decentralised Variable-Refridgerant -Volume (VRV) air-conditioning system will be provided.

Telecoms

A telecommunications room is located on the ground floor and is the point of first fix to the site. Telecom cables are then reticulated through a riser position in the core. This riser is continuous to the roof level and is to be used for all tenant data reticulation and to connect with communication hardware to be erected at roof level. A satellite farm is provided on the roof and is intended to be the designated area for the erection of any such communications equipment.

Fresh/Outside Air Supply

Filtered and conditioned fresh/outside air is introduced through one fresh air handling unit located at roof level. The fresh air handling unit consists of primary and secondary filtration and a constant volume supply air fan. The fresh/outside air is distributed to each of the office floors as well as the ground floor through externally insulated galvanized sheet metal ducts installed in riser shafts in the floor air-handling unit plant rooms. The fresh/outside air is discharged into the air-handling unit plant rooms where it mixes with return air before introduced into the air-conditioned areas.

Toilets Ventilation System

Mechanical exhaust ventilation will be provided to the ablution facilities. The installation consists of ceiling mounted exhaust air grilles connected to galvanized sheet metal ducts installed in the ceilings and riser ducts to the roof level. The air is discharged at roof level through an axial-fan/ sound attenuator assembly.

Staircase/Lift Lobby Pressurisation System

The emergency escape stairs and lift lobby are designed to  be pressurised in accordance with the Fire Design requirements

BMS & Automatic Controls

The Automatic Controls and Building Management System is a micro-processor based system. Intelligent (computerised) outstations and plant power centres are distributed throughout the building generally in plant rooms and service risers. The operator’s terminal is located within the Facilities Management rooms and can also be monitored at the back office located on the ground floor behind the main reception desk. Interfaces with the Life Safety System are provided.

Security and Access Control

First fix will be provided for an access control system. This will consist of conduits and boxes for a card reader/keypad, pushbutton and maglock in office floor lobbies, as well as at main entrances into the building on ground floor. Fixed cameras will be used in the external areas. A Network Video Recording (NVR) system will be implemented that will be able to store video feeds from each camera for a maximum of 14 days. A total of 12 cameras will be provided.

Areas that can be monitored:

  • Entry and exit points into the building.
  • Office spaces
  • Common areas.
  • Parking areas – particularly entry and exit points.
Water and Sewerage Treatment Plant

The main office accommodation within the building is provided with a metred incoming borehole water supply. The supply connects to storage tanks at ground floor level. The borehole water then goes through a water treatment plant and stored in a treated water storage tank. Boosted treated water distribution rises through the building. Two pressure zones will distribute through the building for the top floors and lower level floors and blanked connections will be installed at each floor for future tenant use.

Public Health Services

Separate foul/waste water systems are provided throughout the building connecting to the estate sewer treatment plant that will treat the sewer to an accepted water quality level that will discharge to the adjacent statutory authority sewers.  A condensate drainage system is provided with vertical risers within the cores.

Lift Specificaitons
  • 2x High rise passenger lifts Electric traction type
  • Size: 1,000kg/10 person
  • Speed: 2.0m/sec serving Ground to eighth floor
  • All lifts have the capacity to introduce CCTV surveillance

E X T E R N A L W O R K S

General

The external works to the building comprise an internalised driveway around the building perimeter. Storm water is directed away from the main entrance toward the street drainage along Abuja road. Two drainage channels running along the east and west boundary of the site drain the street channels into the Lagoon. The site has one main access point, along close A, off Abuja road, Banana Island Ikoyi and a temporary access along the Abuja main road within the estate.

A security boundary fence has been provided with security booth for the main access point to the site. A system of gates provide varied degrees of access control during operating hours and full closure outside of operating hours.

External lights are installed within the soffit of the first floor cladding to provide lighting for the perimeter of the building. Lights are also installed along the perimeter fence to light the surrounding of the property at night time.

Palisade fencing is adopted to provide clear view of all movements within and outside the property line, also provides a clear line of sight for passers-by to view the building reception and ground floor area.

Landscaping

The southern and western sides of the building have been landscaped to provide a pleasant and inviting arrival for those accessing the site from both sides of the Abuja road, while providing a conducive environment and outlook to the planned retail office floor spaces.

Facade

The building name ‘DESIDERATA’ will be boldly placed as a signage on the southern face and will be easily seen from outside when approaching the banana Island estate, Ikoyi.

A traffic light indicator will be available to control driving up and down the ramp and around the building perimeter.

Easy access point of discharge for diesel to supply the generators will be provided near the main entrance booth without impacting on traffic during discharge times.

VRF Air Terminals

Each ceiling-mounted VRV diffuser is connected through an insulated flexible duct to sheet metal ducts in the ceiling. The diffusers consist of a motorised damper that controls the amount of conditioned air supplied. The indoor air temperature is controlled through a wall-mounted set point adjuster that allows occupants to adjust the desired temperature set point.

The actual air temperature sensor is located in the wall-mounted set point adjuster. If the actual air temperature increases above the set point, the modulating damper in the VRV diffusers will throttle.