Chamchuri Square

Chamchuri Square
Chamchuri Office Tower (left) and Residence Tower (right, to the back)
General information
Type	Commercial office, retail, residential
Location	319 Phaya Thai Road, Pathum Wan, Bangkok, Thailand
Coordinates	13°43′58″N 100°31′50″E / 13.73278°N 100.53056°E / 13.73278; 100.53056Coordinates: 13°43′58″N 100°31′50″E / 13.73278°N 100.53056°E / 13.73278; 100.53056
Construction started	1994 (halted in 1996, restarted in 2005)
Completed	2008
Opening	July 2008
Owner	Chulalongkorn University
Management	CB Richard Ellis (office space)
Height
Roof	Office tower: 173 m (568 ft)
Technical details
Floor count	Office tower: 40 Residential tower: 23
Floor area	274,500 m2 (2,955,000 sq ft)
Lifts/elevators	Office tower: 28
Design and construction
Developer	Siam Techno City (1994–96) Ruam Nakhon Construction (2004–05) Powerline Engineering (2006–08)

Chamchuri Square is a high-rise building complex located in Bangkok, Thailand. It consists of a commercial office tower, a residential tower and a podium housing a shopping mall which connects the two. Owned by Chulalongkorn University, construction on the complex began in 1994 but was halted from 1996 to 2005 and later completed in 2008. With forty floors and a height of 173 metres (568 ft), the office tower is the thirty-eighth-tallest building in Thailand as of 2009^[update].

Originally known as CU Hi-tech Square, the project, owned by Chulalongkorn University, was to be developed by Siam Techno City Co, Ltd., a joint venture majorly owned by Thai Farmers' Bank (now Kasikornbank), Loxley Group and the Japan International Development Organization (Jaido), with Thai Shimizu Co., Ltd. as contractor, and sales management by Chesterton Thai Property Consultants. Construction began in 1994 with completion expected by 1997 and an estimated project value of seven billion baht. The original design consisted of a forty-storey office tower and a thirty-nine-storey residential tower, with a central linking podium (referred to as the atrium) featuring a convention centre, retail shops and direct access to the to-be-constructed MRT. Parking space was to be provided underground as well as in the lower levels of the office tower. The development concept was based on visions of a hi-tech office building and convention centre equipped with advanced intelligent systems.

In 1996, due to poor sales outlook, work on the project was halted when the towers had only reached their thirteenth floors. The original development plans became abandoned amidst the ensuing 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, which saw sharply falling demand for commercial office space, and Hi-tech Square stood derelict among Bangkok's many uncompleted buildings for the next near-decade.