Artist’s impression of Manawhari Development Project as seen from Myo Ma Kyaung Road.

A YANGON development company has redesigned a building project on Manawhari Street to avoid obscuring views of the city’s landmark Shwedagon Pagoda, said a director at the company.

Opal International Co., Ltd has changed the plans of the Manawhari Development Project to reduce the height of the buildings from 12 to eight storeys. The revised project also calls for the construction of five buildings rather than two, as originally planned.

“Otherwise the towers would extend above the height of the pagoda’s platform,” said the director.

Construction on the redesigned project – located on a 1.3-acre site between Myo Ma Kyaung Road and Manawhari Street – will begin this month and is expected to be completed by the end of 2006, the director said.

The project is being developed in collaboration with the Department of Human Settlement and Housing Development, and is expected to cost K1.8 billion.

The buildings will feature one 2000-square-foot apartment on each floor, with the top two floors taken up by a 3800-square-foot penthouse. Facilities will include a lift, transformers, a private automatic branch exchange telephone system and car parking for each apartment.

The company is targeting sales of ground-floor and first-floor units to companies that want road-facing office space, the director said.

Sales will open in early 2006 when the buildings are nearing completion, he said.

“Under the present real estate conditions, we believe that residential buildings with fewer units will be easier to market and sell out,” the director said.

The original plans called for each tower to include more than 90 units, but the buildings in the revised version will instead hold about 40 each.

The building plans were drawn up by Spine Architects, with the mechanical and electrical systems designed by Central Engineering and Construction Co. Ltd.

“New regulations by the Committee for Quality Control of High-Rise Building Construction Projects require us to submit comprehensive mechanical and electrical system designs for approval, which adds to the cost of the project but helps guarantee the safety of the residents,” the director said.