Mertim
Mertim is the tallest building in Mersin, Turkey. It was the tallest building in Turkey between 1987 and 2000, until the completion of the İş Bankası Towers in Istanbul, and still remains the tallest building in the country outside of Istanbul. It is also the tallest hotel building in Turkey.
History
During the Lebanese Civil War, the commercial districts of Beirut suffered heavily and Mersin, like some other port cities in the region, was proposed as the new commercial center of the East Mediterrenean coast. The Port of Mersin, which is the largest seaport in Turkey, had already been decleared as a free trade zone and a series of buildings were constructed in the city to be used in business and commerce, which included the Mertim tower.
The construction
The architect of the complex was Cengiz Bektaş[1] who designed the building in 1985. The tower was constructed during the second half of the 1980s by the Üstay Corporation.[2] The tower was completed in 1987 and the entire complex entered service in 1993. Immediately after its opening in 1993, a part of the building was used by the University of Mersin for several years during the 1990s.
Building
The complex at 36°48′N 34°37′E / 36.800°N 34.617°E includes a shopping center of 1100 stores[3] and a 52-floor building which is popularly known as Metropol or the Tower. The total height of the building is 176.8 metres (580 ft) and it is claimed that the building was the highest skyscraper between Singapore and Franfurt as of the early 1990s. Sixteen floors of the building are used as a hotel and the rest are reserved for offices. At present, the hotel is operated by the Taksim International Group of Hotels.[4]