Tower cranes are an expensive investment for construction projects, and the appropriaternselection of their location has a significant impact on the cost, efficiency, safety, andrnenvironmental impact of a construction project. In many cases, traditional techniquesrnwhich simply ensure that the crane can reach all the supply and demand points whilernsatisfying other site-specific constraints are used to find the location for the tower crane.rnHowever, this process doesnâ€™t necessarily mean the crane has been placed in the optimalrnlocation. rnAs construction sites become smaller, and the use of tower cranes becomes more prevalent,rnthe role of Site Layout Planning, is becoming more critical. Tower Crane LocationrnPlanning Problem presented in this thesis is a subset of the larger Site Layout Planningrnproblem. The problem is solved using a metaheuristic optimization technique known asrnParticle Swarm Optimization. The optimization integrates constraints such as temporaryrnoffices, plot limits, work information, and crane capacities to search for the optimalrnlocation based on the total travel time. rnSix case studies of high-rise buildings in Addis Ababa were analyzed, with 5 of the projectsrnlocated in the Financial District of Addis Ababa. In all cases, the optimal location wasrnfound to be acceptably close to the actual location on site, except for the Nile InsurancernHQ Project. rnThe location selection techniques varied among the 5 contractors, with China StaternConstruction Engineering Corporation using the most scientific technique which ensuredrnthat the crane could satisfy the demands of the project. Conversely, Rama Constructionrnutilized the least scientific placement technique, which forced it to dismantle the first towerrncrane at great cost. rnThe primary recommendation of this thesis is that the contractors should ensure that therncrane selected for the project should meet the demands of the projects in terms of capacity,rnlifting radius and anchoring requirements.