Tourism Development & Investment Company (TDIC), one of Abu Dhabi's leading tourism and cultural assets developers, has awarded UK engineering consultancy Buro Happold, the engineering services contract for the Louvre Abu Dhabi, which has been designed by 2008 Pritzker prize winner Jean Nouvel. The museum is one of five major premier cultural institutions planned for Saadiyat Island which lies just offshore the capital of the United Arab Emirates.
Buro Happold will now work with Jean Nouvel, under a co-operation agreement, on concept validation of the initial design and on the schematic design of the museum, which is due to open in 20012.
Buro Happold's scope of work covers a range of engineering disciplines including structural, civil, site traffic, marine and environmental.
"Buro Happold was selected because of its holistic approach to engineering, its track record as an environmentally responsible and responsive organisation and its appreciation of the project's standing within the social, architectural and aesthetics fields," said Lee Tabler, CEO, TDIC.
"With engineering design now under way we are on course to break ground on this truly iconic structure in the first quarter of next year."
The Louvre Abu Dhabi will be built in the Cultural District of Saadiyat Island - a natural island which is being transformed by TDIC into a signature leisure, cultural and residential destination. The Cultural District will comprise the world's largest single concentration of premier cultural institutions including the Sheikh Zayed National Museum, the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi Museum, a performing arts centre and a maritime museum.
Planning for the Louvre Abu Dhabi follows a 30-year cultural accord sealed last year between the governments of Abu Dhabi and the Republic of France.
Concept designs for all the Cultural District assets, including the Louvre Abu Dhabi, are currently on show in a public exhibition which is open daily in the UAE capital's Emirates Palace Hotel.
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About Tourism Development & Investment Company (TDIC)
Tourism Development & Investment Company (TDIC) is Abu Dhabi's leading tourism asset developer and the name behind some of the world's most significant tourism projects. Its flagship development is Saadiyat Island, a 27 square kilometre natural island lying just 500 metres offshore Abu Dhabi city - the capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The island is being transformed into a signature leisure, cultural and residential destination. TDIC is also behind the unique Desert Islands project, one of the world's largest sustainable island tourism destinations currently under development.
TDIC will develop the real estate assets that support the Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority's (ADTA) mission of assisting UAE economic diversification through tourism development. With its shareholding fully owned by ADTA, the company, operates along strictly commercial lines with its projects being self-sustaining and economically feasible.
TDIC's activities include creating development and tourism related concepts for specific sites and locations; disposing of, or repositioning, government-owned tourism related assets; entering into joint ventures with investment partners for assets such as hotels or residential products; as well as serving as master developer for large scale projects.
About Saadiyat Island
Saadiyat Island - which translates from Arabic as Island of Happiness - is the Arabian Gulf's largest single mixed-use development. The 27 square kilometre natural island lies only 500 metres offshore Abu Dhabi island - the capital city of the United Arab Emirates. Saadiyat Island is being developed into a signature leisure, cultural and residential destination.
Saadiyat Island represents one of the most important development opportunities in Abu Dhabi's history. The island, which has 30 kilometres of water frontage and boasts many natural eco-features, including mangrove forests, marks a new era in the rapid evolution of Abu Dhabi, the largest of the seven emirates which form the UAE Federation.
Saadiyat Island, which, in Wall Street Journal research was tipped as one of the world's top 10 emerging 'trendy' destinations and voted the 'World's Leading Tourism Development Project' in the 14th World Travel Awards, will be developed in three phases until 2018. The masterplan envisages seven distinct districts - Cultural District, Saadiyat Marina, Saadiyat Beach, South Beach, Island Lagoons, The Wetlands and Eco-Point.
There are plans for luxury hotels, over three million square metres of office space, marinas with combined berths for around 1,000 boats, two golf courses - one the UAE's first Gary Player signature course and the Arabian Gulf's first 'ocean' course - civic and leisure facilities, sea-view apartments and elite villas.
The island will also be home to the world's largest single concentration of premier cultural institutions, including the Sheikh Zayed National Museum, concept designed by Lord Norman Foster; the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi Museum of modern and contemporary arts designed by Frank Gehry; the Louvre Abu Dhabi universal museum designed by Jean Nouvel; a performing arts centre designed by Zaha Hadid and a maritime museum by Japan's Tadao Ando. Saadiyat Island is expected to be home to a community of more than 150,000 people - the same population size as Chang Mai in Thailand, Oxford in the UK or Hollywood in the USA.
Saadiyat Island will be linked to Abu Dhabi, via a Saadiyat Link road which will connect the Shahama district to Saadiyat Island, and connect to the 10-lane Saadiyat Bridge which is already under construction from Abu Dhabi's Mina Zayed area.
Saadiyat Island is being developed by the Tourism Development & Investment Company (TDIC), an independent public joint stock company of which Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority (ADTA) is the sole shareholder.
For further media information:
Bassem Terkawi. Deputy Director PR and Events, TDIC
tel: +9712 4061400
fax: +9712 4061500
e-mail: bterkawi@tdic.ae
© Press Release 2008
