flexiblefullpage -
billboard - default
interstitial1 - interstitial
catfish1 - bottom
Currently Reading

Major architecture firms are flocking to Dubai’s Design District

Building Team

Major architecture firms are flocking to Dubai’s Design District

Three more major firms are making a permanent home in Dubai.


By David Malone, Associate Editor | November 15, 2016

Rendering courtesy of Santiago Calatrava

Dubai’s Design District, which has already seen the likes of Zaha Hadid Architects open an office in early November, is about to welcome Foster + Partners and Santiago Calatrava as residents, soon, as well.

These most recent firms will join 30 other architecture practices that are already based in the United Arab Emirates city, according to Dezeen. Not only has Dubai been at the center of the rise of the Middle Eastern architecture market, thus making itself an attractive locale for an office, but also each of these three firms is already hard at work on major Middle Eastern projects.

ZHA unveiled its plans for the Urban Heritage Administration Centre in Saudi Arabia and a hotel in a new city in Qatar. Santiago Calatrava is hard at work on an observation tower in Dubai that is expected to rise higher than the Burj Khalifa. Meanwhile, Foster + Partners is working on a skyscraper for Dubai’s financial district and a creative hub that will be a part of the design district.

Related Stories

| Aug 11, 2010

Project's mixed materials downplay massing

Philadelphia-based KlingStubbins provided design services for the 120,000-sf Carnegie Center, which is part of the 103-acre mixed-use Carnegie Center West development in West Windsor Township, N.J. The four-story building features horizontal brick bands, ribbons of glass, aluminum accents, and metal end panels and curtain wall at all four corners to break up the building's massing.

| Aug 11, 2010

Firehouse converted to hip hot property

Sound the alarm! A 9,000-sf former firehouse is being converted into a new multipurpose space for ZUMIX, a nonprofit music and arts organization that's partnering on the project with Landmark Structures of Woburn, Mass., and the East Boston Community Development Corporation. The $2 million renovation of the 1920s structure, known as Engine Company 40 Firehouse, includes a complete gut job to ma...

| Aug 11, 2010

High-tech tower targets LEED Platinum

Construction is slated to begin on the new $38 million AI Tech Center in Hartford, Conn., in spring 2010. The Building Team, which includes Suffolk Construction Co., CBT Architects, and Jones Lang LaSalle, planned the high-tech 13-story, 259,000-sf tower to meet LEED Platinum certification. Green features include photovoltaic power, a fuel cell power plant, abundant natural lighting, and a roof...

| Aug 11, 2010

Dave Barista named chief editor of Professional Builder

David Barista has assumed the chief editor position at Professional Builder, a Reed Business Information (RBI) publication, with additional responsibility for Custom Builder, Housing Giants, and HousingZone. Barista joined RBI in 2000, shortly after graduating from Eastern Illinois University, as an editor with Building Design+Construction.

| Aug 11, 2010

And the world's tallest building is…

At more than 2,600 feet high, the Burj Dubai (right) can still lay claim to the title of world's tallest building—although like all other super-tall buildings, its exact height will have to be recalculated now that the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) announced a change to its height criteria.

| Aug 11, 2010

Project is music to school's ears

Florida Gulf Coast University is building a $7.55 million Fine Arts Building on its campus near Ft. Myers, Fla. The 25,000-sf building—the first project in the school's plan for an entire music complex—will house the music program of the College of Arts and Sciences. The facility includes a 200-seat recital hall, rehearsal hall, music labs, studio rooms, and administration offices.

| Aug 11, 2010

East meets West in hospital design

The Los Angeles office of HMC Architects and the Chinese firm Shunde Architectural Design Institute won the commission to design the 2.15 million-sf First People's Hospital in the Shunde District of Foshan, China. The team's winning concept organizes a series of buildings around a dynamic, curved spine element to create an interior “eco-atrium” with outdoor green space and healing g...

| Aug 11, 2010

Voting center redesigned where it counts

A series of large-scale photographic banners by artist Rebeca Mendez soars above the newly redesigned Los Angeles County Elections Operations Center. L.A.-based Lehrer Architects completely reworked the 110,000-sf concrete warehouse, adding a new floor plan that improves work flow, bold colors, 12-foot-high dividing walls, and original artwork to create a vibrant and people-friendly environment.

| Aug 11, 2010

New pavilion planned for famous boulevard

Located in a prime spot along Santa Monica Boulevard in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, the Santa Monica Pavilion will have 9,000 sf of retail space, 35,500 sf of office space, and two below-grade parking levels when it opens in late 2010. The $10 million, three-story building extends a full length of the block to create a window wall of blue-gray translucent, fritted glass panels ove...

| Aug 11, 2010

Luxury high-rise meets major milestone

A topping off ceremony was held in late October for 400 Fifth Avenue, a 57,000-sf high-rise that includes a 214-room luxury hotel and 190 high-end residential condominiums. Developed by Bizzi & Partners Development and designed by Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects, the 60-story tower in midtown Manhattan sits atop a smaller-scale 10-story base, which creates a street façade t...

boombox1 - default
boombox2 -
native1 -

More In Category



Giants 400

Top 75 Engineering Firms for 2023

Kimley-Horn, WSP, Tetra Tech, Langan, and IMEG head the rankings of the nation's largest engineering firms for nonresidential buildings and multifamily buildings work, as reported in Building Design+Construction's 2023 Giants 400 Report.


halfpage1 -

Most Popular Content

  1. 2021 Giants 400 Report
  2. Top 150 Architecture Firms for 2019
  3. 13 projects that represent the future of affordable housing
  4. Sagrada Familia completion date pushed back due to coronavirus
  5. Top 160 Architecture Firms 2021