Reem Island / Maryah Island

I just thought I would take some photos to show how things are developing on these islands. Some are below, but there is also a full album linked below.


The towers of Abu Dhabi Investment Council and Al Hilal Bank. This was taken from Al Salam Street, Eastern Corniche.

The bridge across to Reem Island from Defense Road (11th Street)

Marina Square, Reem Island

Shams Abu Dhabi, including Sky And Sun Towers and the Gate Towers - which remind me of Marina Bay Sands Hotel in Singapore

The Paris Sorbonne University on Reem Island

The long awaited Salam Street tunnel!

This is Al Maryah Island (formally Al Sowwah Island - I don't think its sounds too good when you are pitching to global businesses! - it's pronounced Soo-wah). I thought I would label it so you can see what's what. There is also a video clip below from the same spot.

The clip pans from ADFC across to The Beach Rotana, Abu Dhabi Mall and Le Meridien Hotel beach.

...and here is the full photo album (sorry I should have exported larger files)

Around Abu Dhabi City

Visit to Sowwah Island

I had cause today to visit Sowwah Island. This is where the main financial district of Abu Dhabi is being built. There will also be 5 star hotels and the Cleveland Clinic hospital.

This video shows the drive across the new bridge near Abu Dhabi mall, looking over to the right at the Marina on Al Reem Island, then left towards the Abu Dhabi Financial Centre and Stock Exchange.

Here are some pictures showing the Cleveland Clinic construction site with the ADFC in the background.

Things are moving on in Abu Dhabi, if a little slowly!

Sowwah & Saadiyat Islands

I had an interesting week this week with trips yesterday and today to Sowwah and Saadiyat Islands respectively. For those in the know, you will understand that this wasn't some kind of idyllic trip to the beach or anything, but it was work visits related to the construction.

Sowwah Island will be the home of the Abu Dhabi Financial Centre and within it the new AD Stock Exchange. It will also house some new 5 star hotels and also the Cleveland Clinic hospital campus. There will be 13 bridges on and off the Island, the first of which you can cross from just before AD Mall.

Saadiyat Island is targetted to be the Cultural Centre, not only of the UAE, but of the Gulf Region as a whole. There will be:

Sheikh Zayed National Museum
Louvre Abu Dhabi
Guggenheim Abu Dhabi Museum
Maritime Museum
Performing Arts Centre

In the slide show below you can see where some of this will take shape. The Zayed Museum is all a bit "hush hush" as far as the design and content is concerned, and at the moment is only marked on the Island by a pole in the desert with a UAE flag on it. About the only thing that is known is that it will be designed by Lord Norman Foster. Here is a press release about it.

Al Reem and Sowah Island from Beach Rotana

I was early for a lunch meeting today at the Rotana, so I thought I would go up to the 20th floor and take a look at the developments on Reem Island and Sowah Island. Reem Island is going to be full of apartment towers, villas, malls and a marina etc etc. Sowah Island will house the Abu Dhabi Finance Centre and the new Abu Dhabi Stock Exchange. I have a couple of pics I took today and I'll also post a few renderings of what it will look like.

I managed to blag my way into one of the rooms (it was being cleaned!) and took a quick video clip from the balcony on my phone. Sowah on the left and panning over to reem, behind and right.

This is Sowah Island. Abu Dhabi Stock Exchange is in the foreground on the podium (whihc is what you can see coming out of the ground above).














Some of the Al Reem development from the Tamouh (developer) brochure.