Dubai: There is a golden bridge in Dubai skies and you can walk over it by the end of the year!
A senior Dubai Municipality official on Sunday confirmed to Gulf News that the Dubai Frame, the 150 metre-high, 193 metre-long golden tower featuring a glass bridge in Zabeel Park, will be open before the end of this year.
Dawood Al Hajri, assistant director-general for Engineering and Planning Sector, said this after visiting the Dh160m project to overview its latest updates and work progress.
Virendra Saklani/Gulf News
Work in progress at the Dubai Frame in Zabeel Park. On completion, it will become a landmark building in Dubai.
“Everything is going according to the schedule. The building is going to be one of the landmarks in Dubai and it will attract a lot of tourists. We will open it by the end of the year,” he told Gulf News.
In the making since 2013, the iconic tower is designed to frame the emirate, giving a 360 degree view of new and old Dubai’s skylines on either side of it.
When asked about previous reports citing an opening date of Dubai Frame in October this year, Al Hajri said he was not aware of any such announcement. Asked if Dubai Frame is likely to open on the 46th UAE National Day in December, the official said he could “only confirm it would open before the end of the year.”
He also confirmed that the ongoing dispute over the design of the structure will not affect the opening.
“That [the case] is with the legal department and I can’t talk about it.
But that has nothing to do with the opening,” he replied when asked if the case against the municipality would affect the opening of the much awaited project.
This is the first comment from Dubai Municipality about the case filed against it by Mexican-born architect Fernando Donis whose initial design reportedly inspired the structure.
According to a report in New York Times on March 8, Donis has filed a suit in US federal court against the Dubai Municipality and ThyssenKrupp Elevator for copyright violations.
His design was chosen as the concept design for the project after it won a contest jointly organised by the municipality and ThyssenKrupp in 2009.
First look video
The municipality also released a video of the current status of the tower during the officials’ visit, featuring the first visuals of its interior. Mohammed Al Mutaiwei, assistant director general of the Municipality for the Communications and Community Sector, and other senior officials also visited the project.
The video of their visit showed the tower covered with golden cladding in the glass bridge on top and inner side of both the vertical shafts. The design of the golden cladding is inspired by the Expo 2020 logo.
The reception lobby and two other areas with modern and traditional architectural designs were also shown after the officials went up the escalator. According to a previous statement issued by Dubai Municipality, the Frame will have interior spaces on the ground floor (the horizontal rib bottom of the frame) for exhibitions, which will display details of old Dubai in pictures and show how the city evolved since the sixties and how it is now.
The ground floor ends at the main panoramic elevator, which goes up through the rib of the Frame to get to the top floor.
At the top, visitors will have a bird’s-eye view of old Dubai as they look towards Al Karama, Umm Hurair, Bur Dubai and Deira. As they turn around, they will see the high-rise towers and development projects of new Dubai in contrast.
