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American Architect Helping Develop Iconic Projects in Abu Dhabi
(ABU DHABI, UAE) -- At last I'm back in Abu Dhabi and writing about the city and the country where I've lived the past five years. I remember when I arrived in August 2005 to teach at a national university hearing new friends say that Abu Dhabi is like Washington D.C. while Dubai is like New York. That didn't sound right to me.
I'm from New York, and I prefer action and drama to peace and quiet. Although I thought about moving to Dubai then, luckily nothing came of it because within two years, Abu Dhabi began to be interesting as the plans for the Saadyiat Island Louvre and Guggenheim museums and the Yas Island Formula 1 Grand Prix track and Ferrari World theme park rolled out. Film, music, and art festivals followed, then education in the arts - NYU and the Sorbonne - and most recently the turn to education and research in science and technology.
Adam Kushabi has been here two years with Aldar after working for such well known American architectural practices as HOK, Gensler, IBI Group, and SOM. Hired by a recruiter from General Growth Properties just in time as it went into bankruptcy proceedings, he arrived in Abu Dhabi in 2008.
In the UAE his industry has involved him in some of the dramatic changes that have turned the traffic backwards on the Abu Dhabi - Dubai highway. It used to be a stream of cars commuting from Abu Dhabi to Dubai. Now the stream is reversed - from Dubai to Abu Dhabi. Development projects and upgrading transportation infrastructure outlined in the Abu Dhabi Plan 2030 have made the capital city the place where everything is happening.
Kushabi started as a project manager on Yas Mall which was shelved soon after his arrival, and though it has been resurrected recently, the retail market is still weak. Luckily he was transferred to the Ferrari World "mega project." As one of four project managers, Kushabi's job "was mainly to manage the design consultants, and ensure quality and timely delivery of the design documentation which required daily interface with several teams from around the world."
What was fascinating to Kushabi was to be part of the phenomenal transformation that took place on Yas Island between August 2008 and November 2009 in preparation for the F1. He says, "As my colleagues used to joke, when we all arrived, it was like landing on the desolate moon; in about a year there was a big red spaceship parked there."
For Kushabi Ferrari World was a new experience. He had previously been involved in retail, residential, commercial, and institutional projects in the US and China, Saudi Arabia, and Canada but never in a massive theme park, and not one like this.
Ferrari World is the largest indoor theme park in the world. When it opens on October 28, according to Kushabi, visitors will see the red roof "designed in the style of a classic double-curve body shell on a Ferrari GT by Benoy Architects, and experience 20 state of the art attractions that represent different parts of the Ferrari story within it."
From theme park to higher education, that's the career path of this American architect in Abu Dhabi. He's now the senior design manager for the new campus of Khalifa University of Science, Technology, and Research (KUSTAR). Originally part of the 2030 Master plan for Abu Dhabi's new Capital District at Khalifa C, it is now being planned for the northwest corner of Masdar City - intended to be a model of energy efficiency in Abu Dhabi.
The reason, Kushabi explained, "is that this is an already serviced site, and therefore has reduced infrastructure costs associated with it. Furthermore, integrating with the newly built Masdar Institute and Masdar HQ creates a larger R & D & technology cluster here in Abu Dhabi." The campus will eventually cover 76 hectares of which over 300,000 square meters are to be completed by September 2013, three years from now.
Kushabi has worked on science and technology buildings before, for example, at Southern Illinois University. "What's different about this one," he said, "is that the University itself is in its infancy, and the faculty and administrative staff - all have been recently assembled. It creates an opportunity for idealism and great visioning exercises - when it comes to planning and making a major contribution to this society."
Sasaki & Associates created the first master plan for the Khalifa C site and has already won a design award from the Boston Society of Architects for it. "Now that we are at Masdar, we will be looking at ways to create a healthy balance between meeting KUSTAR's specific needs, while engaging with the sustainability principles established by Masdar City," concluded Kushabi.
It's one thing to work on a foreign project while living in the US. It's another to be immersed in "a multicultural society with people from everywhere and a vast diversity of skill sets," Kushabi said. "Since I have been here, I have grown tremendously in my emotional intelligence," and added, "after experiencing some culture shock for the first few months, generally I have adjusted well."
Kushabi credits "certain qualities that are very American, such as a good work ethic, openness, credibility and accountability, fairness, a win-win attitude, rational and collaborative decision making, and non-hierarchical team structure." He points to the achievements of American architects in designing landmark buildings in the UAE, for example, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai by SOM and the ADIA headquarters in Abu Dhabi by KPF, and the presence of a number of Americans at Aldar and within other master developers like Mubadala and Sorouh who are changing the face of the city.
Of Indo Persian background, his folks migrated to the UK, Canada, and finally the US in the 1960s. He says, "I do have a keen sense of my architectural heritage and have travelled to the old Mughal and now Indian capital of Delhi on a number of occasions, including as a member of a US Dept. of State Business Development trip in 2006."
With that kind of multicultural and multinational background, it's no wonder Adam Kushabi fits in among the multiple groups that make up the UAE. Like many of us here who are not in it only for the money and who have some sense of a mission, Kushabi says, "I believe I do have an understanding of the culture and architecture of this region, and hopefully am making a worthy contribution."
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