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Dubai Frame: A time Frame for next icon

The Dubai Frame, Dubai’s next major iconic building, will feature a museum when it is completed by the end of 2014.

The window-shaped 150-metre by 105-metre structure, projected to cost Dh120 million, will have a museum that tells the story of the development of the city, the civic body said after Director General Hussain Nassir Lootah’s visit to the project site in Zabeel Park on Wednesday.

“The visit was aimed at reviewing the progress of this most awaited project which is anticipated to be a new icon of Dubai like the Burj Khalifa and Burj Al Arab. (The) Dubai Frame is likely to attract over two million tourists every year,” the municipality said in a statement.

Lootah said the project is a complete glass, transparent structure resembling a huge window frame intended to highlight the attractions of the city so visitors can view the skyscrapers on Shaikh Zayed Road from one side — symbolising modern Dubai — while the other side of the frame will show the old Dubai landmarks of Deira, Umm Hurair and Karama.

“The electrical panoramic elevators will help visitors move through its facilities as if they are moving in the sky inside the glass frame,” Lootah said in the statement.

This is the first time the municipality is releasing information about the planned museum. Earlier, it had said that the proposed building would have facilities to host cultural activities, exhibitions and conferences on the ground floor.

The concept model of the tower had won the ThyssenKrupp Elevator International Architecture Award in 2009. It was in July 2012 that His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of UAE and Ruler of Dubai directed to implement the Al Berwaz (The Frame) Tower project.

A terrace cafe on the top cross-beam and a 150-metre-high glass floor bridge are the major highlights of the project which will include an observation deck at the top of each vertical shaft.

The project will include cultural facilities such as a photography exhibition of scenes from old and modern Dubai, and a library in the base of the structure and an underground car park.

sajila@khaleejtimes.com