World Trade Center (Dubai)
The World Trade Center in Dubai is a well-known conference and business center in the Middle East , the most famous part of which is a 39-story skyscraper . In addition to the actual tower, in which mainly offices are located, the World Trade Center also includes several outbuildings that house a congress center for up to 6,500 people and seven exhibition halls. As a member of the World Trade Centers Association (WTCA) in New York, it is part of the global network of around 300 WTCs in 100 countries.
Sheikh Raschid bin Said Al Maktum had the building constructed in the late 1970s and inaugurated it in 1979. At the time, it was 149 meters high (184 meters including the top) the tallest building in the Middle East. In Dubai, which was still relatively sleepy at the time, the project was considered bold and daring, as most observers believed there was no need for the building erected in the middle of the desert sand. The critics were disabused, however, because the project was a success and soon the tower was widely regarded as a symbol of the region's economic upswing, and according to some it even founded it. It therefore also adorns the 100 dirham banknote.
In 1986 the 27th Chess Olympiad took place in the congress halls of the World Trade Center.
The fact that the former Trade Center Road was renamed Sheikh Zayed Road is a symbol of the declining importance of the World Trade Center: today the tower is surrounded by numerous even higher buildings and has lost its symbolic power. Therefore, there are currently also considerations of demolishing the main tower as part of an expansion of the complex that has already been decided. The attached hotel building was demolished in April 2005.
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Coordinates: 25 ° 13 ′ 40 ″ N , 55 ° 17 ′ 19 ″ E