|~||~||~|There are two reasons to celebrate this week — Christmas and our 100th birthday.
That is 100 weeks Ma’am, not years, in case you get any ideas about sending us telegrams.
And what a year it has been for the GCC construction industry.
I thought this would be a good, if unoriginal, opportunity to reflect on the big projects to have broken ground this year, but it seems impossible to know where to start.
So perhaps we should forget about all of that and instead have a look at some of the ones that made us laugh. ‘Tis the season to be jolly after all.
The best also-ran projects of the year. The ones that never quite got off the architect’s drawing board or the lunatic’s Etch-A-Sketch for that matter.
In most media top-ten lists there is always some semblance of suspense when it comes to the number one slot.
Best film ever? The Godfather, Citizen Kane? Who knows?
Best novel of all time? Ulysses, Moby Dick? Haven’t got a clue.
But when it comes to the best lunatic project to have been promoted in the Middle East, there is no such suspense. We are in Highlander territory. There can be only one.
You know what it is, I know what it is, and the dogs in the street know what it is.
We are of course talking about the one, the only, let’s give it up for, ‘Chess City’.
The brainchild of Russian entrepreneur Kirsan Ilumjinov, the US $2.6 billion project included plans for 32 chess piece-shaped towers, including two ‘King’ towers standing 64 storeys tall.
The high-rise citadel of giant black and white chess pieces is the strait-jacketed, twitching, crazy mother of all building projects.
Sure, there will always be pretenders to the throne — Hydropolis, Ski Trac and the Crystal Dome are all worthy challengers.
But it will never be bettered.
Then again, never say never in this part of the world. Roll on 2006. Merry Christmas and a Whacky New Year.
Sean Cronin
Editor||**||
Follow us on
