June 24 – The contract for the Louvre Museum project in Abu Dhabi has been postponed to August 1. There has been no update on the contracts for the Frank Gehry-designed Guggenheim Abu Dhabi Museum and the Fosters+Partners-designed Zayed Museum.
“We expect that the main contract for the Louvre will be awarded around August 1. It has witnessed a one-month delay,” said a source. “There is still no news on the main contract for the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi. As for the Zayed Museum, we believe it is in the detailed design stage.”
The three projects come under phase 1 of the Cultural District on Saadiyat Island in Abu Dhabi, for which the Tourism Development and Investment Company (TDIC) is the developer. Earlier, Felix Reinberg, Project Director of Museums’ Delivery at TDIC, had said that the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi project was “expected to be complete by December 2013 and the main contract works would be awarded in July on the Zayed Museum and the project was also aiming for a September 2013 completion.”
The total value of construction contracts in the UAE went down 18 percent to Dh19.8bn in May 2010. Similarly, the total value of projects dropped by 10.51 per cent in the GCC states.
