One Gulf City Preserves Streets After Others Bulldozed Old Buildings
Dubai, Kuwait and Riyadh turned away from the past to make way for modern skyscrapers, but UAE’s Sharjah takes a different tack.
Early 19th century buildings made of bricks hewed from coral in the historic district of the United Arab Emirates’ Sharjah.
Photographer: Christophe Viseux/NYT/Redux
After the discovery of oil in the late 1930s, Riyadh and Kuwait City moved fast and broke things. Rows of concrete-and-glass buildings rose out of the desert, replacing traditional mud-brick architecture and suggesting a Middle Eastern twist on Las Vegas. Dubai followed the same model after its own oil discoveries in the ’60s.
Like the mayors of US cities in the era of urban renewal, the Gulf rulers demolished historic architecture and left little room for the kinds of parks and walkways that elevate city life. In search of the global future, they obliterated the local past.