Mushrif Central Park: a place to connect in Abu Dhabi

What difference can seven years of planning and design, three years of construction and Dh179 million make?

Visitors will be able to judge for themselves today when the new Mushrif Central Park finally opens to the public.

“I’ve been working on this since 2008, from the initial planning, and here we are seven years later about to open,” explains ValleyCrest’s Brent Lloyd, the Denver-based landscape architect who has overseen the team behind the park’s design. “That’s fantastic to see.”

The product of an international team of contractors, architects, engineers, botanical consultants and the locally based developer Al Ain Properties, the 14-hectare park replaces the old, women-and-children-only park that was first built at the junction of Al Karamah (24th) and Mohammed bin Khalifa (15th) streets in 1982.

Walled, gated and entirely closed to men, the original Mushrif Park was a very different kind of space from the one that will greet visitors this afternoon.

“When I came in the first time, if it wasn’t turf grass, it was probably a pathway or a water feature,” Lloyd explains, describing an early site visit. “There were three really major water features that might have been 70 or 80 metres across.”

These have now been replaced by a park that has been designed to provide as many opportunities for play, entertainment, education and relaxation as possible, in what promises to be one of Abu Dhabi’s most refined open spaces.

Original article by Nick Leech

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Mushrif Central Park: a place to connect in Abu Dhabi