Carillion JV awarded £570m Abu Dhabi contract
A JOINT venture featuring Black Country-based Carillion has secured a massive £570m contract to design and build a prestigious development in Abu Dhabi.
Mubadala Infrastructure, a business unit of Mubadala Development Company PJSC (Mubadala), has appointed Al Futtaim Carillion as the design and build contractor for New York University Abu Dhabi’s main campus on Saadiyat Island.
The Saadiyat Island campus will include extensive classrooms, library and information technology facilities, laboratories, student, faculty and staff housing, athletic and performance facilities, and is expected to have a student body upwards of 2,500.
Construction is expected to start in the third quarter of this year and be completed sometime during the first quarter of 2014.
The NYU Abu Dhabi campus on Saadiyat Island will be located in the new Cultural District, one of seven distinctive districts currently under development.
Rafael Viñoly Architects has been hired to oversee the master planning process, which will establish the physical and spatial framework for development of the campus.
Saadiyat Island is a large, low lying natural island 500 metres off the coast of Abu Dhabi island. To be completed in 2018, it is expected to become Abu Dhabi’s cultural centre.
It will eventually house around 150,000 residents and will be connected to Abu Dhabi via two ten-lane causeways.
Saadiyat Island will also be home to four museums, including the Louvre Abu Dhabi, the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, the Sheikh Zayed National Museum, and the Maritime Museum. It will also include a world-class performing arts centre.
The development is key to Abu Dhabi’s long-term strategy to develop a knowledge-based economy, reducing the area’s reliance on oil production.
Foundational work on the Louvre Abu Dhabi began in May last year, and the 260,000 sq ft museum is scheduled to open in 2013. The museum, designed by Jean Nouvel, will showcase art from around the world, with a focus on bridging the gap between Eastern and Western art.
Saadiyat Island will be home to the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi Museum dedicated to modern and contemporary art. The Frank Gehry-designed building is due for completion in 2013, and at 450,000 sq ft, will be the largest Guggenheim Museum in the world.
NYU Abu Dhabi, through its NYU Abu Dhabi Institute, is intended to become a world-class research centre with a primary focus on the arts, humanities, social sciences, sciences, engineering, and the professions.
Academics from around the world are expected to be attracted to the new facilities to carry out creative scholarship and conduct research on issues of major disciplinary, multidisciplinary, and global significance.
The Institute will also host academic conferences, workshops, lectures, film series, performances, and other public programs directed both to local audiences and the worldwide academic and research community.
