SEPTEMBER 2015 \ BUILDING DIALOGUE \
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B
rent Lloyd’s first tour of the Abu Dhabi park-
land that would be transformed into Mushrif
Central Park over the next eight years, trig-
gered an unusual exercise. “We traveled to
the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for a walkthrough
and they vacated the park to allow our all-male team
to spend time there,” shares Lloyd, principal of Den-
ver-based ValleyCrest Design Group. “At the time, it was
a destination for women and children only.”
That was merely the beginning of Lloyd’s discovery
of Middle Eastern culture. As a park designer, a number
of elements in the aging Ladies and Children’s Garden
puzzled him.
“The site was surrounded by walls so high you couldn’t
tell what was inside. The majority of the park’s surfaces were hardscape,
and the benches were sitting in full sun with no consideration for shade
in a climate that can reach up to 115 degrees,” he recalls. “There were also
huge fountains everywhere, none of which were working.”
“When my client, Al Ain Properties, asked, ‘What do you think of my
park?’” he adds, “I said, ‘I love the location and the existing trees, but ev-
erything else has to go.’”
Lloyd’s planning and landscape architecture firm came back with a
rough proposal outlining what the park could be, ultimately landing the
$48.7 million project in the 2008 to develop a new master plan, multiple
facilities and a more modern design aesthetic for one of the oldest and
largest parks in the Emirates. His team’s effort to create a community
amenity – a park for the people – would also be the first in the UAE to
fully demonstrate environmental sustainability.
“Because of the importance of family in their culture, and their more
European approach to using parks, we encouraged them to open up ac-
cess to the whole family,” Lloyd explains. “They like to stroll the park in
the evening together, so everything is lit up and open for business as late
as midnight.”
He adds, “This was fascinating to me, and it really impacted our design.
In the U.S., we’re campers. We set everything up in one place, then stay
put. In their culture, they’re strollers, so the park had to be designed with
that in mind.”
Integrating the Architecture
In 2009, as various elements of the 40-acre park developed, Lloyd
began to assemble his team starting with Denver-based Semple Brown
Principal Thomas Gallagher, who was tasked with refining the vision
Cynthia
Kemper
Principal,
Marketek-
ture
