Palm Jumeirah

The Palm Jumeirah is an artificial archipelago created using land reclamation.The result

of five years of planning and land reclamation, The Palm, Jumeirah lies just off Dubai's coastline. It forms part of The Palm Islands, along with The Palm, Jebel Ali and The Palm, Deira, the world's three largest manmade islands.The Palm, Jumeirah measures 5km, has created 560ha of land and has added 78.6km to the country's 72km coastline.It became home to 32 five-star beachfront hotels with 25,000 guests, 20,000 day visitors and about 60,000 residents in apartments and villas. Its population has five beach resorts, four marinas, a monorail and thousands of metres of retail and commercial units at their disposal. The first phase of 4,000 villas was completed for occupation at the end of 2006 (sold out within 72 hours of release).

Pre-construction tests
Hill International and the US architectural firm Helman Hurley Charvat Peacock (HHCP) was consulted. Years of research, trials, surveys and environmental assessments were carried out to form the backbone of the project. These included a survey by Dubai-based Emirates Nortech to check the shape and volume of the island above and below the waterline. Aims
The initial aims of the project were to: 1) Achieve pioneer status worldwide and improve Dubais international standing 2) Initiate and promote a tourism based local economy 3) Build new coastal areas as Dubai had already maximized the use of its current shoreline .

Key Strategies:
The project was divided into three main phases: 1) Identification of goals 2) Project design 3) Project implementation a. Reclamation of land b. Building infrastructure c. Building development The most important objective of the project was to complete the construction of the island (reclamation of land) as soon as possible so as to achieve pioneer status and fame.

Evaluation of project
In view of its initial aims and objectives the Palm Jumeirah project has achieved both successes and failures.

Successes: The land reclamation phase was completed 4 months prior to deadline and established new records in terms of size and volume. Meanwhile the land usage and housing developments sold out within days and was the target of much international attention and speculation. The global interest and demand for the Palm Jumeirah led to the development and construction of two larger islands off the coast of Dubai which started in 2004. As a result, the initial aims of achieving pioneer status while sparking foreign interest in the tourism and urban development industry in Dubai was clearly attained. Negative aspects: On the other hand, revisions of the plan and design of the building development caused many hotels, infrastructures and facilities to be completed behind schedule, some more than 2 years after. The Palm now comprises over 8000 housing units, twice the original number and costs overran to approximately $12.3bn. Conclusions The Palm Jumeirah successfully achieved its main objectives, which were to improve Dubais international standing and open its economy to foreign investment and luxury tourism. The interest and demand for the Palm was such that Nakheel soon launched two bigger artificial islands projects: Palm Jebel Ali and Palm Deira.