As the centerpiece of the Shams complex, located on man-made Reem Island along the coast of Abu Dhabi, the Gateway Towers are one of the emirate's architectural icons. Consisting of three 64-story towers linked by a two-story skybridge "hat," the $1.1-billion Gateway Towers, also known as The Gate, required complex engineering as well as the coordination of a massive workforce to meet its budget and fast-track deadline.
The project's international team established, early on, that they would not compromise standards to meet the schedule. "The owner and the rest of the team were very open to doing things a new way," says David Rupp, project director with Marlton, N.J.-based Hill International. "It was not the way things are done here, with lots of bureaucracy."