1The sale of Area No. 1 of the Central Business District in the public auction held in the Municipality on October 30 and 31, 1962, is a “feather in the cap” of the Municipal Council of Kuwait. The rush of the public to purchase newly planned land and their eager willingness to pay high prices (the highest paid during the auction mentioned above was KD 33.100) is the living proof of the soundness, practicality and beauty of the new type of planning introduced to the Kuwaiti urban scene since 1960.

2Area No. 1, bounded by Maari, Ali-El-Salem, Abdullah El-Salem, and Al-Khahlij Al-Arabi streets, is the second area of Kuwait’s (CBD) to be re-planned and sold by the popular vehicle or public auction. Area No. 3, popularly called the “Banking area” or precinct, was similarly sold over eighteen months ago, and construction there is proceeding rapidly at the fast clip at present time.

3The design of Area No. 3 is exquisite because it is rational and simple. It depends on spatial, 3-dimensional, or “sculpturesque” urban design—the like of which is not, to date, practiced in the Arab world, and in only a few unique cases in the rest of the world. The area, a typical “intersticine” area along the Sief waterfront and similar to many areas in many Arab city -was old, crowded, and obsolete by contemporary standards of the space operative, at present, in Kuwait. Its ownership pattern was crazy quilt-mosaic, with many small ownerships. Part of the area fronted “Sharia el-Jedid”, now Abdallah El-Salem street. The area contains two mosques, and three newly built buildings were considered obsolete and ripe for ripping down. The two mosques have been torn down. One the center of the composition and its focus, will be rebuilt, the other will remain as open space.

4The new design consists of "Kysariyah” type shopping bazar, a multi-story building three blocks of one-story shops fronting along Sharia-El-khaliq El-Arabi totaling eighteen shops and two blocks, one two stories high, the other three. All in all, the area will contain one hundred shops, car parks for 241 automobiles, covered pedestrian walks and possibly the multistorey building will be the hotel of the seven stories in height.

5The sale paid back to the Kuwait treasury KD, 605,042.800 on Tuesday, thirteen, and KD, 581,974.900 on Wednesday, the thirty-first of October 1962. The total KD, 1,185,617.700 is not an insignificant sum of money, attesting to the soundness of ‘both the planning and urban design of the area. The maximum figure fetched was KD. 33.100 per square foot the minimum KD 18.750.

6The average price fetched was thus, KD. 25.925 while the true mean average was KD. 23.636.

7To watch this drama of planning and land economics unsold conditions of extreme real-estate boom, is gratifying. One goes back to the hot and busy days of July and August of 1960 when ‘this type of planning was first proposed and fought for by the author and recapitulates what happened then in real-estate circles which expressed “fear” that the new type of planning was of dubious benefit, and to see the attitude today, confirms one in the belief that sound redevelopment is, also sound economics. The Municipal Council did a magnificent job fighting for new planning and H.H. the Emir, by sanctioning the new type of planning, helped set a new pattern and example to the metamorphosing Arab city.

8Soon to be sold is Area No. 2 facing Area No. 1 along Abdullah El-Salem street. After this, Area No. 9, or al-Mirgab (containing over 450 shops mostly of the "Kaysariyah" type) will be publicly auctioned. This means that, by the end of November, when the present Municipal Council's terminates, and a new Council will be elected, four critical CBD areas will have been acquired, demolished, re-planned, and sold. And, one of the areas is already under construction. This is no mean job to accomplish for any Council considering that a CBD planning has been but part of the total effort of this municipal Council that has held offer one hundred full sessions and several hundred committee sessions during its "work-packed" period of office.