Doha Bay

Doha Bay is the bay bordering Qatar's capital city of Doha. Doha was established on the south bank of the bay. Landfill has been used to extend and expand the city to the north around the edge of the bay. Doha Port, Corniche Street and the Doha Corniche, Al Bidda Park, Al Rumaila Park and Sheraton Park border the bay. Palm Tree Island is located in the center of the bay.

Sharq Crossing

In 2011, the Sharq Crossing project (formerly known as Doha Bay Crossing) was announced by the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Urban Planning. Overseen by Ashghal (Public Works Authority), the project plans to construct three interconnected bridges, designed by Santiago Calatrava, over a 10 km crossing connecting West Bay with Hamad International Airport. There will also be two tunnels below the bay. The purpose behind launching the Sharq Crossing programme was to accommodate the rising traffic in Doha and as a preparatory project for the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

In January, 2015 a delay in the $12 billion project was reported. The financial strain of low oil prices may be part of reason for the delay; meanwhile $140 billion is being allocated for other infrastructure ahead of the World Cup event.

Doha

Doha (Arabic: الدوحة‎, ad-Dawḥa or ad-Dōḥa, literally in MSA: "the big tree", locally: "rounded bays") is the capital city and most populous city of the State of Qatar. Doha has a population of 956,460 within the city proper. The city is located on the coast of the Persian Gulf in the east of the country. It is Qatar's fastest growing city, with over 40% of the nation's population living in Doha or its surrounding suburbs, and it is also the economic center of the country. It comprises one of the municipalities of Qatar.

Doha was founded in the 1820s as an offshoot of Al Bidda. It was officially declared as the country's capital in 1971, when Qatar gained independence. As the commercial capital of Qatar and one of the emergent financial centers in the Middle East, Doha is considered a world city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network. Doha accommodates Education City, an area devoted to research and education.

The city was host to the first ministerial-level meeting of the Doha Development Round of World Trade Organization negotiations. It was also selected as host city of a number of sporting events, including the 2006 Asian Games, the 2011 Pan Arab Games and most of the games at the 2011 AFC Asian Cup. In December 2011, the World Petroleum Council held the 20th World Petroleum Conference in Doha. Additionally, the city hosted the 2012 UNFCCC Climate Negotiations and is set to host a large number of the venues for the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

West Bay

There are a number of places, both bays and communities, in the world known as West Bay.

See also

Santiago Calatrava

Santiago Calatrava Valls (born 28 July 1951) is a Spanish neofuturistic architect, structural engineer, sculptor and painter. He has offices in New York City, Doha, and Zürich.

Early life and education

Calatrava was born in Benimàmet, an old municipality now integrated as an urban part of Valencia, Spain. His mother's family were of Jewish heritage, but had nominally converted during the Spanish Inquisition of the fifteenth century. "His Calatrava surname was an old aristocratic one from medieval times, and was once associated with an order of knights in Spain. Both sides of his family were involved in the agricultural export business. Members of his father's family suffered during the turmoil of the 1930s, when a bloody civil war resulted in a military dictatorship, and as a young man Calatrava was eager to leave behind the repressive atmosphere that endured."

He has received a degree in architecture at the Polytechnic University of Valencia. There he completed independent projects with fellow students, publishing two books on the vernacular architecture of Valencia and Ibiza. In 1975 he enrolled in the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich, Switzerland, for a second degree in civil engineering. In 1981, after receiving his doctorate in civil engineering for his thesis, "On the Foldability of Space Frames", he started his architecture and engineering practice.