Tuesday, April 27, 2010

WOMAD Abu Dhabi 2010

Saturday evening we traveled down to the Corniche for WOMAD (World of Music Arts and DanceAbu Dhabi 2010 featuring artists from around the world performing and people from all over the world in attendance.













Tuesday, April 20, 2010

CITYSCAPE Abu Dhabi 2010

 The agency / company that Brian works for, the Abu Dhabi Urban Planning Council developed a "booth" for Abu Dhabi Cityscape. Yes, a booth that was designed for 3 days and cost $5 million! 



Related article out of Abu Dhabi's The National Newspaper:


Capital offers a model that stands out

Brad Reagan
In a region that at times seems obsessed with being the biggest and the best in all things property related, we can now claim one more trophy: the most enormous city model.


Well, perhaps.


The Abu Dhabi city model, which measures 23 metres by 17 metres and is on a scale of 1:2000, is a block-by-block, superproject-by-superproject rendering of what the city will look like, according to the city’s 2030 plan. “Other cities have them but I don’t think there has been one done on this scale,” said Michael White, the senior planning manager with the Abu Dhabi Urban Planning Council.


Mr White was sitting on the second floor of the exhibit where a balcony offered a bird’s-eye view of the exhibit, which is arguably most impressive when various projects are lit up as a five-minute movie tells of the city’s master plan.


A collection of black and white photographs along the wall showing Abu Dhabi in past years served to highlight the grandeur of the futuristic landscape below.


The idea for the model was to provide to developers and potential property buyers a view of the scores of projects under way in the context of the larger city.


“We wanted to show the whole picture at once,” Mr White said. “You start to see some of the issues that will develop. ‘How close is this to shopping? Where will I go to watch a football game?’” The task of building the model fell to Pipers, a London-based architectural modelling firm. The firm maintains its only foreign office in Abu Dhabi.


Pipers spent the better part of a year building a puzzle of 262 separate sections that were eventually fitted together to form the complete model. The hardest part was tracking down each of the developers active in the city and obtaining the necessary information to incorporate into the design, said Matthew Quinn, the Middle East partner for Pipers.


The mandate was never to create the biggest model; just to build it to a scale that captured the size and complexity of the city, he said.


As to whether the model is actually the world’s biggest, he laughed and said, “It is a little difficult to know that.” Mr White said the model will be dismantled after Cityscape but will be kept on hand, as a resource for developers and the general public and would be updated.

Our Map!- UPDATED 5-24

We have started a google map of all of the locations in Abu Dhabi where we have been or of interest to us! We will be adding more pins as we go along!


View Pitts Abu Dhabi in a larger map


View Pitts Abu Dhabi in a larger map

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Our Flight!






What a beautiful airline. We are officially spoiled! Flat bed seats that massage, champagne, plush pillows and blankets, hot towels, gift bags, tv with movies & tv shows and fine dining.

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Closing one life to start a new in under 4 weeks



In the 4 weeks since we signed the job offer and made the decision to move half way around the world to Abu Dhabi, UAE, we have been very busy closing down one life to begin another. Here's a condensed down version of what we've done to prepare for the big move.

1. We got married.
2. Drove to Ankeny, IA for Easter weekend.
3. Sold 3 cars... Land Rover, Porsche, BMW.
4. Signed a sales contract for our Union Hill property.
5. Re-signed a lease and signed a sub-lease for our 909 Walnut property.
6. Jessica sold a client a condo and leased a client an apartment.
7. Brian signed 3 new contracts for Development Initiatives.
8. Closed down our businesses with Development Initiatives and Chartwell Realty.
9. Resigned from 4 non-profit Board of Directors.
10. Hosted a fundraiser for the American Planning Association.
11. Attended 2 Bon Voyage parties...and said good bye to 350 of our closest friends and family.
12. Arranged for door to door relocation for our pets.
13. Put our home condo on the market and prepared the Team for marketing and house sitting.
14. Arranged for automatic payment of bills, canceled accounts, forwarded mail, and set-up paperless statements.
15. Researched and prepared for our arrival in our new home City.

In short, we've been extremely busy and have to pay special thanks to those family and friends that have loved and supported us during this time.