This was a collaborative competition entry with the master planners, Duany Plater-Zyberk. MPCA did all the attached drawings except the master plan itself. The city of Dammam foresees a new business district west of the existing city along the highway from Riyadh. The site is about a million square meters, or 250 acres. The program included office, retail, residential, hotels and institutional. The site required four sites for mosques. The competing teams were given a great deal of latitude on recommending a density suitable to the site and the market for such space. Thirty five percent of the site was to be set aside for circulation and open spaces. The total square meters of program ended up a little over two million square meters or about twenty two million square feet.

The densest part of the master plan is along two spines on the interior part of the site. Building heights and density feathered out gradually toward the edges of the site. Consequently, we organized

our efforts around block studies at three different densities. The lowest density blocks (FAR 2.5+/-) accommodate mid-block plazas, markets, and gardens. The mid-density blocks (FAR 5.0 +/-) accommodate residential courtyards one level above the street level retail, and small alleys of seven to ten meters. The densest blocks (FAR 7.5+/-) are driven by parking. They generally required wrapped parking plinths of five to ten levels. Aerials show how blocks of a given density cluster to give almost open ended variety.

One public space in the master plan was studied in greater detail in order to illustrate issues of scale and the integration of significant public or religious buildings into the adjacent streets and blocks. The easternmost public space of the master plan accommodates a small mosque. There is a series of spaces and terraces that lead up to the mosque from the west. The mosque sits in a courtyard a little above the street.