Bank Street Apartments

Photographs by Darren Bradley (top) and Angie McMonigal (bottom)

Bank Street Apartments, Técnica y Proyectos S.A. (TYPSA), 1977

With its oil-export economy thriving in the 1970s and 1980s, Sharjah contracted British company Halcrow to lead an urban development plan that included revitalizing Bank Street to create the emirate’s first modern commercial thoroughfare. The Bank Street Apartments, designed by Técnica y Proyectos S.A. (TYPSA) in 1977, were initially met with mixed response; some viewed them as a celebration of modernity, while others saw them as an intrusion into the neighborhood. In 2015, the Maraya Art Centre, with the support of the Sharjah Investment and Development Authority, commissioned French Tunisian street artist eL Seed for the Calligraffiti Mural to rejuvenate the area, enhance tourism, and engage local youth. Today, the “Heart of Sharjah” project is working to protect and restore Sharjah’s original urban landscape from the 1950s.