I am thrilled that Suweifieh’s Brand Street (Share3 al Wakalat) is being turned into a pedestrian zone by the Amman municipality. Ugly signs are being removed from the building too, exposing the typical Ammani stone architecture which, for too long has been covered up by commercial junk.
Some people might see 3rd world charm in the signage junk. But I am happy that someone is finally doing something to counter that trend. Commercial signage junk is no replacement of well designed facades and good architecture.
This pedestrian street might become one of my favorite places in Amman. The paving already looks promising.
I am also looking forward to see the rehabilitated Rainbow street.
This summer, Amman will have two new urban experiences to offer its residents and visitors. Sure there will be debate and new issues arising from urban change. But a city with no problems is dead. The point is to manage the new emergent issues as fairly as possible.
Down! Not even the blonde girl will save this sign. Adidas Rules 
Another one bites the dust.
New paving being installed (nice bricks on sand, the way it’s supposed to be done)
Only the bolts remain as reminders of the signage junk.
Freed up from ugly signs, the stone architecture can breath again.
Evening strolls will be nice here, I think.
Brands stand out!
The Zara building is probably the coolest in the street.
Just the rusty bolt remain.
Brands on the ground floor. Building name on the upper floors. And that’s it.
Do I already see some pedestrians and bicycles here
Comments
17 responses to “Suwiefieh: Ugly signs down, pedestrian life in”
Although Sweifieh is not my favorite part of town, this looks quite promising. I guess they’re trying to create something like Taksim’s Istiqlal street (on a much smaller version)
Awesome. I hadn’t seen the street “In the process” yet and wow, what a change! 3o2bal share3 il gardens.
Dude, I’m really excited about this. I gotta go pee.
as for me i got disapointed when i was told that they are going to use interlock on Wakalat st.
they are so many other opiotns ather than the dull look of interlock pavemnets, they could’ve made the street more alive by using stamped concrete
anyway the whole wakalat and rainbow st. thing is great
yes indeed … finally, the GAM is WORKING 🙂
…
but well, taksim has a trolli lina, this wont
Hola Mr Ahmad,
isn’t it?
This is my first comment on your blog, and I hope it’s not my last. I am always reading whatever you have to write as I find your posts to be the best. Informative, intellectual, smart, bright, entertaining and somehow very cool. I wonder what happened with the Irish new energy corporation, It must be doing your head in
anyway, thank you very, very very much for the pictures, not only these but also the ones from all over amman and outside Jordan from your travels. You just know how to make blogs worth reading and following.
One last comment.. Ipods and the Iphone are not the best dude, I am not trying to contradict you, I am just pointing out to something I disagree with you in.
Have a nice day, you are indeed a person worth knowing!
It looked nice today, I was in starbucks, but isn’t it like a bad time of the year? the won’t finish it fast and tourists are just around the block.
Avery..
Thanks for your comment. Good to hear I have regular readers
It’s abit quiet on the Steorn front. But things will heat up in the summer it seems.
As for the iPhone. Well, I am really into my Nokia N95. The GPS functionality is great for travel. It is disappoiting the iPhone will not have this. But I am sure Apple will teach everyone a lesson when it comes to usability and interfaces.
Thanks again for reading and commenting. You made my day..
I wish we could be as half good as Taksim’s beautiful streets!
Anyway, I’m happy for this change – Going to be a blast to hang around there in the summer!
omar
Nice to hear that kind of news from Amman. We really need this kind of streets in our city,hope to see more and more in the future. I’m not 100% happy with the choice of pavement,maybe a “typical” jordanian pav (7ajar or something like that) could had been a better choice,anyway we will see the result soon. Do u know if there will be a lot of “green”? Hope so. Miss u Amman. Ta7iyatti to A7mad and all other “guests”. Ciao
Very nice .. but the guys here in Rainbow St. are very slow and I think it’ll take long time to be completed.. see this article:
http://cli-ck.blogspot.com/2007/05/they-started-renewing-rainbow-street.html
Let’s hope the street will be tree lined as well with simple lamp posts and a few decent retail outlets. It’s finally coming around.
I guess were lucky our offices are right next to Wakalat street
I hope they plan to add a good amount of greenery.
God, I wish we never moved from Wakalat. It was such a nice break from the long overtime hours to take a stroll down the street, and get a coffee or a nice ice cream cone. But I’m quite excited about Rainbow street, it’s going to look pretty nice. I read that they’re going to turn the Um Uthaina Souk into a pedestrian area as well, I hope that pans out soon. I think that having a nice water installment right across from Massimo Dutti and the eye wear shop would be really nice.
The GAM has already started laying out the new numbering system for buildings, so far, Wadi Sakra, Sweifieh, Madina Street and Jabal Amman are covered. However, I would like to see bigger street signs, because half of the time, I don’t know what are the street’s names. Also, it would be cool to give more reasonable names for the streets, like Hambra, Zahran, Wakalat and Rainbow. Because really, who could remember a street called: Al Mutasim street? It just doesn’t sound appealing, plus it’s not distinctive. I like the street names in Beirut, like Bliss Street, Spears Street, Gemayzé, Monot, Clemounsou Street and so forth.
So lets see its 2007, and now Amman wakes up the idea of walking streets. Back sometime in 1998, I remember asking Mamdoudh Abbadi, when they tore Hashmi, why they went to all the trouble of creating thruways passing through the city, when what the should have done was widen pavements.
His very callous and basic answer was that people could share the street with cars. I asked him if that fitted in with our tribal way of dealing with hit and runs, and he said take it or leave it.
Abbadi and others that followed him were more interested in having grandiose monuments… not architecture that people could use and benefit from on a daily basis, let alone thought inspiring and manic depression relieving urban planning. A downright shame.
What Amman still urgently needs is pavements that do have trees sticking out of them, and pavements that have been shrunk to 100 centimeters because some thought it would be a good idea to add a few extra meters of circumference to their property.
Stuff like Wakalat Street and elsewhere is excellent, but barely touches the tip of the iceberg when it comes to how ridiculous Amman is as “walking city” dare I say “pedestrian friendly” one.
I truly hope from the deep bottom of my broken heart that simpler projects crop up around in residential neighborhoods with the same theme of celebrating the simple things in life: a walk to appreciate the mostly beautiful weather we have and take the children to play.
Great commentary on Amman’s urban condition. I write for a Middle Eastern blog (greenprophet.com), and in an upcoming article I’ll be quoting you on Jordanian public transportation. I’m quite excited about the changes you’re documenting!
Thanks Daniella..