A new digital content series from Al-Futtaim Toyota explores this theme through a retrospective of the landmark known as the ‘Toyota Building’ on Sheikh Zayed Road.
Constructed in 1974, just three years after the foundation of the UAE, the two-bloc Nasser Rashid Lootah Building is one of Dubai’s first residential towers and now stands as a living time capsule bridging the old Dubai with the new.
Today surrounded by some of the city’s most recognisable modern landmarks, including the Burj Khalifa, the Emirates Towers, and the Museum of the Future, the ‘Toyota Building’ has been a constant presence for many who have called Dubai home for decades.
Ajith Menon, a Dubai resident since 1979, recalls fond memories: “Honestly speaking about the Toyota Building or Toyota itself, memories are always there in my mind. The Trade Centre would be the beginning, and this will be the first roundabout after the Trade Centre. And all we’d see was just the Toyota Building, which was standing up very tall, very high, completely obscuring everything else around it. And nobody would look at the things around it because that was the most prominent structure.”
In the days before GPS and Google Maps, it was landmarks in Dubai such as the World Trade Centre and the Toyota Building that people would use as navigation tools to find their way around, or to give directions to others.
Nawaz Khan, UAE resident since 1982, recalls those days well. “In 1994 I drove the taxi. The people, when they sit with us, if you don’t know the location, they give us the direction or they will give you any landmark. On Sheikh Zayed Road, if someone goes to Satwa, they say Toyota Building. After Toyota Building, they will tell you right and left.”
UAE national Hasan Salem Hasan Alshareef Al-Zaabi describes how catching sight of the Toyota sign atop the Nasser Rashid Lootah Building would signal your arrival to the city of Dubai when travelling from other emirates.
“We’ve known it since we were kids as the Toyota Building,” he recalls. “Now when I drive through with my kids, they know we’ve reached Dubai when they see Burj Khalifa. But I tell them when I was a kid, once we reached this sign and the building, the Toyota sign, that’s when we can tell we’ve reached Dubai. You would always see it so clear. We understand the value of this building, what that sign means. It’s an icon that won’t change.”
View the full video, here.
