One Za’abeel

Even in a city with no shortage of gravity- (and logic-) defying skyscrapers, the new One Za’abeel development by Japanese firm Nikken Sekkei is a head turner. The complex’s dual towers rise from either side of a busy highway, and are bridged improbably by a horizontal structure hovering 300 feet in the air that’s nearly as long as the buildings are high. This three-story cantilever, which overtook Marina Bay Sands in Singapore as the world’s longest, is simply called The Link, and does just that, stretching across the road far below to connect two of Dubai’s splashiest new hotel openings this year: One&Only’s first urban resort, a sumptuous sanctuary offering a fresh vantage point overlooking the Burj Khalifa, and SIRO, a brand-new fitness-themed brand. Inside, the Link doubles as a glassed-in boulevard lined with a dizzying array of restaurants and bars flowing into each other, many of them helmed by Michelin-anointed chefs: stroll through Arrazuna, a sprawling Turkish food hall by Mehmet Gurs; an outpost of Anne-Sophie Pic’s La Dame de Pic; Tetsuya Wakuda’s modern Japanese Sagetsu; Spanish gastronomical maestro Pablo Morales’ Qabu; and DuangDy, from Bo Songvisava and Dylan Jones, the husband-and-wife duo behind Bangkok’s Bo.Lan. But the crown jewel presiding over it all is Tapasake, which spans the length of the Link on its rooftop. There, in the shadow of both towers, looms a sexy pool club where Nikkei cuisine is served alongside the longest suspended infinity pool in the UAE.

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