Abbas Abad - Interesting Facts

Interesting Facts

Given that Abbas Abad was originally developed to house members of the military, some of the district's streets were named after high-ranking officials (retired or serving) of the time who had contributed to the planning and development of Abbas Abad.

In the mid-seventies and by the order of the government, a group of renowned planners and architects designed the multi-billion dollar Grand Abbas Abad Development Plan (to be called Shahestan-e Pahlavi - not unlike La Défense in Paris) to house embassies, government ministries, residential and commercial high rises over 550 hectares of open space (the first of its kind in the Middle East and the largest in Asia). The plan, however, never materialized due to a number of issues and events, most notably the Islamic revolution. The sole remnant of that mega-project is Jahan-e Koodak (now Haghani) highway, which was designed to function as its connecting road axis.

Another, more recent project that never materialized was by the Iranian Architect Farshid Moussavi, currently a Professor in Practice at Harvard's Graduate School of Design (Department of Architecture), who was commissioned to design a modern theater complex of 8 large-screen theaters for the district in 1997 (called The "Azadi Cineplex"), but its construction was not approved by the authorities of the Ministry of Culture.