When the Thunayan Al Ghanim Building was constructed back in 1954, it was considered to be one of the most advanced buildings in Kuwait at the time and one of the first to have an elevator. There are many stories on bedouins coming in from the desert to watch “the flying horse” that can go up and down. Back then the Thunayan Al Ghanim building housed the original KOC offices, the British Consulate, the first English bookshop in Kuwait, and later on the Rolls Royce dealership.
The building was originally designed to be 10 floors tall but during construction, the Kuwait City municipality changed the law and set that buildings in that area to be no higher than 4 floors since they wanted to spread out the city instead of having highrises with everyone located in a smaller area.
Below are some photos of the building from the 60s compared with photos taken last week.
Thanks Noura Anwar Al Ghanim!
11 replies on “Then & Now: Thunayan Al Ghanim Building”
Drop a pin please
Sheraton roundabout
An interesting bit of history. Please keep these coming.
Look at the number of ACs now! This is a huge problem as they emit gases that greatly affects our weather. Try going out of the urban area (No ACs) and you’ll immediately feel a significant difference in temperature (5-6 degrees less).
You can make a difference by not using an AC, you can live stream your endeavour and we will happily support you while sitting in our comfortably cooled homes. It’s 50 degrees, you need to decrease the temperature by 15 degrees to make it hospitable enough to consider not using an AC. All that talabat you people eat is clogging up brain cells I swear.
It’s an iconic landmark and should be preserved for as long as possible. I sure hope it does not go under a bulldozer anytime soon.
Love these history bombs Mark. Keep them coming whenever possible.
What’s in the building now?
offices
I don’t care about the Building look how beautiful the roundabout back in the day with all the grass and flowers
I see no difference.