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Before Dubai: the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation and Iranian tourism development, 1967–1969

ABSTRACT This essay examines the transcultural vision of Neezam Amery and William Wesley Peters (of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation) in conceptualising touristscapes for Minoo and Kish Islands. It emphasises the hybrid approach of the architects in appealing at one and the same time to Arab and Western tourists, the staggering environmental costs of such an undertaking, and the role that contemporary tourism in Beirut played in shaping their vision for a new centre of tourism closer to the Arabian Peninsula. While the essay makes no attempt to link plans for the Iranian periphery to Dubai, it does suggest that similar models – in their appeal to multiple audiences, as well as their position at the crossroads of continental convergence between Africa, Asia, and the Middle East – capitalised on then circulating ideas of a long-term strategic vision to reorient the economic and cultural landscapes of the twenty-first century Persian Gulf.