-By Adam Figman

Interior architecture firm Wilson Associates has been selected to work on the design of 19 hotels to be built in Makkah, Saudia Arabia, as a part of the Makkah Development Authority’s plan to fully develop the city’s central region by the year 2020. The Jabal Omar Development Company (JODC) is heading the development, which will feature 26 hotels in total when completed.

Wilson Associates, a firm with offices in Dallas, New York, Los Angeles, Singapore, Abu Dhabi, and Shanghai, plans to incorporate the area’s cultural and historical traditions (with an added contemporary refinement) into the design. The project will take place over 2 million sq.-ft., including 25 towers, 17 grand lobbies, 40 food and beverage locations, and over 10,5000 rooms.  A circular road and large pedestrian walkways will connect the hotels for easy accessibility.

Project management company Abnia Consulting Engineers, hospitality consultant Equinox Hospitality Group, architecture firms Dar Al Handasah and OGER International, purchasing agent Benjamin West, and construction development companies Saudi Binladin and Saudi OGER are working with Wilson Associates on the project.

JODC has led a movement that has included rock cutting and the demolition and construction of roads, four bridges, and sanitation, electricity and communication networks in preparing for this development. It is expected to reach completion in the third quarter of 2011.

Makkah – the birthplace of Islam and Prophet Mohammed – gets 65,000 visitors to the city’s Grand Mosque daily.