DUBAI, United Arab Emirates: For more than 50 years, Dubai’s Toyota Building has stood beside one of the emirate’s busiest roads, watching the city’s skyline rise around it. Now, the landmark is approaching its final chapter, with demolition planned for 2027.
Officially known as the Nasser Rashid Lootah Building, the 15-story residential tower was completed in 1974, only a few years after the formation of the UAE.
At about 65 meters tall, it was among the early buildings to define the stretch of what is now Sheikh Zayed Road, at a time when Dubai looked dramatically different from the high-rise city known today.
For many residents, however, the building became memorable for something much more visible than its architecture: a large red Toyota sign on its roof.
The rooftop Toyota sign was installed in 1981 and quickly became a familiar reference point for people traveling along Sheikh Zayed Road.
For nearly four decades, the illuminated sign was part of Dubai’s nighttime skyline before being removed in 2018 after its advertising agreement ended.
The sign’s disappearance prompted a wave of nostalgia among residents who had associated it with the city for years. It was eventually restored in 2022, bringing a familiar piece of Dubai’s past back into view.
That return proved how strongly the building had become embedded in the memories of people who lived, worked and traveled through the city.
From early Dubai to the modern skyline
The building’s history mirrors Dubai’s transformation.
Archival photographs from the late 1970s and 1980s show the tower standing amid relatively sparse development along the road. Over the following decades, roads expanded, interchanges were rebuilt and towers began filling the horizon.
By the 2000s, the Toyota Building was surrounded by a rapidly changing urban landscape.
The construction of Dubai Metro and the emergence of the Downtown Dubai skyline added another layer to the view. The Burj Khalifa eventually rose behind the older tower, creating a striking contrast between two eras of the emirate’s development.
Today, the building sits amid one of the world’s most recognizable urban skylines, making its relatively modest form an increasingly unusual reminder of an earlier Dubai.
A home for generations of residents
The Toyota Building was not simply a landmark seen from the road. It has been a home to residents from different backgrounds throughout its history.
The tower has contained one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments, with generations of residents experiencing Dubai from an address that became familiar to motorists across the emirate.
For many expatriates, older residential buildings such as this one are closely connected to their first years in the UAE, from finding an affordable home and commuting along Sheikh Zayed Road to watching familiar neighborhoods change around them.
That makes the building’s impending disappearance significant beyond its physical presence.
Final months for the landmark
The building has also faced a more recent change in its residential life.
Management has been moving residents out following concerns over overcrowding and illegally partitioned apartments. Authorities have previously warned that unauthorized partitions can create safety risks, particularly during fires and other emergencies.
By August 2026, a substantial portion of the building had been vacated. Some residents with valid rental arrangements are understood to be able to remain until December.
The planned demolition will bring that process to an end and clear the site for whatever comes next.
A landmark preserved in memories
Dubai has rebuilt and replaced many of the physical markers of its early growth. Roads, interchanges, neighborhoods and towers have changed as the emirate has expanded.
The Toyota Building, however, occupies a particular place in the memories of people who watched that transformation from inside the city.
For older UAE residents and long-time expatriates, its red sign was once a familiar sight on the drive home. For newer residents, it became a piece of Dubai history surrounded by skyscrapers that seemed to grow taller every year.
The building is expected to disappear in 2027, but photographs from the 1970s through today document how dramatically the city changed around it.
And when the Toyota Building is finally gone, one of the most recognizable reminders of Dubai’s early skyline will live on not in concrete and steel, but in the memories of the people who knew it.
