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"In Casablanca, one can still feel like an explorer. Often overlooked by tourists despite being Morocco\u2019s most populous city, it is a place of surprises that rewards wandering\u2014and even getting lost. Its leafy boulevards are lined with ornate colonial-era buildings, and its flea markets are filled with treasures plucked from old villas. \u201CCasablanca was the most creative of all the cities of France\u2019s empire,\u201D notes eminent historian Jean-Louis Cohen, coauthor of the book Casablanca: Colonial Myths and Architectural Ventures. \u201CIt\u2019s laid out according to an imaginative plan, with beautiful parks and striking architecture, from late Art Nouveau and Art Deco to radically modern.\u201D\n\nAnd slowly, many of these once-neglected confections are being reclaimed and refurbished. The landmark 1934 Shell building, on the central boulevard Mohammed V, has been converted into the sleek Imperial Casablanca Hotel &amp;amp; Spa. Historic villas are being reborn as galleries and restaurants, and a restoration of the old medina has begun. Casam\u00E9moire, Morocco\u2019s main preservation organization, which leads architectural tours, is spearheading efforts to have parts of Casablanca designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.\n\nPinterestFacebookOne of the many beach clubs on the Corniche.Photo: Tuul and Bruno Morandi\n\nBut Morocco\u2019s economic capital is also very much of the present, with the future squarely in its sights. A $730 million overhaul of the old port, which also involves the creation of a 2.3-mile tourist path connecting many of the city\u2019s major buildings, will be finished by 2020. Along the Corniche\u2014the beach promenade\u2014the 1993 Hassan II Mosque, designed by French architect Michel Pinseau, stands as a breathtaking beacon. Gleaming shopping centers and luxury condos are springing up everywhere, including on the site of the airport depicted in the film Casablanca. (Though the Bogart-Bergman classic was shot on Hollywood backlots, its noirish romance does linger in certain quarters here.) Given the coastal setting, the influx of glittering towers raises the question, Could this be a new Miami with a Moroccan twist?\n\nPinterestFacebookA guest room at the H\u00F4tel &amp;amp; Spa Le Doge, a converted Art Deco mansion.Photo: Ingrid Pullar\n\n\u201CThis city is one of those rare jewels, a place with endless interwoven layers,\u201D says London-born, Casablanca-based writer Tahir Shah over a meal at Relais de Paris, celebrated for its classic European cuisine. \u201CThere\u2019s been a huge push by His Majesty King Mohammed VI to make it a real cultural and economic destination.\u201D Indeed, the fall 2015 opening of the Four Seasons Hotel Casablanca, set in the multiuse Norman Foster\u2013designed Anfa Place, is another sign of the city\u2019s rising profile and its rapidly improving hotel options. The Imperial debuted in 2013, joining the fantastical H\u00F4tel &amp;amp; Spa Le Doge, a six-year-old boutique property in a restored villa. And the Lincoln, a 1917 Moorish-Deco landmark that had long been empty and crumbling, is being rebuilt as a five-star property.\n\nJust down the Corniche from the Four Seasons is the seafood restaurant Cabestan Ocean View, a standby from 1927 that\u2019s a favorite of both American garden designer Madison Cox, who lives in Tangier, and Paris-based actor Gad Elmaleh, who grew up in Casablanca. In\u00AD-siders here generally suggest going to this kind of tried-and-true place. Art-book publisher Malika Slaoui, for example, recommends Sqala Caf\u00E9 Maure, offering tagines and grillades in a renovated fortress, and the old-school French spot Le Rouget de l\u2019Isle.\n\nPinterestFacebookCourtyard dining at the Sqala Caf\u00E9 Maure restaurant.Photo: Patrick Forget/sagaphoto.com/Alamy\n\nYet some new arrivals are also winning a devoted following. One of Cabestan\u2019s owners, Nicolas Perez, opened the neighboring Umayya Restaurant Oriental in November, serving Moroccan, Iranian, and Lebanese dishes. And according to Elmaleh, the current It place is Iloli, a Japanese restaurant with French and Moroccan influences.\n\nIf Casablanca has a center, it might be the March\u00E9 Central, the outdoor market in the heart of the Art Deco district. Here, antiques dealers jostle with food stalls, among the latter Chez Malika and Chez Zoubida, both favored by Elmaleh for their fresh crab and Oualidia oysters. Shah always heads for the antiques shop Mon Grenier, which owner Abdellatif Bellamine keeps piled high with offbeat finds. For vintage pieces, Shah also likes to trawl the retro-furniture stands at Soco de Moina, the flea market in the city\u2019s Hay Hassani neighborhood.\n\nPinterestFacebookSpices for sale at the colorful March\u00E9 Central outdoor bazaar.Photo: Dario Endara\n\nLa Galerie de l\u2019Aimance, meanwhile, is a chic new store in the old medina. \u201CIt carries beautiful clothing and jewelry, as well as linens and decorative goods inspired by Moroccan arts and crafts,\u201D Elmaleh says. Elsewhere in the city, Fenyadi is another top pick for high-end artisanal wares, from ceramics to metalwork, while Cox shops La Maison de Blanc for luxurious linens. \u201CThey\u2019ve been selling to the Royal Palace since the 1950s,\u201D he notes. At Oasis Art Deco, owner Reda Mohammed Sabah carves exquisite wood designs, which he ships worldwide.\n\nPinterestFacebookA typical Art Deco fa\u00E7ade, on a residential building in the Mers Sultan neighborhood.Photo: Tuul and Bruno Morandi\n\nAnyone interested in Moroccan craft and design should also visit the Mus\u00E9e de la Fondation Abderrahman Slaoui, which features everything from 19th-century gold jewelry to vintage travel posters. Opened in 2012, the museum is part of a thriving arts scene that includes La Fabrique Culturelle des Anciens Abattoirs de Casablanca, a slaughterhouse turned cultural center, and Galerie Shart, which specializes in rising Moroccan talent. The city\u2019s contemporary-arts center, Villa des Arts, is set in a majestic 1930s mansion renovated by architect and Casam\u00E9moire president Rachid Andaloussi\u2014a quintessential project for a man who has both the past and the future on his mind. Over coffee at the popular Paul caf\u00E9, in the airy 1947 Villa Zevaco, Andaloussi describes plans to rescue more buildings. \u201CThere are many efforts to develop tourism in the city,\u201D he says. \u201CBut it\u2019s just as important to emphasize our heritage. Casablanca tells the story of modernity.\u201D"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/where-to-visit-in-casablanca>