World’s Tallest Tower: Burj Khalifa

[Spokes]

World’s Tallest Tower: Burj Khalifa
Dubai, United Arab Eremites
www.burjkhalifa.ae

828 metres

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/2/2f/Burj_Khalifa_building.jpg/250px-Burj_Khalifa_building.jpg (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burj_Khalifa)

[Spokes]

Dubai opens world’s tallest tower
January 4, 2010 | Adam Schreck | The Record | Link (http://news.therecord.com/article/650108)


http://media.therecord.topscms.com/images/e2/7b/db87e0f24500a80ce7b4aee68594.jpeg

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES — Dubai opened the world’s tallest skyscraper Monday, and in a surprise move renamed the gleaming glass-and-metal tower Burj Khalifa in a nod to the president of the UAE and leader of neighbouring Abu Dhabi — the oil-rich emirate which came to its rescue during the financial meltdown.

A multimedia presentation witnessed by Dubai’s ruler and thousands of onlookers at the base of the tower said the building was 828 metres tall.

Dubai opened the tower in the midst of a deep financial crisis. Abu Dhabi has pumped billions of dollars in bailout funds into the emirate as it struggles to pay its debts.

Sheik Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan is the ruler of Abu Dhabi and serves as the president of the United Arab Emirates, the federation of seven small emirates, including Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

Analysts have questioned what Dubai might need to offer in exchange for the financial support it has received from Abu Dhabi, which controls nearly all of the UAE’s oil wealth. Abu Dhabi provided direct and indirect injections totalling $25 billion last year as Dubai’s debt problems deepened.

Dubai’s ruler, Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, in recent months has increasingly underscored the close relationship between the two emirates. Sheik Mohammed serves as vice-president and prime minister of the federation.

The developer of the newly opened tower said it cost about $1.5 billion to build the tapering metal-and-glass spire billed as a “vertical city” of luxury apartments and offices. It boasts four swimming pools, a private library and a hotel designed by Giorgio Armani.

The Burj’s developers say they are confident in the safety of the tower, which is more than twice the height of New York’s Empire State Building’s roof.

Greg Sang, Emaar’s director of projects, said the Burj has “refuge floors” at 25- to 30-storey intervals that are more fire-resistant and have separate air supplies in case of emergency. And its reinforced concrete structure, he said, makes it stronger than steel-frame skyscrapers.

“It’s a lot more robust,” he said. “A plane won’t be able to slice through the Burj like it did through the steel columns of the World Trade Center.”

Dubai was little more than a sleepy fishing village a generation ago but it boomed into the Middle East’s commercial hub over the past two decades on the back of business-friendly trading policies, relative security, and vast amounts of overseas investment.

Then property prices in parts of Dubai collapsed by nearly half over the past year. Now Dubai is mired in debt and many buildings sit largely empty — the result of overbuilding during a property bubble that has since burst.

Despite the past year of hardships, the tower’s developer and other officials were in a festive mood, trying to bring the world’s focus on Dubai’s future potential rather than past mistakes.

“Crises come and go. And cities move on,” Mohammed Alabbar, chair of the tower’s developer Emaar Properties, told reporters before the inauguration. “You have to move on. Because if you stop taking decisions, you stop growing.”

Dubai, which has little oil of its own, relied on cheap loans to pump up its international clout during the frenzied boom years.

But like many overextended homeowners, the emirate and its state-backed companies borrowed too heavily and then struggled to keep up with payments as the financial crisis intensified and credit markets froze up.

Meanwhile, speculators who had fuelled Dubai’s property bubble disappeared along with the easy money, revealing a glut of brand-new but empty homes and crippling many of the emirate’s property developers

Dubai shocked global markets late last year when it unexpectedly announced plans to reorganize its main state-run conglomerate Dubai World and sought new terms in repaying some $26 billion in debt.

The building boasts the most storeys and highest occupied floor of any building in the world, and ranks as the world’s tallest structure, beating out a television mast in North Dakota.

“We weren’t sure how high we could go,” said Bill Baker, the building’s structural engineer, who is in Dubai for the inauguration. “It was kind of an exploration ... A learning experience”

Baker, of Chicago-based architecture and engineering firm Skidmore, Owings&Merrill, said early designs for the Burj had it edging out the world’s previous record-holder, the Taipei 101, by about 10 metres. The Taiwan tower rises 508 metres.

Work on Burj Dubai began in 2004 and moved ahead rapidly. At times, new floors were being added almost every three days, reflecting Dubai’s raging push to reshape itself into a cosmopolitan urban giant packed with skyscrapers.

During the busiest construction periods, some 12,000 workers laboured at the tower each day, according to Emaar. Low-wage migrant workers from the Indian subcontinent provided much of the muscle for the Burj and many of Dubai’s other building projects.

At their peak, some apartments in the Burj were selling for more than $1,900 per square foot, though they now can go for less than half that, said Heather Amiji, chief executive of Dubai real estate consultancy Investment Boutique.

She said some buyers may struggle to find tenants at going rates once the tower’s expected high service charges are factored in.

“The investment community is quite divided,” she said. “They’re not sure how it’s going to play out.”

That's one tall building!

I'll take some more 20 floor buildings in Waterloo Region first though!

[Spokes]

A funny post over at Urban Toronto about how this would look if it replaced the CN Tower. Some great pictures.

http://urbantoronto.ca/showthread.php?t=11036

[1231]

That's one beautiful building IMO :)

[UrbanWaterloo]

French “Spiderman” to climb world’s tallest building for Education Without Borders 2011
March 24, 2011 | Higher Colleges of Technology | Link (http://www.hct.ac.ae/news/aspx/ViewDetails.aspx?newsid=685)

http://www.hct.ac.ae/images/newsImages/11111112437110537img2.jpg
The "French Spider Man" Alain Robert at a press conference to announce his planned ascent of
the Burj Khalifa during the EWB Opening Ceremony on March 28.

The internationally famous solo rock and sky scraper climber, dubbed “The French Spiderman”, will create history next week during the Education Without Borders 2011 (EWB 2011) international student conference when he climbs the world’s tallest building – the Burj Khalifa.

Alain Robert, 48, who has been climbing since his teenage years has scaled more than 100 of the world’s tallest buildings including the second to fifth highest structures, often without the aid of safety harnesses, will scale the exterior of the Burj Khalifa as part of EWB 2011, which is hosted by the Higher Colleges of Technology and runs from March 28-31 in Dubai.

M. Robert has been given approval to climb the Burj Khalifa early next week and in doing so he will reacquaint himself with the EWB conferences. As part of the 2003 EWB conference Robert climbed the 173-metre National Bank of Abu Dhabi building, watched by almost 100,000 spectators.

That was his first climbing foray with the EWB conferences, returning for 2005 event where he climbed the 160-metre Etisalat building in Abu Dhabi. For the 2007 EWB he climbed the 185-metre ADIA building, also in Abu Dhabi.

Robert has climbed the Eiffel Tower, Paris; the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; the Sydney Opera House, Australia; the Sears Tower, Chicago and the 88-storey Jin Mao Building in Shanghai, China (wearing a Spider Man suit) to name a few buildings during his climbing career.

For his Burj Khalifa climb he said he would use a rope and harness, as opposed to his preferred method of just his bare hands and sturdy footing. Although M. Robert suffers from vertigo, sustained through climbing falls, his true passion remains in climbing and he sees the Burj Khalifa as the ultimate urban challenge in his career to date. He is also an accomplished motivational speaker, proving that will power can conquer many setbacks and restrictions.

“We set ourselves limits, but we are all strong enough to aim higher, to achieve our goals. All we have to do is find such strength within ourselves and know how to develop it,” he said.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Tayeb Kamali, Vice Chancellor, Higher Colleges of Technology and Chairman of the EWB Conference, said Alain Robert was the embodiment of the EWB philosophy.

“Alain Robert is a firm believer of using inner strength and determination to achieve goals in life, which is strongly reflected in the philosophy of Education Without Borders – it allows students to find their inner strength and passion to voice their ideas about finding solutions to some of the world’s most pressing issues,” Dr Kamali said.

“Alain has been a guest of the Higher Colleges of Technology at EWB conferences before and we always welcome him back, especially now with such a huge challenge before him in the Burj Khalifa. I am sure he will be an inspiration to everyone at EWB 2011.

“His climb will be a wonderful and memorable way to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Education Without Borders,” Dr Kamali said.

The Burj Khalifa will be the backdrop to the EWB 2011’s opening ceremony held in the Burj Island Park on March 28. The conference is held under the patronage of the President of the UAE, H.H. Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahayan.

For this unique four-day conference, nearly 4000 students representing 129 nationalities competed to participate. More than 700 conference papers were submitted addressing the conference theme “Innovative Solutions to Global Challenges: Diverse Perspectives, Unified Action”.

The conference also brings together accomplished world leaders as well as rising stars from the fields of business, government, sports, science, culture, media and the like to mentor and inspire these young students. The mentors include The Right Honorable Tony Blair, Quartet Representative to the Middle East & Patron of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation, Dr. Mark Plotkin, President, Amazon Conservation Team, CNN Hero Evan Wadongo, Yolande Kakabadse, President, WWF International, and young writer and speaker Adora Svitak, among others.

An associated event, the EWB World Forum, will be convened at the Armani Hotel, Burj Khalifa in Dubai on the second day of the conference, where Heads of State, business executives, and other influential thought leaders from around the world will meet to discuss the impact of globalization on education and capacity development.

Dr Tayeb Kamali said the biennial conference had grown rapidly since its inception in 2001.

“This is, indeed, a great moment. As we celebrate the 10th anniversary, it is opportune to recognize that the conference has grown exponentially in the number of students, speakers and mentors to become one of the world’s foremost student-organized forums – an event where students from around the world, and from different backgrounds, join as one voice to pursue Innovative Solutions to Global Challenges,” Dr Kamali said.

“Given that it is a student organized event, it is not hard to understand that EWB has grown so rapidly from a small number of students in 2001 to this year’s event, where we will host more than 1000 students from 130 nations and 300 universities during the next few days. There are 36 members of the World Student Organizing Committee (WSOC), which is the largest in the history of EWB and is indicative of how much the conference has grown.”

The EWB conference, which started in 2001, is unique in that it is designed by students for students with the objective to create networks across cultures so that they may understand, and generate solutions for, some of the world's greatest challenges. This is achieved by engaging the world's most innovative students and leaders in the business, technology, education, and humanitarian sectors in a collaborative forum that culminates in a commitment to action.

Visit www.ewb.hct.ac.ae