[bootlegga]

Quote:

A new building soon to be under construction in Saudi Arabia will bump the world's current tallest structure from its sky-high first place status. The futuristic mega-skyscraper known as the Kingdom Tower will be built in Jeddah, a cosmopolitan, commercially-minded port city on the Red Sea. The challenger for the world's tallest building title intends to surpass its closest competition — Dubai's Burj Khalifa — by at least 568 feet.

The Burj Khalifa, completed in 2010, measures a soaring 2,717 feet, but the Kingdom Tower will stand at least 3,281 feet tall, according to Adrian Smith and Gordon Gill — the Chicago-based team that dreamed up the design. Earlier plans for the record-breaking structure put the tower at mile high, but were abandoned due to concerns that arose in soil testing for the site. The triangular structure will be the focal point of Kingdom City, a sprawling urban development that will cost a reported $20 billion.

Kingdom Tower will house a Four Seasons hotel, upscale office space, ultra-luxurious condos (of course), and the world's soon-to-be tallest observatory. Residents will be able to take a trip up on one of the building's 59 elevators, which travel at over 33 feet per second (22 miles per hour), and enjoy the private sky terrace on the 157th floor.

According to its creators, the monolithic skyscraper will serve as a dual symbol for the city of Jeddah— both cultural and religious. Jeddah is often considered the "gateway to Mecca" due to its proximity to the Islamic holy city, and the Kingdom Tower monument will represent both Jeddah's historic symbolism in Islam as well as Saudi Arabia's prominence in international business.

While only very preliminary construction is underway at the future site of the Kingdom Tower, there are plenty of stunning skyward concept images to marvel at in the interim.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/right-cl ... 49407.html

[CDN_PATRIOT]

It's interesting, but at the same time getting a little silly with all this competition talk. Build it because you want to build it, not to compete with the next supertall building.

-J.

[Unsound]

I'm just waiting for god to make all the constuction workers start speaking different languages.

[martin14]

Methinks the Saudis are compensating for something.

[desertdude]

Unsound wrote:

I'm just waiting for god to make all the constuction workers start speaking different languages.

They already do in this region. The big bosses are all Westerners from different places like Germany, UK, France etc etc.

The project managers and mostly at those levels are Arabs from Syria, Lebanon, Iraq ( Although they speak arabic but very different dialects )
The supervisor and foremen are mostly Filipino and the labourers are from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh or Srilanka.

So its a miracle anything does get done. The common language is broken English.

[bootlegga]

Unsound wrote:

I'm just waiting for god to make all the constuction workers start speaking different languages.

One Tower of Babel coming up!

[GreenTiger]

Well, We in the States had a thing for big skyscapers as they were called in the 1920-1930. I guess Saudi Arabia is just getting into the kick too.

[desertdude]

Dubai has already gotten over its obession, although not by choice.
If you look up the top 10 of everything to do with sky scrapers. Dubai is always has multiple entries. And all located with in 15 minutes of where I live.

On a side note when I was a kid I always wanted to visit New York after seeing all those tall buildings on the telly, I always thought they looked totally rad ! Now I live among the tallest and couldn't be bothered to give them a second glance while passing them, strange eh ?

[sandorski]

Unsound wrote:

I'm just waiting for god to make all the constuction workers start speaking different languages.

They probably already do.