Dubai tower is now 'world's tallest'

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) -- Developers of a 1,680-foot (512 meters) skyscraper still under construction in oil-rich Dubai has claimed that it has become the world's tallest building, surpassing Taiwan's Taipei 101 which has dominated the global skyline at 1,667 feet (508 meters) since 2004.

The tower has become the world's tallest building, say developers.

The Burj Dubai is expected to be finished by the end of 2008 and its planned final height has been kept secret. The state-owned development company Emaar Properties, one of the main builders in rapidly developing Dubai, said only that the tower would stop somewhere above 2,275 feet.
When completed, the skyscraper will feature more than 160 floors, 56 elevators, luxury apartments, boutiques, swimming pools, spas, exclusive corporate suites, Italian fashion designer Giorgio Armani's first hotel, and a 124th floor observation platform.
After North American and Asian cities marked their 20th century economic booms with skyscrapers, the Gulf grew eager to show off its success with ever taller buildings. In Dubai, long an oil-rich Gulf symbol of rapid economic growth, the building reflects the city's hunger for global prestige.
"It's a symbol of Dubai as a city of the world," said Greg Sang, the project director for Emaar Properties.
Mohammed Ali Alabbar, chairman of Emaar, said it will be an architectural and engineering masterpiece of concrete, steel and glass. Dubai has "resisted the usual and has inspired to build a global icon," he said.
"It's a human achievement without equal."
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The $1 billion skyscraper is in the heart of downtown Dubai, a 500-acre development area worth $20 billion. Construction, which began just 1,276 days ago, has been frenzied -- at times, one storey rises every three days.
The tip of the Burj's spire will be seen for 60 miles, developers say. But Sang knows it will not dominate the world's skyline forever.
"It's a fact of life that, at some point, someone else will build a taller building," he said. "There's a lot of talk of other tall buildings, but five years into Burj Dubai's construction, no one's started building them yet," he said.
Previous skyscraper record-holders include New York's Empire State Building at 1,250 feet; Shanghai's Jin Mao Building at 1,381 feet; Chicago's Sears Tower at 1,451 feet; and Malaysia's Petronas Towers at 1,483 feet.
The Burj will let the Middle East reclaim the world's tallest structure. Egypt's Great Pyramid of Giza, built around 2500 B.C., held the title with its 481 feet (147 meters) until the Eiffel Tower in Paris was built in 1889 at a height of 985 feet (300 meters), or 1,023 feet (312 meters) including the flag pole.
The company says the Burj will fulfill the Chicago-based Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat's four criteria for the tallest building: the height of the structural top, the highest occupied floor, the roof's top, and the spire's tip, pinnacle, antenna, mast or flag pole.
For now, the unattractive brownish concrete skeleton jutting into Dubai's humid skies lacks any aura of a masterpiece. Rising 141 floors with a mass of surrounding cranes and girders, it has no windows, glass or steel yet.
The architects and engineers are American and the main building contractor is South Korean.
Most of the 4,000 laborers are Indian. They toil around the clock in Dubai's sizzling summer with no set minimum wage. Human rights groups regularly protest against labor abuse in Dubai, but local media rarely report such complaints.

Al Burj

Al Burj (The Tall Tower) project being planned by Nakheel will be 1,050 metres tall, comfortably exceeding the height of the rival Burj Dubai and making it the world’s tallest building.Nakheel has kept the tower’s height a closely guarded secret as it waits for its more advanced rival, being developed by Emaar Properties, to reach its final height later this year. However, MEED has confirmed that design plans show the tower to be more than 1 kilometre tall, at 1,050 metres.“At that height, the Tall Tower will definitely be taller than the Burj Dubai,” says a source working on the Burj Dubai. “Emaar has not announced the full height, but the contractors are working to plans for a 700-metre tower, and we expect its final height to be about 800 metres.”The Burj Dubai became the world’s tallest building on 21 July, at 512 metres, and is due to be completed in 2008.Designs for the Tall Tower show 228 floors, a four-level basement and one service sub-level – a total built-up area of 1.49 million square metres with 492,000 square metres of useable space. It will house offices, apartments and hotels. The top habitable floor will be at 850 metres, topped by a 200-metre central spire with a three-level function area and three service floors.However, the location of the tower could change again. It was originally called Al-Burj and destined for Palm Jumeirah, before becoming part of the Dubai Waterfront scheme. Nakheel is still reviewing its options.“The site has never been fixed and has always been under review in the context of the strategic plan for Dubai,” says a spokesperson for the developer.According to industry sources, the tower has been forced to move to the Ibn Battuta mall area as it violated Department of Civil Aviation height restrictions because of its proximity to the new Dubai World Central airport at Jebel Ali. Nakheel denies this. “No height restrictions have been placed on Nakheel in the waterfront area by the Department of Civil Aviation,” says the spokesperson.Tenders for the contract to build the tower are expected early in 2008. Meanwhile, several consultants and contractors are assisting Nakheel with the project. “No pre-construction contract has been awarded or considered at this stage,” says the spokesperson. “We are talking to large-scale contractors, including [Japan’s] Taisei Corporation, to assist with the buildability analysis of the early design of the superstructure.”