Standing at 830 metres tall, the Burj Khalifa skyscraper, located in Dubai, is the tallest structure in the world.
The construction work started in 2004 and was completed in 2009. The premises opened in 2010 and is now home for apartments and leisure establishments including a hotel and bars. Due to the height of the building, a buttressed core structure system is used for support. Furthermore, a cladding system was designed to help withstand Dubai’s summer weather. It contains a total of 57 elevators and 8 escalators.
The building was designed by Adrian Smith who is behind a company that designed the Wills Tower and One World Trade Center. The design of Burj Khalifa is derived from Islamic culture and architecture.
According to the chairman of Emmar Properties, Mohamed Ai Alabber, the office space pricing in the skyscraper reached $4,000 per sq ft and the Armani Hotel residences sold for $3,500 sq ft. Mr Ai Alabber estimated the total cost for the Burj Khalifa to be about $1.5 billion.
The decision to build the skyscraper was to further improve the city’s tourism industry. The Burj Khalifa was created to be the centerpiece of a large-scare development, which would have 30,000 homes, nine hotels, 3 hectares of parkland, at least 19 residential towers, the Dubai Mall, and the 12-hectare artificial lake which surrounds the skyscraper.
The Dubai Fountain is one of the main features of the Burj Khalifa, which cost approximately $217 million. The fountain system has 6,600 lights and 50 colored projectors. Shoots of water have a range of 500 ft into the air.
Another feature is its popular observation deck, which is based on the 124th floor, named At the Top. Being at 1,483 ft, it was the highest outdoor observation deck in the world, prior to when the record was broken again in December 2011 by the Cloud Top 488 in the Canton Tower. In October 2014, SKY a new observation deck with in the Burj Khalifa opened at a height of 1,821 ft once again, making it the world’s highest outdoor observation deck.
Previous Post
Viewing the City of Berlin from the Fernsehturm
