The world’s tallest building, ‘Burj Khalifa’, named after the United Arab Emirates President, has finally opened after seven years of construction. The tower now dwarfs the previous record holder, ‘Taipei 101’ at 1666 ft, which is over 1000 ft shorter than the Burj Khalifa. During the construction years, the tower was known as the Burj Dubai, but the name was changed on completion. Although the construction of the tower is now complete, some more work is required for the inside of the commercial property.
Speaking of the name change, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Dubai’s ruler, expressed: “The tallest building ever created by the hand of man. This great project deserves to carry the name of a great man. Today I inaugurate Burj Khalifa.”
The Burj Khalifa is spread over 500 acres of land and is a whopping 2716 ft tall, stretched over 160 floors. It boasts over 500,000 sq metres of space available for office use, which will be spread over 49 floors and a total of 1044 luxury apartments. The tower also features a mosque on the 158th floor and a swimming pool on the 76th floor, as well as a hotel, offering 160 Armani branded rooms. It furthermore claims to have the world’s highest observation platform and the world’s tallest lift.
During the construction of the office and accommodation space, the Chairman of the developers (Emaar Properties) expressed the technical difficulty they fought with to complete the tower: “We have been hit with lightning twice, there was a big earthquake last year that came across from Iran, and we have had all types of wind which has hit us when we were building. The results have been good and I salute the designers and professionals who helped build it.”
However, with the construction starting before the economic crisis started, luxury apartments were initially selling for $2,700 sq ft, but are now selling for less than half. Experts warn that office space will be even harder to lease, as companies will not be able to justify paying for luxury office space in these difficult financial times.
