Dubai: The tallest building in the world...and still growing (photos)

Dailynew.co.uk ^ | 6th April 2008 | staff writer

[hosepipe]

[ The America I used to know did not cower in fear of terrorism. ]

The Boy Scouts had it right.. BE PREPARED...

[DoughtyOne]

I ran across some comments on the tube the other day that led me to believe Dubai may have been involved with some unsavory things. I’d rather let it be vague for now until I’ve had a chance to look into it further. Sorry to not be of more help on the matter.

[Cronos]

Plus the Gulf countries have been banking and trading centres for millenia before Islam — for example, Bahrain used to be a trading post between the Sumerians in Iraq and the Indus Valley civilisation in India, dating back to 3,000 BC

[Cronos]

Plus the Gulf countries have been banking and trading centres for millenia before Islam -- for example, Bahrain used to be a trading post between the Sumerians in Iraq and the Indus Valley civilisation in India, dating back to 3,000 BC

Also, the south Yemenis were also traders long before Islam -- the kingdom of Sheba etc. The only barbarians were those from the interiors

[Cronos]

yes, that’s true — the Emir of Dubai has been a visionary. The other Emirs in the United Arab Emirates (which consists of quite some Emirates, including Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi etc.) are getting into the act now

[Cronos]

There was a science fiction story I read some time ago that talked about such a city in the future

TRantor from Isaac Asimov's foundation series is the first such description. This was then used as a model for Coruscant and Taris in the star wars universe

[SamAdams76]

This is just ego boosting. It was long ago proven that once a building goes much beyond 60 floors, it becomes very uneconomical to run.

I wish Americans wouldn't have this attitude. We are the ones that should have the tallest buildings. Manhattan alone should have more skyscrapers than the rest of the world combined.

We just don't have enough skyscrapers in the United States and the few we have aren't tall enough either.

By now, we should have skyscrapers over a mile high. In fact, we should have entire cities contained within skyscrapers so that people never have to touch the ground their entire lives.

Imagine this: A city with 22,500 skyscrapers over 100 stories tall. 8,000 over 200 stories tall and 650 over 500 stories tall. All these skyscrapers connected together by bridges at varying heights.

The upshot is that you can spend your entire life within this skyscraper city and never get bored. Without even going to the ground floor, you will have access to hundreds of shopping malls, amusement parks, movie theatres, stadiums, and so forth. Thousands upon thousands of restaurants, coffee shops, bars, etc., all above ground level.

Imagine TEN Manhattans combined only all above ground level. This is what I'm talking about and this is what should be possible in the United States of America.

[Taffini]

Doesn’t look safe.

[AFreeBird]

Let's hope that some American spirit is revitalized and we can once again build the skyscrapers we are capable of.

Take some comfort in the fact that this building IS of American design. Or at least the architect is American.

And the recovering the condensation from the windows: Very cool!