Posted on 12/11/2004 9:07:25 PM PST by wagglebee
The construction of what will be the world's tallest building is set to begin in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The building contract was awarded to a consortium led by the South Korean Samsung Corporation on Thursday.
The Burj Dubai tower will stand 800 metres tall - just 5 metres shy of half a mile - once completed in 2008. That will be a full 350 metres taller that the tallest floored in the world today, the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur.
The new tower’s unique, three-sided design will ascend in a series of stages, around a supportive central core and boast a total of 160 floors, accessible via a series of double-decker elevators. Its shape will be integral to its impressive size. The design is intended to reduce the impact of wind and to reduce the need for a stronger core - allowing for more space - as it ascends.
"It's almost like a series of buildings stuck together," says Mohsen Zikri, a director at UK engineering consultants Arup. "As you go up you need less and less lifts and less core."
Military precision
A key challenge will be the logistics involved in construction, Zikri told New Scientist. "You need things to be delivered with military precision or you will have chaos on the ground."
A spokeswoman for Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, the Chicago-based architects firm behind the design in the US, says the shape should prevent wind vortices building up around the tower and causing it to move in the wind. "Wind is the primary thing at this height," she told New Scientist. "The engineers have focused on shaping the building to minimise this effect."
As wind whirls around a tall building it can build into powerful vortices that in turn generate powerful winds on the ground. But the wide base of the Burj Dubai should also prevent wind from causing these disturbances.
Besides beating the Petronas Towers, which stands at 452 metres tall, Burj Dubai will also be considerably taller than the CN tower in Toronto, Canada which at 553 metres is the tallest structure in the world without a multiple floor structure.
Foundation work was recently completed by Turner Construction International, based in New York, US. Above ground construction will now begin under the control of the Samsung Corporation. The contract was awarded by Emaar Properties in Dubai, after an 11-month bidding process.
The tower will be used for offices, residential apartments, hotels and shops and will be surrounded at its base by a man-made lake.
I think God has scheduled the collapse of a LOT of tall towers.
"Everything that can be shaken, will be shaken."
I think He's determined that the New Jerusalem will be the tallest thing on the planet. Even the mountains will be brought low.
You brought him back. Seems you are a high altitude fanatic. Cool beans. You're a lot of fun. Where have you been?
BTW, where is MadIvan. Anyone know? Is Ivan on a sabatical?
I'd take Clinton up to about 20k feet with some chaffe in his ass, and launch it.
Rule of thumb, falling more than 40 feet (four ZERO feet), and you are dead. vSoooo. what's the difference if you are on the fourth floor of Macy's, or the 140th floor of any other building. Your drop velocity will be the same. And when you hit the ground, there will be the same repercussion.
The Empire State Building's foundation is very deep. IF I remember correctly it is about 1/3. However it was built in the 1930s. Technology and materials are very different today. So, to answer your question, I do not know.
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LOL! I'll have to wait until I see the whites of thier eyes...It'll be too late by then...
Yeah kinda. Dubai is like the Las Vegas of the middle east, where Arabs go and say "what happens in Dubai stays in Dubai". Also it is becoming a spot for European and Asian vacationers. They even recently flew the Israeli flag at a local economics conference (along with all the other flags of the world). They reallize the oil won't last forever, and they are smartly trying to build another type of economy.
The building looks cool, kind of like a contemporary hybrid though. The 3 sided design in not unique - again take a look at Las Vegas, the Hilton (formerly international) started a trend which is now common in Vegas for 3 sided buildings. Also, it kind of reminds me of the Empire State Building, they way it has different levels that get cut off as you go up.
Interesting about the wind vortexes. Why not try to harness some of that to power the lights in the building?
Wrong thread, perhaps?
I believe that's the helopad, upper left,
and the restaurant, upper right....
and the ugliness is right there in the middle.
Looks much better and more modern than that "Freedom Tower" thing.
Oh Boy! Is this trivia time?!? ;)
You forgot to mention that there was a worldwide depression going on at the same time. The Empire State is still among the largest.
Have to agree about the PC. The idiots have, in the name of 'fairness' practically paralyzed the entire country, put us in danger as to our security and have basically prevented any progress due to the requirement to place any innovation or common sense solutions into committees where mice become camels with depressing regularity.
More time to pray?
I thought in Islamic societies that no building was to be higher than the minarets? Is that passe now?
No, for target practice.
This is why I LOVE Free Republic. It's not just political jive, but kewl world news. Thanks for a kewl post!
Samsung construction ehh
I don't think the crooked snakes can build such a structure.
UAE, Dubai, Quatar are all PORTS. Ports are visited by SHIPS -- until recently, ships all were powered by SAILS. So, Arabs have been associated with sails -- especially the type known as a "dhow" which has exactly the shape used in the building pictured.
Tiger Woods teeing off from the helopad:
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