Barad-dur the dark tower! How appropriate it will be built at the epicenter of evil in the world.
Posted on 01/06/2010 4:02:43 AM PST by TigerLikesRooster
Builder of tallest tower aims higher still
Angela Giuffrida
Last Updated: January 04. 2010 11:51PM
UAE / January 4. 2010 7:51PM GMT
The Saudi Prince Al Waleed bin Talal plans a 1.1km tower, a contract the builders of the Burj will compete for.
The builders of the Burj Khalifa are already lining up to secure multibillion-dollar contracts on the planned 1.1km Kingdom Tower in Saudi Arabia, the most likely successor to the title of tallest tower in the world.
While the financial downturn has stalled some major projects in the kingdom, the rising price of crude, which hit a two-month high yesterday, and a rapidly growing population is helping to improve sentiment in the country’s property market.
Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, the US architecture firm that designed the Burj Khalifa, is hoping to secure the design deal for Kingdom Tower in Jeddah, which will form the centrepiece of Kingdom City, one of the largest and most ambitious projects in the country.
The Burj Khalifa, which stretches more than 800 metres skywards, was until its official unveiling yesterday known as the Burj Dubai.
If the US firm wins the contract, it will again work closely with Emaar Properties, the developer of the Burj Khalifa, which has taken on a consultancy role for the Kingdom City project.
Skidmore, Owings and Merrill has already designed five of the world’s tallest buildings.
“We’re looking forward to hopefully winning the commission [for Kingdom Tower],” said George Efstathiou, a partner at the firm.
The development is being planned by Kingdom Holding, the business conglomerate owned by Prince Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud.
Described by Forbes as the “Buffett of Arabia” after building stakes in global companies he considered to be undervalued, Prince Alwaleed is estimated to have a net worth of about US$13 billion (Dh47.74bn), which puts him in 22nd place in the magazine’s global list of billionaires.
He is also the largest individual investor in Citigroup.
Mohamed Alabbar, the chairman of Emaar, said work was continuing on the Kingdom City development, which is expected to eventually house 80,000 people.
“That’s our specialty,” Mr Alabbar said. “The landscape has changed in the region. Customers now want real, true, solid companies. They want value as well. They want track record. We’re in a region where shortage of housing is an issue.”
Arabtec Construction, which built the Burj Khalifa in partnership with South Korea’s Samsung Engineering and Construction, and Besix, a joint venture between the UAE’s Belhasa and Belgium’s Six Construct, have also bid for the main construction package for Kingdom Tower, again in partnership with Samsung.
Riad Kamal, the chairman of Arabtec, confirmed that his company had submitted a bid for the project but said it had not yet received a response.
“We submitted figures to them and so did two other companies, but they were expecting offers from two other parties,” Mr Kamal said. “That was about two months ago and there has been nothing further since.”
Multiplex, the Australian construction company, is also vying for the project.
“We put in a submission a while back,” said Robert Devereux, a project director at Multiplex. “We’ve been dealing with Emaar, but it’s gone a bit quiet at this stage.”
It is unclear when the design and construction contracts for the skyscraper will be awarded and work will begin. Kingdom Holding did not respond when contacted yesterday.
Kingdom City development, which has been estimated to cost $26.6bn to build, has been mooted for some time but progress has been hampered by the global financial crisis.
But strong population and employment in the country continue to fuel demand for property.
There is a shortage of 2 million homes in Saudi Arabia, and the need for another 1.4 million over the next 10 years, according to a report from the property consultancy CB Richard Ellis. The country’s population is expected to grow by another 33 million by 2020.
Jones Lang LaSalle, another international property consultancy, said Saudi Arabia’s property market would be the strongest in the region over the next one to two years.
“The market still needs more real estate, whether that will be tall towers or not is debatable,” said Craig Plumb, the head of research for the MENA region at Jones Lang LaSalle.
“But given the increase in land value in the last few years, tall towers would be one feasible way of providing the additional real estate.”
Ping!
I’m glad that America outgrew this.
Building tall skyscrapers was a cool engineering and impressive challenge are technology advanced. But once the engineering challenges were met and put into practice, people began to realize how impractical, inefficien, and problematic these behemoths are.
Knowing what we know now, such structures are foolish folly. These monster buildings are disasters waiting to happen as the buildings age or a natural disaster or a ‘man-caused-disaster’ or a war write their chapters in history.
Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, the US architecture firm that designed the Burj Khalifa, is hoping to secure the design deal for Kingdom Tower in Jeddah,
When I was a young whippersnapper, I once thought I was having a vision and talking to God.
It turned out I was mistaken -- it was an Architect from SOM.
Skidmore, Owings and Merrill has already designed five of the world’s tallest buildings.
Okay, but are they still standing?
They would sure seem to be magnet targets for wackos and terrorists.
Genesis 11
1 And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.
2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.
3 And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter.
4 And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.
Barad-dur the dark tower! How appropriate it will be built at the epicenter of evil in the world.
I think this is the same Saudi prince who paid for Obama’s education, mentioned in this video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJzU056ccV4&NR=1
They had better watch-out! I hear that an Amish terrorist group may try to hijack a Saudi airline and fly it into it!
I heard a rumor the recently opened tower has some settlement problems, and they are searching for a LOT of carbon fiber reinforcing material.
Disneyworld had a similar problem they built a modular Hotel but soon found everything settled and the rooms could not be moved, the plan was to be able to remove complete suites like shipping containers to modernize in the future,
It didn’t work out that way, and so the Contemporary Resort I think its called is stuck in 70’s era design.
There is no limit to what these people can do with the trillions of dollars we have been screwed out of at the gas pumps over the last 35 years.
A large, spread out, multi-story building would be much more efficient than these things are, not to mention far more stable and a less appealing target for terrorists.
I wasn't in New York that fateful day but after that event, I became phobic about being in a high skyscraper and I'm sure I'm not the only one.
Why don’t they call it the Ozymandias tower? Once the oil runs out, all you’ll be able to see is are the ruins sticking out of a sand dune.
One doesn’t even need such a dramatic event to be concerned. What about glass pane working loose (as they do quite naturally) and taking pedestrian or vehicle out on the street level? It’s happened more than once already.
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