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Burj Dubai: The new pinnacle of vanity For all the ambition of its construction, Dubai's new Khalifa Tower is a frightening, purposeless monument to the subprime era, says Stephen Bayley. By Stephen Bayley 05 Jan 2010 /snip There are three seismic fault zones in the UAE area, although Dubai itself is thought to be at low risk because of its particular soil structure. Yet if I were enjoying the view from, say, the 140th floor, I would not be able to help musing with a frisson of alarm that the geologically unstable Iran was not too far away. Indeed, minor...

Riot by migrant workers halts construction of Dubai skyscraper Brian Whitaker and agencies Thursday March 23, 2006 The Guardian (UK) Construction of what is expected to be the world's tallest building was halted yesterday after 2,500 workers in Dubai rioted over pay and conditions, causing damage estimated at £500,000. The trouble broke out on Tuesday night when buses due to take labourers to a residential camp at the end of their shift were delayed, witnesses said. Workers from the Burj Dubai tower site and surrounding housing developments then chased and assaulted security officers, broke into offices, smashed computers and files,...

Slated to become the world's tallest skyscraper and symbol of a city given to grandiose projects, "Burj Dubai," or Dubai Tower, is rising in parallel with the profits of its promoter, Emaar Properties. With two stories added every week, Burj Dubai is taking shape as the centerpiece of a 20-billion-dollar venture featuring the construction of a new district, "Downtown Burj Dubai," that will house 30,000 apartments and the world's largest shopping mall. Launched in early 2004, the construction of the tower by South Korea's Samsung should be completed at the end of 2008 and cost one billion dollars, according to...

The Burj Dubai, slated to be the tallest building in the world when it’s done in 2009, is rising 160 stories or more (the final height is a secret) in the desert. It’s no anomaly. The terrorist attacks of 9/11 seem to have whetted the global appetite to build taller and taller. Most of the new mega-skyscrapers are in Asia and the Middle East, but the engineers and architects are American. Why the boom? A combination of economic imperatives and powerful egos, both national and personal. Coming soon: the fulfillment of Frank Lloyd Wright’s dream of a mile-high building. In...

The Burj Dubai is set to become the tallest building in the world, with some unofficial reports claiming the building overtook the Taipei 101 on Wednesday, and others that an official announcement will be made on Saturday. Property developers Emaar are being tight lipped on the rumours and would not confirm the stories yesterday, but if confirmed, Dubai's latest icon must now be taller than 509 metres (1,671 feet), the height of Taiwan's Taipei 101. Burj Dubai will eventually hold the record in all four categories as recognised by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, have the highest...

Emaar Properties' iconic Burj Dubai has reached a towering 629 metres, smashing the existing record to become the world’s tallest manmade structure, the developer said on Monday. The 160-storey tower, already the world’s tallest building and tallest free-standing structure, has now surpassed the 628.8-metre high KVLY-TV mast in North Dakota, US. The KVLY-TV mast, used for transmitting television signals, had held the title of world’s tallest supported structure since 1963. Emaar Chairman Mohamed Ali Alabbar said the new record was another milestone for the Burj Dubai, placing the city in the global spotlight once again. “With over 160 storeys now,...

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British expatraites in Dubai continued to party away this weekend - despite last week's stern reminder from the kingdom's rulers that Sex on the Beach should remain restricted to the cocktail menu. A week after the arrest of British saleswoman Michelle Palmer for an alleged drunken tryste on the shores of the Persian Gulf, fellow expats appeared to have lost little enthusiasm for the work-hard, play-hard lifestyle for which the Emirate has become famous. In the Double Decker, a packed London bus-themed pub near the soaring tower of the seven-star Burj Al Arab hotel, Simone Dobson nursed a vodka and...

Developers in Dubai have claimed a new record for the tallest building in the world, saying that the Burj Dubai skyscraper has now topped 688 metres (2,257 ft). The slender, rocket-shaped tower is still under construction. Its final height remains a closely guarded secret, although it is expected to reach 800m. Emaar Properties announced last summer that the skyscraper had surpassed Taiwan’s Taipei 101, which - at 508 metres (1,667 ft) - had been officially the world's tallest building since 2004.

DUBAI (AFP) – Once-bustling Dubai will open the world's tallest skyscraper on Monday, boasting new limits in design and construction, hopeful of polishing an image tarnished by the debt woes afflicting the Gulf emirate. Emaar, the giant property firm part-owned by the government and which developed the needle-shaped concrete, steel and glass structure, has declined to reveal Burj Dubai's exact height. Apparently wanting to maintain the suspense, the company will say only that the tower exceeds 800 metres (2,640 feet), putting it far higher than Taiwan's Taipei 101 tower (508 metres). Bill Baker, a structural and civil engineer and...

Here is a video report on the opening of the World's Tallest Building - the Burj Dubai, which is reported to be more than 800 meters tall (2640 feet). That makes it much taller than the second tallest building in the world - Taipei's Tower 101, which stands 508 meters high. The building is set to open on Monday, January 4, 2010. Once-bustling Dubai will open the world's tallest skyscraper on Monday, boasting new limits in design and construction, hopeful of polishing an image tarnished by the debt woes afflicting the Gulf emirate. Emaar, the giant property firm part-owned by...

The world's tallest building has been opened with a dramatic fireworks ceremony in the Gulf emirate of Dubai. The Burj Khalifa was revealed to be 828m (2,716ft) high, far taller than the previous record holder, Taipei 101. Known as the Burj Dubai during construction, the tower has been renamed after the leader of Dubai's oil-rich neighbour, Abu Dhabi. Last month, Abu Dhabi gave Dubai a handout of $10bn (£6.13bn) to help it pay off its debts. Construction of the Burj Dubai began in 2004, at the height of an economic boom. Clad in 28,000 glass panels, the tower has 160...

Two men have broken the record for the world's highest base jump after parachuting from the top of Dubai's 828m (2,716ft) Burj Khalifa tower. Nasr Al Niyadi and Omar Al Hegelan, from the Emirates Aviation Society, were given permission to jump, and broke the base jump record on Tuesday, a day after the official opening of the building, taking just one and a half minutes to reach the ground at speeds of 136 mph (220 km/hr).

here's a half-off sale in the world's tallest building. Even with an address at the iconic Burj Khalifa, rents for residences in the tower are not immune from Dubai's real estate crash. Indeed, nearly a year after it was inaugurated with a massive water-and-fireworks display, about 825 of the tower's 900 ultra-luxury apartments remain unoccupied, according to Better Homes, a real estate brokerage in Dubai. The cost of renting a studio with floor-to-ceiling windows, marble fixtures and wooden floors has dropped to $1,815 a month from $3,025, while a one-bedroom apartment is available for $2,722 (it used to be $4,536),...

DUBAI (Reuters Life!) – Dubai's boom may have fizzled, but you can still live the high life perched atop the world's tallest building as the glitzy Gulf emirate unveils one of the world's highest restaurants. Atmosphere, on the 122nd floor, is one private elevator ride up the glass and chrome Burj Khalifa...

Sitting On Top Of The Burj Khalifa In Dubai

A Finnish company says that it has solved a problem that has vexed the designers of ultra-tall skyscrapers such as the 828-meter Burj Khalifa in Dubai or the 509-meter Taipei 101 in Taiwan – and we'll pause for a moment to let you guess what that problem might be. Ready? It's the fact that elevators are currently limited to a maximum travel distance of around 500 meters. The Burj Khalifa, in fact, has an elevator that holds the world record for the longest travel distance: 504m (1,654 feet). And what's keeping elevators from exceeding that limit? Time for another pause...

Excuse the pun, but Helene Darroze really is at the top of her game, and not just because she’s cooking in Burj Khalifa’s 124th-floor restaurant next week. The chef runs Michelin-starred restaurants in Paris, London (at the Connaught hotel, where she took over from Angela Hartnett) and Moscow, is a mum-of-two and is evangelical about the local cuisine of her home region, France’s bountiful south-west. “I use my memories to cook,” she says; those memories might range from growing up in a cooking family (at her family’s Relais & Châteaux hotel in Villeneuve-de-Marsan) or taking the plunge into cooking at...

An imperial eagle named Darshan captured phenomenal views of the capital of the United Arab Emirates while taking cues from his trainer on the ground. The eagle flight was arranged by the nature conservation group Freedom Conservation with the purpose of drawing attention to eagle conservation. This white-tailed eagle has been critically endangered for the last 50 years. With a height of 2,722 feet (830 m), the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, United Arab Emirates is currently the world’s tallest building. A bird's eye view is the view of one who is so high up as to not focus on the...

Darshan the eagle flew from atop the 2,722 ft. Burj Khalifa in Dubai on Saturday, setting the world record for the "highest recorded bird flight from a man-made structure."