World's tallest building (Burj Dubai) opens Monday

[웃 910]

TEL AVIV (MarketWatch) - The world's tallest building, the Burj Dubai, is set to open on Monday, as part of an effort by the sheikdom to get past a recent corporate crisis and strengthen its reputation and attraction as a regional and worldwide hub for business

Reuters

Burj Dubai, anchoring a $20 billion development, is set to open amid a gala of fireworks and a curtain of tight security, The Wall Street Journal reported. The opening coincides with the fourth anniversary of Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, 60, coming to power in Dubai.

The building, with more than 160 floors, is said to stand more than 2,625 feet (800 meters) high but the developer, Emaar Properties, has not yet said how tall the final structure is, media reports say.

The No. 2 office building in the world: Taipei 101 in Taiwan, which is more than 500 meters high. Burj Dubai is also the world's tallest structure, exceeding the height of a TV tower in North Dakota, and tallest free-standing structure, taller than the CN Tower in Toronto.

The Website says the building will have 900 residences on floors 19 through 108. The observation deck is on Floor 124. Sky lobbies on Floors 43, 76 and 123 will have fitness facilities, swimming pools and Jacuzzis. It has a hotel designed by Giorgio Armani.

Media reports say the Burj Dubai -- burj is Arabic for tower -- will have the world's highest mosque, on the 158th floor.

In November, the country, one of seven members of the United Arab Emirates, roiled financial markets with the disclosure that Dubai World, a government-owned conglomerate, was seeking a delay in paying billions of dollars of debt. Dubai turned to neighboring Abu Dhabi for a bailout.

Robert Daniel is MarketWatch's Middle East bureau chief, based in Tel Aviv.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/burj-duba...nk=MW_news_stmp

Edited January 4, 2010 by Confucian

[Wyatt's Torch 45]

Call me a socialist if you'd like (I assure you I'm not...), but the older I get, the more juvenile those exercises in excess seem to me. The sheer amount of money that has gone into that building could have gone to much more practical causes. Sure, it's an impressive looking building...but when you balance out the cost and the ultimate benefit to the building, it's really just hubris, isn't it?

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

hubris in dubai? say it aint so

/s

[spookyturtle 9,466]

Australia could build 10 of these, only taller.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

and they would always be brand new, even well after they no longer are.

[Danno 1,228]

Call me a socialist if you'd like (I assure you I'm not...), but the older I get, the more juvenile those exercises in excess seem to me. The sheer amount of money that has gone into that building could have gone to much more practical causes. Sure, it's an impressive looking building...but when you balance out the cost and the ultimate benefit to the building, it's really just hubris, isn't it?

Show me which one of the previous "Worlds tallest buildings" turned out to be a financial flop?

[spookyturtle 9,466]

and they would always be brand new, even well after they no longer are.

Those Aussies are the best.

[Peikko 1,575]

So far, they have hardly let any of the building space, so it's too early to say, but this could be the world's biggest white elephant.

[Scott & Lai 12]

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[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

I've heard that Dubai has been hit particularly hard by the recession - with foreign workers leaving there in droves.

Hope they have some tenants lined up for that place!

[NickD 203]

Ha, Build them Bigger, the bigger they are, the harder they will fall. Looks like a nice target. Not for me, but plenty of nuts in this world.

[웃 910]

Burj Khalifa: window cleaners to spend months on world's tallest building

It will take a team of 36 window cleaners three months to wash the new 2,717-foot Burj Khalifa in Dubai.

The building, which was initially to be named the Burj Dubai, stands at 206 storeys tall, reaching half a mile into the sky. While most visitors will look out from the skycraper to admire the view of the Arabian desert below, some will be looking back in.

A team of 36 cleaners, mostly made up of migrant workers, have been employed to man 12 state-of-the-art machines that travel along tracks fixed to the exterior of the building while its windows are washed.

It is an unenviable task, but someone has to do it.

Operating at heights of 2,000 feet and covering 40 storeys each, the 13 ton machines will ply the superscraper's facade even in high wind, blazing sun and during dust storms, with the cleaners inside harnessed to metal cages.

The cleaners will carry electrolyte packs and wear specialised clothing resembling moon suits, while working only on parts of the building that are in shade.

An Australian company, Cox Gomyl, won the contract to clean the building's 24,000 reflective windows and about 120,000 sq metres of glass.

Dale Harding, its general manager, said cleaning the building was a massive task. The company has designed and built a £4.6 million million window-washing system to keep the pride of Dubai sparkling.

When not in use, the machines will be hidden at various heights behind glass panels.

"It's an amazing building, people focus on the height of the building ... but really the breadth and width of the building is just huge when you're standing next to it."

Mr Harding said the team of cleaners were expected to battle the hot desert sun, high winds and routine sand storms, but that unmanned machines would clean the building's highest reaches.

"It takes about three months to clean the entire building so the machines will be operating in cycles the vast majority of the year," he said.

"It's a challenging environment to work in. You're out on your own, the wind is howling by, the heat is bouncing off the glass and on the lower levels there is sand as well."

While the technology is cutting edge, the window cleaners will use the traditional squeegee and soapy water.

"It's the same as an average shop front cleaner would use - there's nothing complex about it at all."

[Wyatt's Torch 45]

"It's an amazing building, people focus on the height of the building ... but really the breadth and width of the building is just huge when you're standing next to it."

...but is it plane-proof?

[Peikko 1,575]

I take it back, I think Dubai itself might be the worlds biggest white elephant