Chicago architecture firm to design world's tallest tower (in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia)

[웃 910]

Saudi Arabia's Prince Alwaleed bin Talal's investment vehicle, Kingdom Holding, has announced that an associate company will partner with the country's Bin Laden Group to build a tower near Jeddah that would replace Dubai's 828m Burj Khalifa as the world's tallest building.

The associate company, Jeddah Economic Co, signed the SR4.6bn ($1.23bn) contract with the Bin Laden Group, a construction company, that will also own a 16.63 per cent stake in the company. Kingdom Co will hold 33.35 per cent.

The 1km-tall building will include a Four Seasons hotel and apartments, luxury condominiums and offices.

http://www.ft.com/cm...s#axzz1Tt2ERyDv

Chicago architecture firm to design world's tallest tower

A tower designed by Chicago architects Adrian Smith and Gordon Gill and to be built in Saudi Arabia will be the world's tallest building if completed, according to plans unveiled today.

Kingdom Tower will be built in Jeddah, a port city on the Red Sea, according to Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture. The building will be more than 3,280 feet tall and at least 568 feet taller than the world's current tallest building, Dubai's Burj Khalifa.

Smith was with the Chicago office of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill when he designed the 2,717-foot Burj Khalifa, which opened in January 2010.

Construction of Kingdom Tower will start "imminently" and is expected to last about five years, according to Smith and Gill's firm. The building will house a luxury hotel, apartments, condos, office space and the world's highest observatory and is expected to cost $1.2 billion to construct. The tower is part of Kingdom City, a development project in Jeddah expected to cost $20 billion.

The building's exact height has not been revealed. Some previous reports had said the building was expected to be one mile high, but those reports were quickly discredited by Smith and Gill's firm.

The plans were announced today by Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, a nephew of Saudi King Abdullah and chairman of Kingdom Holding Company. The skyscraper, which would be at least 1,500 feet taller than Chicago's Willis Tower, represents the latest example of Chicago-based architecture firms taking on high-profile overseas work as the American commercial real estate market struggles to recover from the building bust of the 1990s and the recession.

http://www.chicagotr...840,print.story

Edited August 2, 2011 by Lord Infamous

[^_^ 5,021]

Go Chicago!

[Obama 2012 1,714]

If I had $20bn to throw away, I'd build the world's tallest building too...

Of course I'd fill it with Playboy Bunnies!

[Sofiyya 1,687]

I'd have more respect for Saudi Arabia's Prince Alwaleed bin Talal if I heard that he'd been smacking his business partner Rupert Muddock around.