World's Tallest Structure Opening: 160+ Story Burj Dubai

[stjr]

An amazing building, costing $1.5 billion, opening today.  Imagine what this could do for a downtown reviatalization  :



All excerpts and photos from: http://business.maktoob.com/20090000414410/Burj_cost_1_5_bln_to_build_already_in_black/Article.htm

The Burj Dubai will feature the world's first hotel and apartments under the Armani brand, which will take up 18 of the tower's first 39 floors. The Italian fashion house has overseen all aspects of the interior design and style of the hotel and apartments.

The Armani Hotel includes 160 guest rooms and suites as well as an Armani branded restaurant, bar, spa and retail outlets. The Armani Residences, meanwhile, are kitted out with a special collection of furnishing from the designer's own line of home decor.

The tower also features 900 other apartments on floors 19 to 108. Residents will have access to amenities located on "Sky Lobbies" including fitness facilities, recreation rooms, a library, market and convenience store.

Corporate offices take up much of the higher floors between 111 and 159, with floors 156-159 reserved for broadcast and telecom companies. All offices come equipped with advanced communications and security infrastructure.

At least 13 floors - 8 percent of the tower's floors - are "mechanical floors" that house infrastructure such as electrical sub-stations, water tanks and pumps, and air-handling units needed for the operation of the tower. Most of the mechanical floors are double-storey height and located around every 30 floors.

Below is a floor plan of the Burj Dubai.

160 upwards - Mechanical
156-159 - Communication and Broadcast
155 - Mechanical
139-154 - The Corporate Suites
136-138 - Mechanical
125-135 - The Corporate Suites
124 - At The Top, Burj Dubai
123 - Sky Lobby
122 - At.mosphere, Burj Dubai
111-121 - The Corporate Suites
109-110 - Mechanical
77-108 - Residential
76 - Sky Lobby
73-75 - Mechanical
44-72 - Residential
43 - Sky Lobby
40-42 - Mechanical
38-39 - Armani Hotel suites
19-37 - The Residences
17-18 - Mechanical
9-16 - Armani Residences
1-8 - Armani Hotel
Ground - Armani Hotel
Concourse - Armani Hotel
B1-B2 - Parking, Mechanical
(All information supplied by Emaar Properties)

The project took five years to complete and involved more than 30 on-site contracting companies and, at the peak of construction, over 12,000 workers and contractors representing more than 100 nationalities were on site daily.

In total construction will have taken 22 million man-hours.

Around 31,400 metric tonnes of steel rebar was used in the tower’s construction, which when laid end-to-end would extend over a quarter of the way around the world.

Close to 26,000 glass panels, each individually hand cut, were used in the aluminium and glass façade of the Burj Dubai. The total weight of aluminium used is equivalent to that of five Airbus A380 superjumbos.

Some 330,000 cubic metres of concrete was used in the tower’s construction, which included having to pump concrete to a height of 605 metres, a world record for concrete pumping.

Once operational, the Burj Dubai’s peak electrical demand is 36 MW, equal to about 360,000 100 Watt bulbs operating simultaneously.

About 10,000 tonnes of cooling is required for air conditioning, equal to the cooling capacity provided by about 10,000 tonnes of melting ice.

Dubai’s hot, humid climate combined with the building's cooling requirements will create a significant amount of condensation, which is collected and stored in a holding tank.

The condensation collection system can provide around 15 million gallons of supplementary water per year, equal to about 20 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

The tower's water system supplies an average of 946,000 litres of water daily.

Below is a list of other interesting figures about the Burj Dubai.

18 - Number of building maintenance cradles needed to clean the tower’s facade.
19 - Number of hectares of green landscaping around the foot of the tower.
49 - Number of office floors, including the 12-floor annexure.
57 - Number of elevators.
95 - Distance in kilometres at which Burj Dubai’s spire can still be seen.
124 - Floor location of ‘At The Top, Burj Dubai’, the world’s highest and only publicly accessible observation deck with an outdoor terrace.
160 - Number of luxury hotel rooms and suites.
200 - Height in metres of the spire at the top of the Burj Dubai.
504 - Distance travelled, or ‘rise’ in metres of Burj Dubai’s main service lift, the most of any elevator.
900 - Length in the feet of the world’s tallest performing fountain, the Dubai Fountain, that lies at the foot of the tower.
1,000 - Number of pieces of art from Middle Eastern and international artists that will adorn Burj Dubai and the surrounding Emaar Boulevard.
1,044 - Total number of residential apartments.
3,000 - Number of underground parking spaces.
5,500 - Capacity in kilograms of the tower’s service lift.
(All facts and figures supplied by Emaar Properties)

Special thanks to the Financial Times for this one. This is part of the global city advertising campaign run by the newspaper, a fictional metropolis made up of the world’s tallest and most iconic buildings. We have added the new boy in town… The Burj Dubai. It is, after all, bigger than all of them. Photograph: Financial Times/ Edited: Maktoob Business

The Burj Dubai in New York. The Burj dwarves New York City’s Empire State Building, which measures ‘just’ 381 metres in height. The Burj is more than double that at over 800 metres. Photograph: Getty Images / Edited: Maktoob Business

An areal view of Chicago with the Burj Dubai standing next to Willis Tower, formerly named Sears Tower, a 442 metres skyscraper. The Burj Dubai stands 1.8 times taller than Willis Tower. Photograph: Getty Images / Edited: Maktoob Business

[Bostech]

Am I only one that thinks that Armani hotel is UGLY?
Dark,black and boring.

[heights unknown]

I've been following the construction of this thing ever since I heard about it a few years ago.  Absolute dwarfdom in every since of the word!  Imagine that tower in downtown Jacksonville; everything below it would look like apartment flats.  Dubai has since fallen on hard times as has most of the world with many projects coming to a screeching halt.  It appears most of the proposed and approved projects won't even make the drawing board now; only those that were under construction when the economy crashed will see it through to completion.

"HU"

[heights unknown]

We should rename the BOA Building the "Burj BOA." If I'm not mistaken, the word "Burj" means tower.

"HU"

[reednavy]

Burj does mean tower in Arabic. Today should be interesting as they will announce the official height of this damn thing.

[Overstreet]

What is the occupancy rate for the tower?

What is the sway is at the top when the wind is blowing?

They have nice weather there. No hurricanes. Of course this is Dubai, city of excesses. They have among other things an indoor snow ski hill.

[finehoe]

What is the occupancy rate for the tower?

The Washington Post reports:  "About 90 percent of units have been sold in Burj Dubai, which will welcome the first occupants of the Giorgio Armani residences in February and will open the world's first Armani Hotel in March.

Prices in the skyscraper -- which formed the apex of the Dubai property market when the one-to-three-bedroom residences were launched in 2007 -- have held up amid the 50 percent crash across the rest of the city, including the surrounding developments of Downtown Burj Dubai."

This just in:  Dubai has renamed its new skyscraper, the tallest in the world, the Burj Khalifa, state news agency WAM reported, in a surprise move apparently intended to honor the United Arab Emirates' president.

[reednavy]

Great, as if enough people had problems saying Dubai.

[Bostech]

Rich people truly don't have a taste.
Inside Armani hotel in Burj Dubai.

[tufsu1]

maybe folks should read the biblical Tower of Babel story again!

[KenFSU]

Hard to be too excited when you consider the horrible human rights violations that came along with developing Dubai at such a rapid pace in the last decade or so.

[Jason]

An amazing building, costing $1.5 billion, opening today.  Imagine what this could do for a downtown reviatalization  :

That thing would consume downtown Jax!  It would likely increase the office and residential occupancy rate 10 fold! 


Still, an amazing building that is only one piece of a gargantuan development in the midst of a long list of gartuan developments in Dubai.

[stjr]

If you like unbelievable fireworks, go to this link to see a truly one-of-a-kind fireworks display from top to bottom off this tower:  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8439618.stm

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 floors and more than 500,000 sq m of space for offices and flats.

The tower also lays claim to the highest occupied floor, the tallest service lift, and the world's highest observation deck - on the 124th floor.

The world's highest mosque and swimming pool will meanwhile be located on the 158th and 76th floors.

[BridgeTroll]

View from the top...

http://www.youtube.com/v/oWVLzVhnYE0

[heights unknown]

maybe folks should read the biblical Tower of Babel story again!

Let's not get into religion; you know what happens in this forum when we do!  (LOL)

"HU"