Final Height of 'On-Deck' Tallest Tower Shrouded In Secrecy
But residential concrete frame, with short spans, makes it easier to exceed 700 meters
11/6/2006 | By Peter Reina in Dubai with Nadine Post
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Speculation among supertall-building pundits once had the $1.1-billion Burj Dubai rising 800 meters or more. Currently, the developer admits to only 700-plus. The tower’s architect-engineer is sworn to say only 600-m-plus. And the main contractor claims not to know the final height. The secret gets harder to keep as the tower, now at about 80 stories, rises toward its pinnacle, at an average of one floor every three days. Whatever its final stopping point, Burj Dubai is on course to supersede the world record holder, the 509-m-tall Taipei 101, by summer, says Greg Sang, assistant director for projects at local owner Emaar Properties PJSC. The largely residential and hotel burj—Arabic for tower—already surpasses Europe’s tallest building, Moscow’s 264-m Triumph-Palace. Located just south of the United Arab Emirate city, the iconic centerpiece of Emaar’s $20-billion Burj Dubai Down- town mixed development, is taking the form of a tapering, three-winged tower, mainly of over 280,000 cu m of concrete rising 162 floors. From level 156, the tower will be framed with some 0.5 million tonnes of structural steel in equipment floors and the spire. Continued at: tinyurl.com
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