Best of the Year 2010- 4 of 7: Burj Khalifa- World’s Tallest Building

Best of the Year 4 of 7

The pride of Dubai: 2,717 foot – 828 meters tall.
It’s taller than any other building by more than 1,000 feet.

The total cost for the project was about US$1.5 billion; and for the entire “Downtown Dubai” development, US$20 billion.  The tower was renamed Burj Khalifa, said to honour the UAE President, Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan for his crucial support.

Burj Khalifa has been designed to be the centrepiece of a large-scale, mixed-use development that will include 30,000 homes, nine hotels such as The Address Downtown Dubai, 3 hectares (7.4 acres) of parkland, at least 19 residential towers, the Dubai Mall, and the 12-hectare (30-acre) man-made Burj Khalifa Lake.

The building has returned the location of Earth’s tallest freestanding structure to the Middle East where the Great Pyramid of Giza claimed this achievement for almost four millennia before being surpassed in 1311 by Lincoln Cathedral in England.

The tower’s architecture and engineering were performed by Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill of Chicago, with Adrian Smith (now at his own firm) as chief architect, and Bill Baker as chief structural engineer. The primary contractor was Samsung C&T of South Korea.

via popsci