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| -Short Attention Span Theater- |
| Skyscrapers Fluorish With Petro-Cash |
| 2008-06-18 |
| THE world’s population is expected to climb to nine billion by the middle of the century, from six and a half billion today, according to the United Nations, and a staggering number of those people are likely to be living in big cities. A pressing question for developers and urban planners is how to accommodate the growing urban masses, especially in developing countries of Asia and Africa. But one point is clear: The skyscraper will play a central role. Nearly seven years after the collapse of the World Trade Center in New York portended a pullback from cloud-grazing construction, the world is in the midst of a huge wave of tall building construction, both in number and in size. Some 36 buildings rise more than 300 meters, or roughly 1,000 feet, the threshold generally used to define “supertall” buildings, according to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, a nonprofit organization based at the Illinois Institute of Technology. An additional 69 supertalls are under construction, the council estimates. Some of the most ambitious developments are in the petro-fueled economies of the Middle East and Russia. Among the most anticipated is the $1 billion Burj Dubai, a massive tower being developed by Emaar Properties in the United Arab Emirates. Although it is not yet complete, the tower has already surpassed the current record holder: Taipei 101 in Taiwan. The final height has been a closely guarded secret, though the Burj Dubai’s 160-plus floors and spire are expected to reach more than 2,600 feet into the sky when it is completed next year, nearly 1,000 feet more than Taipei 101, which was completed in 2004. To put it in perspective, that’s almost an entire Chrysler Building higher. Not to be outdone, the Saudi Arabian multibillionaire Prince al-Walid bin Talal recently unveiled plans for a mile-high tower near the Red Sea port of Jeddah that, if built, would be twice the height of the Burj Dubai. Some pics at link - warning - NYTimes. |
| Posted by:Bobby |
| #6 How many of the units will ever be occupied? I'm thinking in terms of all those empty apartment blocks in Saudi Arabia, where the Bedouin won't live below another family for some reason. There are worse ways to throw away money than for ego. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2008-06-18 16:33 |
| #5 The ground transportation for the 160 floor building in Dubai would require complicated and bizarre efforts to service if they really expected they would fill it. Frankly, I think a lot of it will be empty offices. The proposed Talel tower building would require, in addition to the ground service problem, at least three banks of elevators to get a person to the top. It will also require a huge massively reinforced foundation slab. Finally, it will require the bottom floors to withstand compressive loads that are off the chart. and then there is the terrorism magnet problem |
| Posted by: mhw 2008-06-18 16:32 |
| #4 3dc, as I said earlier, it's the ultimate in glass houses, y'know? |
| Posted by: Abdominal Snowman 2008-06-18 14:50 |
| #3 When I read about these Dubai towers built on sand islands reclaimed from the sea... I just can't get that old spiritual song out of my mind... The wise man built his house upon the rock..... |
| Posted by: 3dc 2008-06-18 12:49 |
| #2 In 1965, a United Nations report predicted that the world's population would rise to 5.7 billion by 1995. It did. Yeah, and all these skyscrapers are being built with OUR money. Stupid stupid petroleum addiction. |
| Posted by: gromky 2008-06-18 11:39 |
| #1 Also - One World Trade Center in New York, also known as the Freedom Tower, from Silverstein Properties and designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, comes in at No. 11, at a symbolic 1,776 feet. |
| Posted by: Bobby 2008-06-18 06:52 |