Dubai opening world's tallest building

Dubai on Monday officially inaugurated the centerpiece of its decade-long construction boom, with the surprise revelation that the world-beating 168-story skyscraper -- seen by some as a symbol of the city's economic excess -- was even bigger than previously thought.

In a glitzy firework-lit ceremony, the city-state's ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum unveiled a plaque commemorating the event and also announced that the $1.5 billion structure has a new name: the Burj Khalifa.

Named after Khalifa Bin Zayed, the president of the United Arab Emirates -- and ruler of Abu Dhabi, which recently bailed out debt-ridden Dubai to the tune of $10 billion -- the tower was officially recorded as 828 meters tall, adding 10 meters on to previous height claims.

Six years in the making, and now 319 meters higher than previous skyscraping record-holder Taipei 101, Dubai's newest edifice commands dizzying views of the ambitious building program that has transformed the emirate.

The structure's architects, Chicago-based Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, have called the Burj Khalifa "a bold global icon that will serve as a model for future urban centers."

Declaring that "tall buildings are back," the company predicts that the groundbreaking techniques it used to push the Burj Khalifa to new heights should enable the construction of even taller towers in the future.
[via CNN.com]

Burj Dubai, at the center of a large-scale development, is the tallest building in the world and will be completed in 2010. The design combines cultural influences with cutting-edge technology to achieve high-performance. Its massing is manipulated in the vertical dimension to minimize the impact of wind on the tower's movement.

Project Facts

Completion Year: 2010
Site Area: 1,121,707 ft2
Project Area: 5,000,000 ft2
Building Height: 828 m