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IANS
Dubai, Jun 27: The pattern of the virtually extinct desert flower Hymenocallis is the inspiration behind what is going to become the world's tallest building in this desert boomtown in the next one month or so.
The Burj Dubai tower will not be conferred the title of the world's tallest building officially yet by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) as it is still under construction. But it will unofficially become the world's tallest building once it crosses the 509-metre mark of the now tallest building in the world, the Taipei 101, by early August.
As of now, the tower is a little over 480 metres - '132 floors and rising', proclaims a signboard near this architectural marvel.
"The building will be ready for inauguration by December 2008," Scott Pottruss, director of development in Emaar Properties, the real estate giant behind this imposing structure, told a visiting Indian media team on the 106th floor of the tower. Construction had started in 2004.
This iconic super-tower is the flagship component of downtown Burj Dubai, touted as "the most prestigious square kilometre in the world" by developers Emaar.
It is one of the two anchors of downtown Burj Dubai, the other being The Dubai Mall, which is going to be the world's largest mall. And the mall will house an aquarium, which again will be the world's largest.
Downtown Burj Dubai is an integration of residences, commercial space, hospitality projects, retail outlets, boulevards, landscaped parks and lakes.As of now, 143 floors of the Burj tower are already sold out. And the going rate is 4,000 dirhams a square foot.
Designed by Chicago-based Skidmore, Owings and & Merrill, the Burj Dubai tower is being constructed by high-rise experts South Korea's Samsings Corporation. Turner Construction International is the project and construction manager.
In all, 35,000 people will populate this tower, which will comprise a hotel, private apartments and office space.
The centrepiece of the tower will be a haute couture Giorgio Armani Hotel in the first 37 floors. Floors 45 through 108 will have private apartments while the rest of the floors will have corporate offices and suites.
There will also be recreational facilities and entertainment venues including four luxurious pools and a cigar club, a library, exclusive residents' lounge, serviced residences and 15,000 sq ft of fitness facilities.
An observatory deck on the 124th floor or 442 metres above ground will be the world's highest publicly accessible observation deck.
As for safety aspects, the super tower will have a unique fire safety system.
"People need not run to the ground floor in case a fire breaks out," said Pottruss. "There will be refugee zones at various levels, where people can wait for rescue operations."
Overall, the structure will be a reflection of Islamic motifs based on the Hymenocallis flower. From a broad base, the building tapers off as it rises, with a steel shaft shooting up at the top.
As 3,000 workers work in multiple shifts to meet the December 2008 deadline, the tower is changing the Dubai skyline every few days.
"Almost 23 billion manhours are have been put in till now," Roger Krishnamurthy, the Indian safety head at the construction site, said.
For trivia buffs, here are a few facts about the building: the Burj Dubai's spire can be seen by a person 95 km away on a clear day; the building service/fireman's elevator will have a capacity of 5,500 kg and will be the world's tallest service elevator; the curtain wall of the building will be equivalent to 17 football fields; and the concrete used for the building is equal to a sidewalk 1,900 km long!
"Burj Dubai will ever present on the skyline and the centre of the new city," according to the monument's designer Adrian Smith, whose other works include the Trump International Hotel and NBC Tower in Chicago, the Jin Mao Tower in Shanghai and the Rowes Wharf in Boston. "It will bring a sense of awe and wonder to a city that already contains such traits and will redefine the limits of these words."
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