Construction starts on the tallest building in the world: one mile tall - The Kingdom Tower in Jedda

[telemann.livejournal.com]

Saudi Arabia is currently working on a skyscraper that will be twice the size of the current record holder, Dubai’s Burj Khalifa (here’s the view from the top and what happens when lightning strikes that one). At 1 mile (1,600 m; 5,280 ft) tall, the Saudi development has a projected cost of $30bn. A city with a capacity of 80,000 people will be constructed around the tower, extending over an area of 23 million square meters. Permission to build this beast of a building has been granted and construction work is under way. The first video below was shot at the project’s original announcement when the exact height was yet to be set. The second puts things in perspective a little more. In the aftermath of 9/11, it took New York City, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, two rounds of designs over nearly five years bickering with Larry Silverstein (he's currently "renting" the WTC from the Port Authority) to basically come up with a 10 billion dollar design that's really not iconic looking, and is pretty "meh" in terms of putting the city architecturally back on the map. Several (architectural) historians are using the trends of these types of buildings being constructed in the Middle East and Asia, as proof the "West" has lost it's creativity, and chutzpah (cf. Niall Ferguson's special series: Is the West History? To be honest, I wished the greatest city in the world would do something a little more edgey than WTC 1 :-/

Comments

[telemann.livejournal.com]

Sometimes a banana, is just, well, a banana.

[pastorlenny.livejournal.com]

Anyone who thinks the West has lost its chutzpah has obviously never watched Jerseylicious.

[telemann.livejournal.com]

lol

[pastorlenny.livejournal.com]

Am I allowed to nominate myself for QOTD?

[johnny9fingers.livejournal.com]

No, but this second one is pure gold.

[pastorlenny.livejournal.com]

:P

[htpcl.livejournal.com]

Actually yes.

[pastorlenny.livejournal.com]

Hehe. A little too late i guess.

[nevermind6794.livejournal.com]

Big, ambitious projects like this are important for lots of reasons, (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQhNZENMG1o) but this particular project, in this particular country, is just to stroke their rich people's egos. Same with a lot of those buildings in Asia.

They should focus on infrastructure for transportation, clean water and sanitation, health care, and education before building unnecessary skyscrapers.

In the voice of Peter Griffin:

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

I dunno, I don't think that's their egos they're stroking with those buildings.

Re: In the voice of Peter Griffin:

[jerseycajun.livejournal.com]

Indeed. If the "Naked Gun" movies were being made today they could substitute some of these towers for the "liftoff" sequence without missing a beat.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Someone in the House of Saud is obviously compensating for something.

[jerseycajun.livejournal.com]

In the States, we've had a place where you can stand and look a mile down for ages. It's called the Grand Canyon, and it's a damn sight better looking than all phallic edifices ever built.

That's not to say I'm not impressed by the engineering underneath these things (I have a structural engineering background), but it's more of a cold, detached admiration. It's hard to avoid seeing some architect *ahem* overcompensating when one looks at these things.

That said, from an architectural aesthetic, I don't see these new towers having very much character themselves. Maybe time will prove me wrong. The trade towers attracted all kinds of critics when the project was announced, but became indelibly identified with the city after a short while. It's not an uncommon phenomenon.

[johnny9fingers.livejournal.com]

Ah, but is the Grand Canyon susceptible to the same Freudian symbolic analysis: I mean could it be considered to be some sort of huge natural vulva?

[policraticus.livejournal.com]

If the Saudi's want to spend their oil money on this kind of building that is their business. Louis XIV build Versailles, after all; Ludwig II built Neuschwanstein. But I don't think you can point to the lack of these kind of ambitious engineering projects in the West as an indicator of decline. A mile high building isn't really economic in most parts of the US. Super buildings like this aren't really in demand. Now you can certainly point to the lackluster designs for the new WTC and the absurdly slow building schedule as evidence that we have become timid, diffident and beholden to regulators and special interests, but not simply the scale of the building.

FWIW. The Saudi tower is being designed by Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture. Of Chicago.

[the-rukh.livejournal.com]

I don't feel like making a new post about it as I really have nothing to add to the story and people will probably hear about it soon enough, but here's an example of work ethic:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-13598607

[the-rukh.livejournal.com]

Your broken image icon does not impress me.

[telemann.livejournal.com]

I don't think I've seen that yet. It looks silly :P

[blue-mangos.livejournal.com]

I still haven't forgiven Dubai for stealing the title of world's tallest free-standing structure from Toronto :(

[blue-mangos.livejournal.com]

YES!!!! *fistpumps*

[telemann.livejournal.com]

It's on the coast of the Red Sea, I *think* that's an active area fault wise. There's a new ocean being formed in East Africa, and I think the Red Sea is a part of that....and someone else mentioned that these mega-buildings cause localized stress in the earth's crust simply because there is such an immense weight concentrated in a comparatively small area. There are mini earthquakes and problems with other buildings in the area settling improperly, etc.

[telemann.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I know some lists made a big distinction between unoccupied towers or antennae: e.g. the new WTC building will really have only 80 occupied floors, everything else is just ....stuff. It's pretty meh, especially compared to what it's replacing.

[blue-mangos.livejournal.com]

This is why I used 'free-standing structure' rather than building. At the end I think the architects of the CN Tower were up there duct-taping antennas together to secure the title.

Skyscrapers and Cantillon Effects

[montecristo.livejournal.com]

According to Mark Thornton's Skyscrapers and Business Cycles (http://mises.org/daily/3038), I'd suspect that this development does not bode well for the world economy.

Re: Skyscrapers and Cantillon Effects

[telemann.livejournal.com]

Cool link, I know the Empire State Building was constructed at the height of the Depression, but was initially planned during the boom of the last years of the roaring 20s.

Re: Skyscrapers and Cantillon Effects

[ytterbius.livejournal.com]

Interesting concept.

It strikes me as a possibility. In this example, here are the Saudis spending 30B on this building, which is a kind of indication that they are in fact flush with cash, but don't have anything else that they could easily spend it on.

Re: Skyscrapers and Cantillon Effects

[telemann.livejournal.com]

When I posted this in my journal, several friends commented on how incredibly wasteful this project is, due to the fact of pumping all the water you need for sewage and air conditioning a mile up. Then the elevator issues too, but that's minor compared to just the sheer logistical engr. issues.

Re: Skyscrapers and Cantillon Effects

[mrbogey.livejournal.com]

Just put a hydroelectric generator on the sewage line. Taking a pee a mile high has to have some kinetic release.

Re: Skyscrapers and Cantillon Effects

[telemann.livejournal.com]

If the tenants are a bunch of old farts with prostates the size of melons, ain't going to be any kinetic release or hydro anything :P

[malasadas.livejournal.com]

Let me speak in favor of the free market:

If the commercial real estate market does not say that lower Manhattan needs a 1,776 foot tall phallus so we can ease our collective ego and wave it in the face of tragedy, then the Port Authority has no business building a 1,776 foot tall phallus on lower Manhattan.

The site obviously was going to be developed and the memorial is our collective business.

The rest of it?

Let the commercial real estate market decide.