Burj Khalifa, now the World’s Tallest Building!!

 

I was speechless the moment I saw the video displaying the recent  introduction of Burj Khalifa in this oil-rich kingdom of United Arab Emirates. I just don’t know how to react seeing another spectacular man-made structure amidst the fall of the world economy.Is this country being affected by global recession at all? Not obvious huh. Just like Laurent Belsie of CS Monitor said, the Burj Khalifa is an “exuberant architectural triumph in the middle of a deep economic swamp”

Long known as Burj Dubai — Arabic for “Dubai Tower” — the building rises 2,717 feet (828 meters) from the desert. The $1.5 billion “vertical city” of luxury apartments and offices and a hotel designed by Giorgio Armani also plans to have the world’s highest mosque (158th floor) and swimming pool (76th floor).

The exact number of floors for the Burj Khalifa is not known, and could reflect how the developer chose to calculate the total.

Mohammed Alabbar, chairman of the tower’s developer Emaar Properties, initially said Monday it had “more than 200″ stories, but he later backtracked to more than 165 inhabitable floors, given its tapered top. Promotional materials sent before the tower’s opening said it contained 160 stories. Developers say they are confident in the safety of the tower, which is nearly twice the height of New York’s Empire State Building.