The Tallest Buildings in the World

Seoul and other major cities across the nation will see a new skyline as the construction of 12 skyscrapers with over 100 stories is underway.

These buildings will stand at least 400 meters high, according to the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs.

Seoul alone will have six skyscrapers, including Dream Tower, with 152 stories at a height of 620 meters in Yongsan, and the second Lotte World building in Jamsil. In the nation’s largest port city, Busan, four skyscrapers will be constructed, including Busan Lotte World, 120 and 510 meters high.

Korea is expected to outrun other nations in terms of number of skyscrapers with over 100 stories if all these towers are completed. Currently, the United Arab Emirates has six skyscrapers of a similar scale, followed by the United States with four and China with one.

Such constructions are expected to become a landmark and serve as a new source of tourism and regional economic growth. The existence of such high buildings also helps its neighborhood become better developed.

Some are concerned they may be hazardous in the face of natural or human disasters such as earthquakes and fire.

“We have basic guidelines for the construction of skyscrapers, which consider the city’s overall appearance and safety,'’ an official from the Seoul City Government said.

Another problem might be financing the construction.

The construction of buildings with more than 50 stories requires approximately twice the budget as those with fewer than 50. They also require high-tech methods of construction with the combination of various industries.

Consequently, projects for the construction of skyscrapers face difficulties in finding business partners or forming consortiums.

Some of the projects are pending due to finance issues, such as the construction of a skyscraper in Junggu, downtown Seoul, and a tour resort complex in Haeundae, Busan.

The race to build the world’s tallest building has reached a new level with plans for a mile-high tower to be built near the Red Sea port of Jeddah in Saudi Arabia.

The multi-billionaire owner of the Savoy Hotel in London has unveiled plans for the ambitious £5 billion tower, which will overtake skyscrapers planned or under construction in Kuwait and Dubai.

The Mile High Tower will be double the height of its nearest rival and visitors will be able to see Africa from the top of the tower.

Riyadh-based Kingdom Holding, which is controlled by billionaire Prince al-Walid bin Talal, will invite bids before July for contracts to build the tower in Saudi Arabia’s commercial capital. It is estimated the project will cost approximately 5 billion pounds. The project will push architecture and engineering to new limits, as the tower must be robust enough to withstand the extremes of temperature and strong desert winds in the region. Masterminded by British-based engineers, the building will be onstructed in a “mini-city” near the Red Sea port of Jeddah and ould be twice the height of the world’s tallest building.

The 51-year-old’s Kingdom Holdings has appointed a joint venture et up by Hyder Consulting and Arup, the London enginerring irms, to build the 5 billion pounds tower.

The building will be fitted with a giant computer-operated damper tretching down several floors - to counter the nausea-inducing way caused by the wind.

The structure will also be stabilized by two mini-towers, lanking the building’s base and attached to the main structure y arched sky-bridges.

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The world’s tallest skyscraper under construction in the Persian Gulf city-state of Dubai will take longer than planned to finish, its builders said, putting off the opening planned for the end of this year.

The Burj Dubai tower currently stands over 1,700 feet tall. The state-owned developer Emaar Properties said completion would be postponed until sometime in 2009. It did not give specifics, but the newspaper Gulf News and the online news site ArabianBusiness.com said the delay would be four months.

“The company would rather opt for a nominal delay in total quality execution of the Burj Dubai … than compromise on any aspect of quality,” Emaar, one of the main builders in this Gulf boomtown, said in a press release without elaborating.

Emaar did not give the reason for the delay.

The final height of Burj Dubai is a closely guarded secret. Emaar’s representatives previously said the tower will stop somewhere above 2,275 feet.

Last summer, the company said the skyscraper had reached 1,680 feet, surpassing Taiwan’s Taipei 101 which has dominated the global skyline at 1,667 feet since 2004.

When completed, the Burj Dubai will have more than 160 floors, 56 elevators, luxury apartments, boutiques, swimming pools, spas, exclusive corporate suites, Italian fashion designer Giorgio Armani’s first hotel, and a 124th floor observation platform.

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The world’s tallest skyscraper under construction in the Persian Gulf city-state of Dubai will take longer than planned to finish, its builders said, putting off the opening planned for the end of this year.

The Burj Dubai tower currently stands over 1,700 feet tall. The state-owned developer Emaar Properties said completion would be postponed until sometime in 2009. It did not give specifics, but the newspaper Gulf News and the online news site ArabianBusiness.com said the delay would be four months.

“The company would rather opt for a nominal delay in total quality execution of the Burj Dubai … than compromise on any aspect of quality,” Emaar, one of the main builders in this Gulf boomtown, said in a press release without elaborating.

Emaar did not give the reason for the delay.

The final height of Burj Dubai is a closely guarded secret. Emaar’s representatives previously said the tower will stop somewhere above 2,275 feet.

Last summer, the company said the skyscraper had reached 1,680 feet, surpassing Taiwan’s Taipei 101 which has dominated the global skyline at 1,667 feet since 2004.

When completed, the Burj Dubai will have more than 160 floors, 56 elevators, luxury apartments, boutiques, swimming pools, spas, exclusive corporate suites, Italian fashion designer Giorgio Armani’s first hotel, and a 124th floor observation platform.

More..

Two days ago, the all-authoritative Xinhua produly proclaimed that the new building, which is to be named Shanghai Center (we are unsure if this has any relation to the existing Shanghai Center) will be the tallest building east of Dubai at 580 meters and 118 stories. According to them, that’s 72 meters higher than the Taipei 101 Tower, currently the tallest building in Asia at 508 meters.

Bangalore is all set to have the world’s tallest sky tower at Tippasandra near BDA’s Anjanapura Layout. The proposed tower will scale 560 metres, beating the Canadian National Tower (553 metres) in Toronto.

The sky tower was earlier planned in Freedom Park on the old Central Jail premises, but was scrapped because it would have attracted a lot of tourists, leading to traffic problems.

The proposed tower will be built to boost communications, tourism and commercial activities. It will be a major landmark in the southern part of the city.

A special feature of the tower is that it will be a major revenue earner for the BBMP. With a microwave dish platform at an altitude of 410 metres, the tower will enhance overseas and inter-departmental communications of government organizations like the Railways, All India Radio (AIR), police and Doordarshan.

Four floors will be earmarked for these organizations.

This apart, four floors will be set aside for private telecom giants, who will set up their infrastructure.

The floor diameter at 350 metres serves as a microwave disc platform to facilitate live telecast of major events within a radius of 100 km. Visitors can get a bird’s eye view of Bangalore from here.

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Created by Skidmore Owings & Merrill (the same group behind New York City’s Freedom Tower), it will be a zero-energy building — and thanks to its massive array of solar panels up top actually feed back to the grid. Everything from air-conditioning to heating to lighting will be covered by clean, green energy — enough to cover the needs of the 5,000 people expected to work there.

“It’s unique cooling system will take cold water from the river Seine and pump it around the building - eliminating the need for a traditional air conditioner. The building will also utilize cutting edge insulation, reducing amount of electricity consumption per square meter of office space per year to 16 kilowatts, the lowest in the world for a building of its size.”

Cost are expected to be about 25%-30% above that of a comparable old school office structure.

BusinessWeek and Architectural Record announced the 2007 Architectural Awards.

The submissions are:

1. Award of Excellence - InterActiveCorp Headquarters - New York

Architect: Gehry Partners/Studios Architecture

2. Award of Excellence - Young Center For The Performing Arts - Toronto

Architect: Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects
3. Award of Excellence - U.S. Census Bureau Headquarters - Suitland Md.

Architect: Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

4. Award of Excellence - Navy Federal Credit Union Heritage Oaks Center, Building One - Pensacola, Fla.

Architect: ASD

5. Citation for Excellence - Four Seasons Center For The Performing Arts - TorontoArchitect: Diamond & Schmitt Architects

6. Citation for Excellence - Hearst Tower - New York

Architect: Foster + Partners/Gensler

7. Citation for Excellence - Hubbell Lighting Headquarters - Greenville, S.C.

Architect: McMillan Smith & Partners Architects

8. Citation for Excellence - SJ Berwin - London

Architect: HOK
9. Citation for Excellence - San Diego Padres Ballpark/ Petco Park - San Diego

Architect: Antoine Predock Architect/HOK Sports

10. Citation for Excellence -Gardiner Museum - Toronto
Architect: Kuwabara Payne Mckenna Blumberg Architects

The Qatari government is close to buying most of London’s £400m Shard of Glass development, skyscraper that has not yet been built, Doha Time reported.

The 66-storey London Bridge Tower, otherwise known as the Shard of Glass, is built in south London this will become one of the tallest buildings in Europe.

Michael Schumacher, a veritable landmark in motor racing history, is to become an actual landmark.

To enable Schuey to continue to tower over the rest of the field, so to speak, a German company undertaking construction projects in the Gulf emirate of Dubai is building the Michael Schumacher Business Avenue. The construction project is to be highlighted by a 29-floor dual-purpose commercial/residential tower. The champion himself is expected to fly out to Dubai – where he already has his own island – to kick-start the project, which is expected to begin construction within the next three months.

Believe it or not, Schumacher won’t be the first German-speaking, former Ferrari-driving, multiple-world-championship-winning F1 driver to get a complex named after him in the Dubai development: the Niki Lauda Twin Towers are located nearby.