All the cranes have come down from Burj Dubai, according to a source close to the project. “The last crane was down by the third week of October,” the source told Emirates Business.

In September, an Emaar spokesperson had sent this newspaper a statement that the last of the cranes atop the Burj Dubai would be taken down in a few weeks. The cranes were originally supposed to come down by end of August.

The building, when completed, will meet all four criteria listed by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) – the body that classifies the world’s tallest structures.

CTBUH measures the height of buildings to the structural top, the highest occupied floor, the top of the roof and the tip of the spire, pinnacle, antenna, mast or flag pole.

Emaar said last month that the Burj Dubai tower has accomplished a world record for the highest installation of an aluminium and glass façade. Keeping the tower façade clean will be the next engineering challenge, it said. “To guarantee that every corner of Burj Dubai sparkles, 18 window-washing units are built into the tower,” said the statement.

Work on what would have been the world’s tallest building, standing more than 1km high, has been put on hold for at least a year.

In a move that suggests the property bubble has finally popped in Dubai, government-owned developer Nakheel said it was halting “further work” on the building’s foundations.

It is not known just how much work has already been completed.

“This is part of our readjustment of our immediate business plans to better reflect the current market trends and match supply with demand,” Nakheel said in a statement.

It is a bitter blow for the firm, which has also downed tools on the Trump Tower and International Hotel in December and delayed work on projects including Frond N villas, Gateway Towers and schemes at the Waterfront and the Palm Jebel Ali.

The New York Times says the world’s hottest property market – Dubai – has gone cold and that this could be the beginning of a big property slide in the emirate.

Nakheel Tower (Nakheel/PA Wire)

Burj Dubai – the tallest building in the world – has hit topping out stage.

At least that is the rumour setting the internet ablaze at the moment – an official announcement has yet to be made.

Witnesses in Dubai say the tower has hit well over 800m and will not be going any higher and Wiki claims topping out was achieved 17 January.

Local media reports the skyscraper is being prepped for an 09/09/09 soft opening.

What we do know for sure is that workers are adding an antenna with a blinking light to the tower.

Samsung Engineering and Construction has confirmed its’ workers are on the job.

The global financial crisis has assured that Emaar’s Burj Dubai would continue to remain the tallest skyscraper, atleast for a decade, and would keep up the region’s pride, say analysts.

Although, several other projects were announced that claimed to surpass Burj Dubai’s height, analysts now agree that all such projects would require several billions for completion, and hence, they have all been bought to a halt.

The crisis is expected to govern global lives for the next three to five years, and an additional five years at least, would be required for the towers to surpass the 818 meters final height of Burj Dubai, and hence, it is now safe to say that the astonishing landmark, Burj Dubai, would cement its place as the world’s tallest building till 2019.

About four projects have been announced till date to outstrip Dubai. One being the Al Burj Tower by Nakheel in Dubai, the others are the Murjan Tower 1 in Bahrain, Burj Mubarak al-Kabir in Kuwait, and a kilometer high tower for Jeddah by Saudi Arabian Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal.

Dubai’s iconic Burj Al Arab and Emirates Towers will be joined by another iconic building with the launch of Sunland Group’s The Atrium, a USD 2.2 Billion luxury mixed-use development with a highly sculptural glass façade, located in Madinat Al Arab, the premier beachfront community at the prestigious Waterfront precinct – one of the most important masterplan projects forming the new Dubai.

Launched on 6 October – the first day of Cityscape Dubai and Sunland’s 25 year anniversary – the development’s unique and majestic design is set to be one of Waterfront’s most iconic buildings reaching 278 meters above sea level.

Set in landscaped gardens and enjoying head-turning views across the Arabian Gulf, The Atrium will provide a collection of stylish residences including studios, one, two and three-bedroom apartments, Skyhomes and four and five bedroom penthouses. Levels 2 to 68 of The Atrium will be dedicated to residences with an entire floor of lifestyle amenities on level one. This will include a residents’ lounge, two swimming pools, gymnasium, health spa, business lounge and library, juice bar, two private residents’ cinemas, billiards room, children’s activity centre, golf simulator, and function room.

At lobby level there is a 24 hour concierge providing access to each residential wing, along with ground level specialty retail shops and restaurants with secure basement parking. The collection of luxury apartments will range from 60 m² for a studio apartment up to 1,250 m² for a presidential-style penthouse on the top 68th residential floor.

In reflection of The Atrium’s location on Waterfront, one of Dubai’s most important masterplan projects, Sunland Group launched an international external design competition for the project and shortlisted four of the world’s foremost architectural firms. The winning architectural practice was award-winning Pickard Chilton, who designed Four Seasons Place in Kuala Lumpur which was designed to complement the neighbouring Petronas Towers.

The Atrium will rise as two arching towers, blending together at the 47th level as one to form a sculpted gateway, framing and maximising view to the Arabian Gulf and the City. The distinguished design captures the sophisticated essence of the international and dynamic city that is Dubai.

The Dubai developer Nakheel – the company that created man-made islands in the shapes of a palm tree and the world – said the structure would be the centre-piece of an inner-city harbour planned as the emirate’s unofficial capital.

It would not comment on the exact height or cost of the Islamic design-inspired Nakheel Tower. The building will have “more than 200 floors” and be part of “a multi-billion pound development”, the company said.

Speaking at a press conference yesterday, a cautious Nakheel chief executive officer, Christopher O’Donnell, said: “From our perspective, we are building a tower that’s going to be over a kilometre in height. This is a complete iconic development. It may be the tallest.”

The tower and harbour project will take more than 10 years to complete. Apart from the landmark structure, there will be another 40 towers, ranging in height from 20 floors to 90 floors. The entire development will be home to more than 55,000 people and a workplace for more than 45,000.

Dubai said Sunday it is embarking on an even more ambitious skyscraper: one that will soar the length of more than 10 American football fields.

That’s about two-thirds of a mile or the height of more than three of New York’s Chrysler Buildings stacked end-to-end.

The tower, which will take more than a decade to complete, will be the centerpiece of a sprawling development state-owned builder Nakheel plans to create in the rapidly growing “New Dubai” section of the city. Foundation work has already begun, O’Donnell said.

About 150 elevators will carry residents and workers to the Nakheel Tower’s more than 200 floors, the company said. The building will be composed of four separate towers joined at various levels and centered on an open atrium.

The company said the new project is inspired by Islamic design and draws inspiration from sites such as the Alhambra in Spain and the harbor of Alexandria in Egypt.

“There is nothing like it in Dubai,” said Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, Nakheel’s chairman.

Perhaps not quite. But Dubai is already home to the world’s tallest building, even if it remains unfinished.

That skyscraper, the Burj Dubai, or Dubai Tower in Arabic, is being built by Nakheel’s chief competitor, Emaar Properties.

Some Interesting facts about the Burj Dubai:

1. The elevators will have the world’s longest travel distance from lowest to highest stop

2. Hot air on the outside will condense due to the large cooling needs of the building. The condensation will be collected and used to water the buildings flora and fauna. 20 Olympic sized swimming pools per year of water.

3. There are 1,210 fire extinguishers on the site.

4. At the peak cooling times, the tower will require approximately 10,000 tonnes of cooling per hour.

5. The tower’s observation deck will be located 442 metres above ground, the highest publicly accessible observation deck in the world.

6. Condensation on the building will be collected and drained down to a holding tank located in the basement from where it will be pumped into the site irrigation system for use on the tower’s landscaped gardens. This system will provide about 15 million gallons of supplemental water per year, equivalent to nearly 20 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

7. The amount of steel rebar used for the tower is 31,400 metric tons – laid end to end this would extend over a quarter of the way around the world.

8. Dubai has set a new world record for vertical concrete pumping for a building, by pumping to over 460 metres. The previous record was held by Taipei 101 for pumping concrete up to a height of 448 metres.

9. Burj Dubai will also break the world record for altitude transportation of concrete before construction is complete.

10. The total area of cladding used to cover the Burj Dubai will be equivalent to 17 football fields.

11. The concrete used for the Burj Dubai is equivalent to: a solid cube of concrete 61 metres on a side, a sidewalk 1,900 kilometres long, the weight of 100,000 elephants.

12. The tower’s peak electricity demand is estimated at 36MVA, equivalent to roughly 360,000 100-watt light bulbs.

13. There will be 200 metres of dancing fountains at the foot of the Burj Dubai.

14. The Burj Dubai will feature the world’s first Armani Hotel.

15. Burj Dubai derives its design inspiration from the desert flower, Hymenocalis, and incorporates patterning systems that are embodied in Islamic architecture.

16. 54 lifts are to be installed in the tower.

17. The Burj Dubai spire will be visible from as far away as 95 kms.

18. At 5,500 kg capacity, the firemen/service elevator will be the world’s tallest service elevator.

19. First mega-rise to have elevators with specially programmed, permit-controlled evacuation procedures. (I wonder how they work? Weren’t we supposed Not to use evaluators in case of an emergency)

20. Highest publicly accessible observation tower at 442 meters. ( Go up and watch miles and miles of desert as well as ocean I guess!)

21. The curtain wall of Burj Dubai will be equivalent to 17 football fields.

22. The total glass requirement is 142K sq/m

23. The car park has approx. 3,000 parking places in four levels and a total area of just under 89,000 m2.

24. The car park ventilation system must comply with the USstandards Ashrae and AMCA for air quality and fan requirements and must in case of fire be suitable for operating at 300°C for not less than 60 minutes.
25. The double deck cabin elevators are the fatest in the world and also the one to travel the longest from a lower to higher point. The speed of the cabin is 18 m/sec (40 mph).

26. It also has the worlds first programmed and controlled evacuation in the world.

27. It can withstand the worst storm to hit dubai in a 100 years

28. It has 15,000 sq ft of fitness facilities.

29. A cigar Club
30. Connected to the largest mall in the world.

And for the environmentally inclined person:

1. Power requirement is 36 KVA is equivalent of 36K lights bulbs of 100 watts each operating at the same time.

2. The cooling requirement is 10K tonnes of melting ice every day.

3. 15 Million gallons of supplemental water are collected and drained every day

And lastly, 33,236 Men in Blue work at the site on a regular basis.

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..

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..

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.

The Ras al Khaimah Convention and Exhibtion Centre looks a lot like something out of Star Wars. Unlike the traditional high-rise building, the design for the Ras al Khaimah Convention and Exhibition Centre accommodates all primary functions, such as the convention centre, hotel rooms, apartments, offices and retail space in a giant sphere.

Don’t like the view? Wait a few minutes and it will change.

In skyscraper-crazy Dubai, tall isn’t enough. In a design to be unveiled today in the oil-rich emirate, David Fisher, an Italian-Israeli architect, has dreamed up a 68-story combination hotel, apartment and office tower where the floors would rotate 360 degrees. Each floor would rotate independently, creating a constantly changing architectural form.

Each story of the tower would be shaped like a doughnut and be attached to a center core housing elevators, emergency stairs and other utilities. Wind turbines placed in gaps between the doughnuts would generate electricity.

The doughnuts won’t rotate fast enough to give guests upset stomachs. A single rotation would take around 90 minutes. “It’s quite slow,” says Mr. Fisher.

Whatever next for the Arabian city that has an artificial ski slope covered in snow even when the temperature hits 50C? Not to mention the world’s tallest building, some 7,000 metres (2,300 ft) high, rising above palm-shaped artificial archipelagos in the warm waters of the Persian Gulf. Oh, and a growth rate of 16% and a population where foreigners in need of “luxury” homes outnumber locals.

Well, what about the world’s first rotating skyscraper?

Commissioned by the Dubai Property Ring, a firm of UK-based developers, the 30-storey apartment block will use solar energy to power 20 electric motors that will rotate the tower through 360 degrees over the course of a week.

“This will be a fair building,” says Nick Cooper, the British engineer working with MG Bennet and Associates of Rotherham, which will build the mechanism. “Everybody will have the same views for the same amount of time.”

Mr Cooper is not referring to “fair” as in “funfair” – though the building is, it has to be said, the spectacular proposed centrepiece of the giant City of Arabia amusement park, complete with animatronic dinosaurs, which is due to open in 2009.

Time Residences will comprise 200 apartments. Its 80,000-tonne bulk will rest on a series of more or less friction-free polymer bearings. “It moves very slowly,” says Mr Cooper. “It is not a theme park ride.”

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill has started construction on a 75-story helix-shaped tower in the Dubai Marina, one of the wealthy Emirate’s prime residential neighborhoods.

The “dancing” skyscraper, to be named Infinity Tower, will rotate 90 degrees as it rises while maintaining a constant floor-plate throughout its height. SOM Managing Partner George Efstathiou, AIA, predicts that the tower’s winding shape will make it the marina’s principal landmark, and perhaps a symbol of Dubai itself. According to Efstathiou, the building will offer its residents views of the waterfront without disrupting the vistas of neighboring buildings.

The 995-foot-high tower will comprise 456 residential units, ranging from studios to full-floor penthouses. It will include a street-level shopping arcade, conference centers, lounges, a child-care center, a health spa, exercise facilities, and an outdoor pool.