I usually eschew the bigger is better notion (I’m not sure what they are compensating for, but the drivers of Hummers and Escalades, and their ostentatious ilk, aren’t cool), except when it comes to buildings, and then BIGGER IS BETTER. The granddaddy of those buildings, the Burj Dubai, or Burj Khalifa as it is now named, was officially opened yesterday. Almost two years ago, I had the pleasure of seeing the Burj, which in Arabic means tower, while still under construction.
I arrived in Dubai in the late evening, and jumped in a taxi, glad to be shielded from the simmering heat. As the car neared my hotel, I could see this dark, monster-like building piercing the night sky. It looked foreboding and eerie. An army of construction workers, most plucked from Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh, scurried about like ants building up the colony for the Queen, or in this case, Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the current ruler of Dubai, one of the States that make up the United Arab Emirates.
I was staying at The Palace The Old Town (though a bit of a misnomer, because there is very little that is old in Dubai), and much to my delight when I awoke in the morning, I could see the Burj Dubai, rising majestically next to the hotel. Still in its unfinished state, the Burj had already surpassed the world’s next tallest building, Taipei 101. In fact, at this time, the tower’s final height was still unknown. Wow! The World needs more buildings like this, I thought to myself.
If the marvelous design of the building doesn’t wow you, then surely the details will:
- 160 stories
- 2,625 feet (almost 1,000 feet higher than Taipei 101)
- In 2007 became the world’s tallest building
I arrived in Dubai in the late evening, and jumped in a taxi, glad to be shielded from the simmering heat. As the car neared my hotel, I could see this dark, monster-like building piercing the night sky. It looked foreboding and eerie. An army of construction workers, most plucked from Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh, scurried about like ants building up the colony for the Queen, or in this case, Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the current ruler of Dubai, one of the States that make up the United Arab Emirates.
I was staying at The Palace The Old Town (though a bit of a misnomer, because there is very little that is old in Dubai), and much to my delight when I awoke in the morning, I could see the Burj Dubai, rising majestically next to the hotel. Still in its unfinished state, the Burj had already surpassed the world’s next tallest building, Taipei 101. In fact, at this time, the tower’s final height was still unknown. Wow! The World needs more buildings like this, I thought to myself.
If the marvelous design of the building doesn’t wow you, then surely the details will:
- 160 stories
- 2,625 feet (almost 1,000 feet higher than Taipei 101)
- In 2007 became the world’s tallest building
- In 2008 became the world’s tallest man-made structure
Many great cities around the world are defined by their amazing skylines. Think Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Shanghai, and Hong Kong. Even Sydney and Paris have signature buildings that have given rise to these great places. While there have been a few positive developments, I often wish the citizenry and decision makers in Vancouver were bolder when it comes to taller buildings.For the foreseeable future nothing will surpass the Burj Dubai, but surely some bold (and ego-driven) architect is drawing up plans in their head for a taller tower.
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