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An artist's conception of Nakheel's new development complex  (Source: UK Sun)

Nakheel Towers itself.  (Source: UK Sun)
Yet Middle-East neighbors race to announce even taller buildings.

A Dubai development group has released plans for a colossal skyscraper over a full kilometer in height. The building, dubbed Nakheel Towers after its developer, will be the centerpiece of a new harbor development which Nakheel hopes will become the nation's new “unofficial” capital.

With the current record holder, the 2700-foot tall Burj Dubai, nearing completion nearby, this new structure would dwarf it by more than 600 feet. The building will have over 200 floors and 150 elevators. Special high-speed elevators will be fast enough to allow residents to view a sunset twice an evening: once from the bottom, and again from the top floor. The air temperature at the top floor could be as much as 18 degrees cooler than at ground level.

The entire complex will be home to some 55,000 people, a workplace for 45,000 more, as well as hosting art and cultural developments.

Speaking at a press conference in Dubai yesterday, Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, president of Nakheel holding company Dubai World, said the entire project will cost some $38B. "There is nothing like it in Dubai", he said.

Nakheel CEO Chris O'Donnell said he is confident that, despite troubled world financial markets, the firm will have no trouble raising the $5B/year the project requires. O'Donnell said, "when you go about trying to fund a project like this, you have to account for the economic cycles".

Nakheel currently has $60B worth of projects under construction.

Ground breaking has already commenced on the complex according to bin Sulayem. In addition to Nakheel Tower and the harbor development, some 40 smaller skyscrapers ranging up to 90 stories will also be constructed. The complex will be built in phases, and is due for completion in 2019.

The design is said to be inspired by various icons of Islamic architecture, such as Egypt's Alexandria harbor, the Alhambra in Spain, and the palaces and bridges of Esfahan in Iran.

But even as the announcement was made, rumors of a far larger building -- to be built in Saudi Arabia -- began to swirl. The competitor, said to be in pre-planning by Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal's Kingdom Holding, may be as much as a mile high, nearly twice as tall as Burj Dubai. The building's site would be in the Red Sea port of Jeddah, in Saudi Arabia

The nation of Kuwait is also working on plans for its own kilometer-high skyscraper, the Burj Mubarak.

Nakheel previously constructed the Palm Islands, a group of artificial islands off the coast of Dubai, built in the shape of a palm tree, as well as ”The World”, an artificial archipelago built in the shape of the planet Earth.

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What's the point?
By Rob94hawk on 10/6/2008 11:44:58 AM , Rating: 4
The US needs to stop buying foreign oil and start drilling for our own. We're funding everyone else's economy except our own.




RE: What's the point?
By Indianapolis on 10/6/2008 11:48:49 AM , Rating: 2
Hey, didn't you hear that drilling for oil is the equivalent of RAPING the planet? You aren't for rape are you?


RE: What's the point?
By FITCamaro on 10/6/2008 12:00:38 PM , Rating: 5
Yes.


RE: What's the point?
By Gul Westfale on 10/6/08, Rating: -1
RE: What's the point?
By crleap on 10/6/2008 12:36:25 PM , Rating: 5
we could build something bigger than that.
of course someone would fly a plane into it...


RE: What's the point?
By Gul Westfale on 10/6/2008 12:41:19 PM , Rating: 4
hahahahahahahahahahaaa

i knew someone would say it, but it still made me laugh :)

and yes, i know i will get voted down now by all the people that don't understand sarcasm... whatever :)


RE: What's the point?
By TerranMagistrate on 10/6/08, Rating: -1
RE: What's the point?
By Indianapolis on 10/6/2008 12:46:42 PM , Rating: 5
quote:
some retard with shit for brains and an affinity for penis-shaped buildings decides to build yet another one of these things, and you guys immediately turn it around and start talking about oil... bravo!


So I guess that making the mental connection between the oil market and Dubai's economic explosion is beyond your faculties?


RE: What's the point?
By Gul Westfale on 10/6/08, Rating: 0
RE: What's the point?
By xti on 10/6/08, Rating: 0
RE: What's the point?
By ebakke on 10/6/08, Rating: 0
RE: What's the point?
By Noya on 10/6/08, Rating: 0
RE: What's the point?
By dubldwn on 10/6/2008 1:07:54 PM , Rating: 5
Gul, I really hate you, but this time I couldn’t agree more. It seems many who read this article immediately got angry and started with the hate posts. Conspicuously missing are the right wing posters, because they know what a real manifestation of capitalism looks like: it looks like Hong Kong and Dubai. The irony is it was the wild hatred after 9/11 that caused these Arabs to fear their assets would be frozen in the US, resulting in them investing in their own country instead.
quote:
Before September 11, World Bank figures show Middle Eastern oil exporting countries were plowing as much as $25 billion a year into U.S. investments. For the three years of 2001-03, the figure reached $1.2 billion.

-Washington Times


RE: What's the point?
By FITCamaro on 10/6/2008 3:11:36 PM , Rating: 2
What am I invisible now? So unappreciated.


RE: What's the point?
By dryloch on 10/6/2008 7:49:55 PM , Rating: 2
Dubai looks great as long as you only look at the surface. You cannot go to Dubai if you have an Israeli passport. They are also using more or less indentured servants to build this great metropolis. The working conditions are miserable and if you don't like it that is too bad because you are not allowed to switch employers. I could go into the way women are treated the same as in Iran but why bother.


RE: What's the point?
By wvh on 10/6/2008 8:32:10 PM , Rating: 2
This counts for many places in time, including the US and Europe. All great constructions have been built by lowly workers in relatively miserable working conditions while the rich party at the top floor.

As for people with Israeli passports, I think few non-jewish/arab people really care about how these people try to deny access to each other in their respective countries because of some stupid age-old feuds and religiously motivated atrocities.

I don't deny the fact most muslims seem to live in the Dark Ages especially when it comes to savage punishments, but then again, even the US has trouble to give up the death penalty and torture – mostly supported by the religious far right, not unlike the situation in Iran.

Let this be an article about architecture.


RE: What's the point?
By FITCamaro on 10/7/2008 6:02:42 AM , Rating: 2
The death penalty has nothing to do with religion here. It has to do with believing in justice. With believing that some people will never change and are better off dead than alive. Someone who rapes and murders a child does not deserve to live. Someone who kills people intentionally and without remorse does not deserve to live. So what's the point of spending tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars for them to sit and rot in jail for the rest of their life, likely to get out due to crowded prisons, and then have them commit other crimes.

I'm not religious at all and I believe in the death penalty. My parents are Catholic and they believe in the death penalty against the teachings of the church.


RE: What's the point?
By Myg on 10/7/08, Rating: 0