Thursday, September 8, 2011

Kingdom Tower


American architect Adrian Smith and his new firm Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture have designed what will be the new world's tallest building in 2017, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia's Kingdom Tower.

At a projected height of 1,000 m (or 3,280 ft) it will be a good 172 meters taller than current world's tallest building (and Adrian Smith design) Burj Khalifa in Dubai, UAE.

Adrian Smith has also famously designed the Trump International Tower in Chicago and the Jin Mao Tower in Shanghai.


Q: On the cost of the tower itself, $1.2 billion, how does that compare with what you might find in the U.S.?

A.S.: "Well, New York is a very expensive place to build. In the Middle East you have very inexpensive labor and they work three shifts, so they keep going all around the clock. That helps keep the cost of construction low here. But it's comparable to Chicago, and other parts of the U.S."

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