Leaving New York City for a second, construction has now begun on the future world’s tallest building in Saudi Arabia. Located in Jeddah, the megatall–dubbed ‘Kingdom Tower’–will be the world’s first structure to rise over a kilometer in height. The building’s final height will be 1001 meters tall, or 3,284 feet, and it will have approximately 160 floors.
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| The Kingdom Tower: Image © adrian smith + gordon gill |
To put New York’s tallest buildings in perspective, that’s taller than three Chrysler Buildings stacked on top of each other. Even doubling One World Trade Center from spire to antenna tip (1,781 feet) would just barely surpass the height of the Kingdom Tower.
The world’s current tallest is nearby, in Dubai. The Burj Khalifa is a whopping 2,717 feet tall, and still retains the title of the world’s only skyscraper topping 2,000 feet in height.
If a Chinese developer has his way, the Burj Khalifa could actually be beaten by the Changsha J220 Sky City tower before the Kingdom Tower even begins to rise. That project–as proposed–will rise in only three months, but if or when the project ever even gets off the ground remains to be seen.
The announcement that construction is beginning on the Kingdom Tower comes from Bauer, whose press release mentions that the tower’s foundations will be sunk 110 meters into the ground. That is incredibly deep! Construction is expected to last at least five years, so completion by 2020 at the latest would seem to be a safe bet. The below video, from visualhouse, shows the Kingdom Tower in fantastic detail.
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Now this is an undertaking! Best of luck to you Saudi Arabia!