Dubai super tower
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The world’s tallest building has been opened in a dramatic fireworks ceremony in the Gulf emirate of Dubai. The Burj Khalifa was revealed to be more than 2,700 feet high, far taller than the previous record holder, Taipei 101. Known as the Burj Dubai during construction, the tower has been renamed after the leader of Dubai’s oil-rich neighbor, Abu Dhabi. Construction of the super tower began in 2004, at the height of an economic boom but now the opening came after a financial crisis which has seen Dubai bailed out by Abu Dhabi. Bernard Zand, is a correspondent for the German weekly ‘Der Spiegel’
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JEB SHARP: Bernhard Zand reports for the German weekly Der Spiegel. His home is in the shadow of the new tower. He points out that it took a lot of blood, sweat and tears to complete the building.
BERNHARD ZAND: The first thing it took was a huge number of workers, naval workers really from the subcontinent mostly, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. At the end of the building period the number of workers was 14,000, which was a logistical nightmare to bring all the people in and out at the right time. They worked for five years 24 hours a day in three shifts and there was only one day that they had to close the building site. That was during a cyclone over the Indian Ocean.
JEB: And what these workers created this Burj Khalifa is a metal and glass spire with 160 floors, luxury apartments, offices, four swimming pools, a private library, a hotel designed by Giorgio Armani, what does it look like to you from outside and inside?
BERNHARD: We didn’t see very much yet from the inside. We went up to the observation deck this morning what, actually it surprised me positively was that it is all quite simple. There is not too much kitsch if you like. It kind of breathes with the spirit I think of the American architect of the building, Adrian Smith. This is not as opulent and not as Baroque a building as for example Taipei 101, the tower in Taipei would appear to be or the Patronis tower in Kuala Lumpur. It’s actually a very simple and needle-like clear structure and it looks particularly nice at dusk and dawn when it reflects the sunlight in a very unique way.
JEB: It’s so striking that this building sort of gleaming up out of the sands comes at this time of financial crisis. How are people viewing it and what’s going to become of the spaces inside it? Are they rented and sold?
BERNHARD: I think in general the people of Dubai and of course the leadership of Imar, the company behind the Burge, are quite happy to be able to open the building right now and to have this big ceremony. It is just basically good news. As I understand most of the hotel floors are occupied by this Giorgio Armani hotel anyway, and the residential floors above that seem to be mostly sold. I would be skeptic as far as the occupancy of the as they call it, corporate suites will look like. Obviously Dubai has been to much too much office space, it is said to have as much office space as the city of Shanghai, which has about ten times the population of Dubai. So I would be very surprised if they really could occupy the office floors on top of the tower any time soon.
JEB: And yet you suggested it’s seen as something positive and not as kind of arrogant over reach.
BERNHARD: Not at all. I think one of the main motifs and the main driving forces to build this tower has not only been to show to the world what Dubai can do, but also to show what the Arabs can do. There is a very strong element of pride in it. I think this is one of the main headlines today is the tower of pride. It was a very joyful opening ceremony and there is no negativity whatsoever about it.
JEB: And you were lucky enough to be at the ceremony this evening. Just give us a bit more flavor of what it was like.
BERNHARD: I have to say it was really impressive. The audience was seated quite close to the tower and immediately under it so the fireworks that went off really went off literally above us and there were lots of ahs and ohs. I for myself hadn’t seen a firework of this dimension before.
JEB: Well thank you. Bernhard Zend writes for the German weekly Der Spiegel. Thanks for talking to us about it.
BERNHARD: My pleasure.
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