Burj Dubai, the world's tallest tower by emaar

Burj Dubai is a supertall skyscraper in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and is the tallest man-made structure ever built, at 818 m (2,684 ft). Construction began on 21 September 2004, with the exterior of the structure completed on 1 October 2009 and the building officially opened on 4 January 2010.

The building is part of the 2 km2 (0.8 sq mi) flagship development called "Downtown Burj Dubai" at the "First Interchange" along Sheikh Zayed Road, near Dubai's main business district. The tower's architect is Adrian Smith, who worked with Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM) until 2006. The Chicago-based architecture and engineering firm SOM was in charge of the project design. The primary builder is a joint venture of South Korean Samsung C&T, who also built the Taipei 101 and Petronas Twin Towers. Besix and Arabtec. Turner Construction Company was chosen as the construction project manager. Under UAE law, the Contractor and the Engineer of Record are jointly and severally liable for the performance of Burj Dubai. Therefore, by adoption of SOM’s design and by being appointed as Architect and Engineer of Record, Hyder Consulting is legally the Design Consultant for the tower.

The total budget for the Burj Dubai project is about US $4.1 billion; and for the entire new "Downtown Dubai", US $20 billion. Mohamed Ali Alabbar, the CEO of Emaar Properties, speaking at the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat 8th World Congress, said that the price of office space at Burj Dubai had reached US $4,000 per sq ft (over US $43,000 per m2) and that the Armani Residences, also in Burj Dubai, were selling for US $3,500 per sq ft (over US $37,500 per m2).

Though unconfirmed, Burj Dubai has been rumoured to have undergone several planned height increases since its inception. Originally proposed as a virtual clone of the 560 m (1,837 ft) Grollo Tower proposal for Melbourne, Australia's Docklands waterfront development, the tower was redesigned with an original design by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill discussed below. Marshall Strabala, an SOM architect who worked on the project until 2006, recently said that Burj Dubai was designed to be 808 m (2,650 ft) tall.

The design architect, Adrian Smith, felt that the uppermost section of the building did not culminate elegantly with the rest of the structure, so he sought and received approval to increase it to the currently planned height. It has been explicitly stated that this change did not include any added floors, which is fitting with Smith's attempts to make the crown more slender. However, the top of the tower has a steel frame structure, unlike the lower portion's reinforced concrete.

Emaar Properties announced on 9 June 2008 that construction of Burj Dubai was delayed by upgraded finishes and would be completed only in September 2009. An Emaar spokesperson said "The luxury finishes that were decided on in 2004, when the tower was initially conceptualized, is now being replaced by upgraded finishes. The design of the apartments has also been enhanced to make them more aesthetically attractive and functionally superior." A revised completion date of 2 December 2009 was then announced.

The tower is designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, which also designed the Willis Tower in Chicago, Illinois and 1 World Trade Center in New York City, among numerous other famous high-rises. The building resembles the bundled tube form of the Willis Tower, but is not a tube structure. Its design is reminiscent of Frank Lloyd Wright's vision for The Illinois, a mile high skyscraper designed for Chicago.

According to Marshall Strabala, an SOM architect who worked on the building's design team, Burj Dubai was designed based on the 73-floor Tower Palace Three, an all-residential building in Seoul, South Korea. In its early planning, Burj Dubai was intended to be entirely residential.

Subsequent to the original design by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, Emaar Properties chose Hyder Consulting to be the Supervision Consultant, Engineer and Architect of Record, for its structural, facade and MEP engineering capability (MEP - mechanical, electrical and plumbing, and encompasses all fire and life safety systems within the building). In this role Hyder Consulting reengineered structural, facades and MEP systems to suit the contractor’s and local authority requirements. Hyder Consulting was also responsible for the geotechinical design of Burj Dubai's foundations with Hyder's own geotechnical specialist, Grahame Bunce heading up a design team that included the world-renowned soil mechanics expert Harry Poulos in a peer-review role. Emaar Properties has also engaged GHD, an international multidisciplinary consulting firm, act as an independent verification and testing authority for concrete and steelwork.

The design of Burj Dubai is derived from patterning systems embodied in Islamic architecture. The design architect Adrian Smith has said the triple-lobed footprint of the building was inspired by the flower Hymenocallis. The tower is composed of three elements arranged around a central core. As the tower rises from the flat desert base, setbacks occur at each element in an upward spiralling pattern, decreasing the cross section of the tower as it reaches toward the sky. There are 27 terraces in Burj Dubai. At the top, the central core emerges and is sculpted to form a finishing spire. A Y-shaped floor plan maximizes views of the Persian Gulf. Viewed from above or from the base, the form also evokes the onion domes of Islamic architecture. During the design process, engineers rotated the building 120 degrees from its original layout to reduce stress from prevailing winds. At its tallest point, the tower sways a total of 1.5 m (4.9 ft).

To wash the windows of the 160 floors of habitable space, a horizontal track has been installed on the exterior of Burj Dubai at three levels 40, 73 and 109. Each track holds a 1.5 tonne bucket machine which moves horizontally and then vertically using heavy cables. Above level 109, up to tier 27 traditional cradles from davits are used. The top of the spire, however, is reserved for specialist window cleaners, who brave the heights and high winds dangling by ropes to clean and inspect the top of the pinnacle.[34]Under normal conditions, when all building maintenance units will be operational, it will take three to four months to clean the entire exterior facade.

The spire of burj dubai is composed of more than 4,000 tonnes of structural steel. The central pinnacle pipe weighing 350 tonnes was constructed from inside the building and jacked to its full height of 143 metres using a strand jack system. The spire houses plant and facilitates for communications equipments.

More than 1,000 pieces of art will adorn the interiors of Burj Dubai, while the residential lobby of Burj Dubai will have the artwork of 196 bronze and brass alloy cymbals representing the 196 countries of the world. The visitors in this lobby will be able to hear a distinct timbre as the cymbals, plated with 18-carat gold, are struck by dripping water, intended to mimic the sound of water falling on leaves.

The exterior cladding of Burj Dubai consists of 142,000 m2 (1,528,000 sq ft) of reflective glazing, and aluminium and textured stainless steel spandrel panels with vertical tubular fins. The cladding system is designed to withstand Dubai's extreme summer temperatures. Additionally, at its projected height the exterior temperature at the top of the building will be 6 °C (11 °F) cooler than at its base.

Over 26,000 glass panels, were used in the exterior cladding of Burj Dubai. Over 300 cladding specialists from China were brought in for the cladding work on the tower.

The hotel interior will be decorated by Giorgio Armani. An Armani Hotel, the first of four by Armani, will occupy 15 of the lower 39 floors. Floors through to 108 will have 900 private residential apartments (which, according to the developer, sold out within eight hours of being on the market). An outdoor zero-entry swimming pool will be located on the 76th floor of the tower. Corporate offices and suites will fill most of the remaining floors, except for a 123rd floor lobby and 124th floor (about 440 m (1,444 ft)) indoor/outdoor observation deck. Burj Dubai is expected to hold up to 25,000 people at any one time. A total of 57 elevators and 8 escalators are installed, the fastest rising and descending at up to 10 m/s (33 ft/s). Engineers had considered installing the world's first triple-deck elevators, but the final design calls for double-deck elevators.

The graphic design identity work for the Burj Dubai is the responsibility of Brash Brands, who are based in Dubai. Design of the global launch events, communications, and visitors centers for the Burj Dubai have also been created by Brash Brands as well as the roadshow exhibition for the Armani Residences, which are part of the Armani Hotel within the Burj Dubai, which toured Milan, London, Jeddah, Moscow and Delhi.

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