That’s the Burj in Dubai as it stood Sunday afternoon. It’s so bloody cool. Yes it’s ugly, but in a Robocop kind of way, so in other words it’s a good thing.
It kind of surprises me that with this economy, we still don’t go to that extreme. In Vancouver, all the big projects are government or partly government funded. There’s the Olympic Village on new land in what was once part of False Creek, there’s the new Skytrain, the ski hills, the convention centre etc… but little of it is being built by capitalists.
By way of comparisson:
Last Friday the 155th floor was completed on Burj Dubai. By yesterday the 156th floor was finished on a building that, at 585.7m (1,922ft) and still growing, is already the world’s tallest tower block.By the time that Emaar, the largest property company in Dubai, completes the Burj (the Tower), it will rise to 164 floors, to be capped by a spire that will add a few more precious metres. The developers are said to be able to add on more floors if they wish at a later date to ensure that the Burj can see off any competition that might threaten its status as the world’s tallest building.
Such figures set pulses racing in Dubai, a city that resembles a cross between Vancouver and Manhattan, with a smack of the garish self-confidence that hitherto only Las Vegas could muster. Local master planners privately refer to developers’ love of skyscrapers as “architorture”.
