This chart maxes out at 500m and the "Burj Dubai" will be at least 700m..exact figures aren't being disclosed




news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20061030/lf_afp/afplifestyleuaedubai


DUBAI (AFP) - Slated to become the world's tallest skyscraper and symbol of a city given to grandiose projects, "Burj Dubai," or Dubai Tower, is rising in parallel with the profits of its promoter, Emaar Properties.

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With two stories added every week, Burj Dubai is taking shape as the centerpiece of a 20-billion-dollar venture featuring the construction of a new district, "Downtown Burj Dubai," that will house 30,000 apartments and the world's largest shopping mall.

Launched in early 2004, the construction of the tower by        South Korea's Samsung should be completed at the end of 2008 and cost one billion dollars, according to Greg Sang, the Emaar official in charge of Burj Dubai.

Burj Dubai already has 79 stories, taking its height to more than 200 meters (656 feet). But even after having gone that far, Emaar is still not revealing the tower's final height.

"At the moment, we are not answering. We'll say it (will be) more than 700 meters (2,296 feet) and more than 160 stories ... The people who need to know, know," Sang, a 40-year-old New Zealander, told AFP.

The world's tallest inhabited building is "Taipei 101" in Taiwan, which is 508 meters (1,666 feet) tall.

"At the moment, we've got around 2,500 workers on the tower site alone. We expect that to peak about a year from now at over 5,000 ... And for the whole site ... at any point in time, when the whole Downtown Burj Dubai district is under construction, there will be 20,000 men working here," Sang said.

Some 2,500 of these laborers hired by one of many firms working for Emaar downed tools for two days earlier this year and demonstrated in protest at poor working conditions and delays in the payment of salaries.

The protests degenerated into riots during which equipment and cars were smashed.

According to Sang, the protesting laborers did not work on the tower site and construction was therefore not affected.

"We actually work very closely with the contractors and with the authorities to ensure conditions for the labor are adequate and good. So we were a little disappointed that they weren't completely satisfied," Sang said.

He said the average wages of the south Asian laborers, who work in summer in temperatures reaching 50 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit), are "probably in the range of a couple of hundred US dollars a month" for a shift of "eight to 10 hours" a day, six days a week.

"They can get overtime if they like," Sang said.

But he stressed that it is the contractor, not Emaar, "who employs the workers, and it's his responsibility to provide them with accommodation and pay the salaries on time."

Emaar, which is listed on the Dubai stock exchange and boasts of being the world's largest property company by capital, is setting great store by this flagship project.

The figures bear out its confidence. Emaar, in which the Dubai government has a 32.5 percent stake, is seeing its profits climb.

The real estate giant posted record net profits of 437 million dollars in the third quarter of this year, a 39 percent increase on the same period in 2005. It posted a 21 percent hike in profits in the first half of 2006 compared to the first six months of last year.

Business cirles attribute the steady rise in profits to the sustained sales of apartments in Downtown Burj Dubai, a trend helped by a law allowing foreigners to become freehold property owners in certain areas of the Gulf city state which went into force this year.

"Certain buildings take on iconic status, like the Eiffel Tower and the Empire State Building, instantly recognizable and instantly associated with the city that they are placed in," Sang said.

"I hope the same happens with the Burj Dubai. It's definitely going to be very unique," he said.

But Sang admitted that he did not expect Burj Dubai to remain the tallest building in the world forever.

For it will face competition in Dubai itself, where the city's other property development major, Nakheel, has announced it will launch the construction of "Al-Burj" or "The Tower" -- whose projected height also remains a closely guarded secret.

Isn't that the same country that built an island shaped like a palm leaf (frond?).

Quoted: Isn't that the same country that built an island shaped like a palm leaf (frond?).

Yep, this thing is going to be friggin huge

I bet it comes crashing down before they hit 700 meters.

Somehow, I'm guessing the Muslims won't be flying airplanes into their own building

Dubai funneled a lot of the money involved in the 9-11 attacks on the world trade center.

Quoted: Somehow, I'm guessing the Muslims won't be flying airplanes into their own building

yeah, the irony is sort of hard to ignore on that one

Quoted: I bet it comes crashing down before they hit 700 meters.

Someone is jealous...
They didn't have any problems building man made islands, or a 7 star hotel.

Dubai is by far the most remarkable city I have ever been to.

Quoted: Quoted: I bet it comes crashing down before they hit 700 meters. Someone is jealous... They didn't have any problems building man made islands, or a 7 star hotel.

THEY don't build them, or at least don't engineer them.


Watch some of the shows on how this stuff is built - it's all white boys doing the engineering and project management

CN-Tower  553.33m tall.  Guess it isnt considered a skyscraper.

Quoted: Quoted: I bet it comes crashing down before they hit 700 meters. Someone is jealous... They didn't have any problems building man made islands, or a 7 star hotel.

Yes, they are jealous of us! They have to increase the size of their e-penis!

I wonder why they didn't measure to the top of the antennas on the Sears Tower?

I like how they changed the rules so that the Petronas towers would beat out the Sears tower.  It used to be that the height of the highest useable floor was measured, but then they changed it to the highest antenna.

Kharn

We should load Charlie Manson into a UAV and screw that thing into the side of the tower......for Jesus, of course.

Quoted: I like how they changed the rules so that the Petronas towers would beat out the Sears tower.  It used to be that the height of the highest useable floor was measured, but then they changed it to the highest antenna. Kharn

If those people didn't cheat and just happen to live over oil, they would be nothing.

Quoted: I wonder why they didn't measure to the top of the antennas on the Sears Tower?

They want to make the Asian buildings look taller. Because America is the great Satan and all that...

Quoted: Quoted: I bet it comes crashing down before they hit 700 meters. Someone is jealous... They didn't have any problems building man made islands, or a 7 star hotel.

Not hardly.  There is a reason most of the tallest buildings are of similar height.  Trying to build something that is more than 30% taller would need to use some ultra efficient new design or innovative material.

I'm quite sure they are using the latest construction techniques and only the highest quality materials too.


Anyone volunteer to go up to the top when it's done??

Quoted: Quoted: I like how they changed the rules so that the Petronas towers would beat out the Sears tower.  It used to be that the height of the highest useable floor was measured, but then they changed it to the highest antenna. Kharn If those people didn't cheat and just happen to live over oil, they would be nothing.

I thought the same thing. There wouldn't be any grand luxurious hotels and indoor ski slopes. It would still be an undeveloped 3rd world nation filled with dirt.

Quoted: Dubai is by far the most remarkable city I have ever been to.

Last time I was there was 1993, I guess it's been building up a bunch.

There is a practical limit to tall building design. For modern materials, 500m is about it. I suspect the reason the developers are not stating the design height is because their engineers are telling them that 700m is not feasible.

There is another reason the building developers won't say what the final height will be. In the Arab world, adn lots of other places for that matter, the owner doesn't pay taxes on hte building until it's "complete". Every hotel, office and shopping center I've ever seen in Egypt, Jordan and other locales has rebar sticking up out of the roof. If it's not "completed" you don't have to pay taxes, right?

Frankly, I'll be very surprised if Burj Dubai ever breaks 300m.

Quoted: Isn't that the same country that built an island shaped like a palm leaf (frond?).

It's not just one Island.  They have multiple man made islands planned.