Mile-High Tower
Encyclopedia
- Not to be confused with Kingdom CentreKingdom CentreKingdom Centre also called Al Mamlaka Tower is a skyscraper located in the city of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. It is currently the second tallest skyscraper in Saudi Arabia with a height of . It's also the third tallest building with a hole in the world . AL-Mamlka Tower contains a total of 41 floors...
or Mile High IllinoisThe IllinoisThe Mile High Illinois, Illinois Sky-City, or simply The Illinois was a proposed skyscraper that would have been high, envisioned by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1956. The design, intended to be built in Chicago, would have included 528 stories, with a gross area of...
Kingdom Tower , previously known as Mile-High Tower , is a supertall skyscraper approved for construction in Jeddah
Jeddah
Jeddah, Jiddah, Jidda, or Jedda is a city located on the coast of the Red Sea and is the major urban center of western Saudi Arabia. It is the largest city in Makkah Province, the largest sea port on the Red Sea, and the second largest city in Saudi Arabia after the capital city, Riyadh. The...
, Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
at a preliminary cost of SR
Saudi riyal
The Riyal is the currency of Saudi Arabia. It is abbreviated as ر.س or SR . It is subdivided into 100 Halalas . The Saudi Ghirsh is 5 Halalas.-History:...
4.6 billion . It will be the centerpiece and first phase of a US$20 billion (SR75 billion) proposed development known as Kingdom City
Kingdom City (Jeddah)
Kingdom City is a project approved for construction in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The project is designed by Kingdom Holding Company, the firm owned by Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal. Kingdom City will host both commercial and residential development including homes, hotels, and offices...
that will be located along the Red Sea
Red Sea
The Red Sea is a seawater inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. The connection to the ocean is in the south through the Bab el Mandeb strait and the Gulf of Aden. In the north, there is the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and the Gulf of Suez...
on the north side of Jeddah. If completed as planned, the tower will reach unprecedented heights, becoming the tallest building in the world, as well as the first structure to reach the one-kilometer mark. The tower was initially planned to be 1 miles (1.6 km) high; however, the geography of the area proved unsuitable for a tower of that height. The design, created by architect Adrian Smith
Adrian Smith (architect)
Adrian D. Smith is an American architect who has designed skyscrapers including the Burj Khalifa, Jin Mao Tower and Trump International Hotel and Tower, as well as the proposed Kingdom Tower for Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.-Education:...
, incorporates many unique structural and aesthetic features. The creator and leader of the project is Saudi Arabian Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal
Al-Waleed bin Talal
Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal is a Saudi Arabian billionaire and member of the Saudi royal family. He is the nephew of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. An entrepreneur and international investor he has amassed a fortune through investments in real estate and the stock market.He is founder and CEO of...
, the wealthiest Arab in the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
, and nephew of King Abdullah
Abdullah of Saudi Arabia
Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, is the King of Saudi Arabia. He succeeded to the throne on 1 August 2005 upon the death of his half-brother, King Fahd. When Crown Prince, he governed Saudi Arabia as regent from 1998 to 2005...
. Talal is the chairman of Kingdom Holding Company
Kingdom Holding Company
Kingdom Holding Company is a public holding company headquartered in Kingdom Centre in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and is the largest company in Saudi Arabia. It is controlled by Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz, and is headquartered in the city of Riyadh...
(KHC), the largest company in Saudi Arabia, which owns the project, and a partner in Jeddah Economic Company (JEC), which was formed in 2009 for the development of Kingdom Tower and City. Reception of the proposal has been highly polarized, receiving high praise from some as a culturally significant icon that will symbolize the nation's wealth and power, while others question its socioeconomic motives, and forecast that it will actually have negative financial consequences. In May 2011 German newspaper Bild featured a report on the building stating that it had contacted the office of archtitectural firm of Adrian D. Smith and Gordon Gill asking about the project, receiving an answer that the circulating renderings were definitely not by AS+GG and that they were unaware of any such project at all.
Overview
The building has been scaled down from its initial 1.6 km (about one mile) proposal, which was never fully designed, to a height of at least 1000 metres (3,280.84 ft) (the exact height is being kept private while in development, similar to the Burj Khalifa), which, at about one kilometre, would still make it by far the tallest building or structure in the world to date, standing at least 568 ft (173 m) taller than the Burj Khalifa in DubaiDubai
Dubai is a city and emirate in the United Arab Emirates . The emirate is located south of the Persian Gulf on the Arabian Peninsula and has the largest population with the second-largest land territory by area of all the emirates, after Abu Dhabi...
.
The tower and its 50-hectare plot, which will include other buildings, will be the first phase of the Kingdom City development, a three-phase project proposed for a large area of undeveloped waterfront land with an area of 56000000 ft2 (2 square miles). It was originally planned to cover 23000000 square metre (8.9 square miles) and cost SR100 billion. The area is located roughly 20 km (12 mi) north of the port city of Jeddah. Kingdom City was designed by HOK Architects, and it is estimated that it will cost at least US$20 billion (SR75 billion) and take around 10 years to build. It will essentially become a new district of Jeddah. The second phase of the project will be all the infrastructure
Infrastructure
Infrastructure is basic physical and organizational structures needed for the operation of a society or enterprise, or the services and facilities necessary for an economy to function...
development needed to support the city, and the third phase has not yet been disclosed. The focal point of the development, Kingdom Tower's primary purpose will be to house a Four Seasons hotel
Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts
Four Seasons Hotels, Inc. is a Canadian-based international ultra-luxury, five-star hotel management company. Travel + Leisure magazine and Zagat Survey rank the hotel chain's 84 properties among the top luxury hotels worldwide...
, Four Seasons serviced apartment
Serviced apartment
A serviced apartment is a type of furnished apartment available for short-term or long-term stays, which provides amenities for daily use. Serviced apartments can be less expensive than equivalent hotel rooms...
s, Class A office space, and luxury condominiums; it will also have the world’s highest observatory. Although the Kingdom City plot is nearly isolated from the current urban core of Jeddah, northward is generally considered the direction in which the fast growing city will spread in the future. Regardless of this, no land tracts of such size were available closer to the city, anyway.
The tower is being designed primarily by Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
-based architect Adrian Smith
Adrian Smith (architect)
Adrian D. Smith is an American architect who has designed skyscrapers including the Burj Khalifa, Jin Mao Tower and Trump International Hotel and Tower, as well as the proposed Kingdom Tower for Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.-Education:...
of Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture
Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture
Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture , an architecture firm and design firm based in Chicago, is engaged in the design and development of energy-efficient and sustainable architecture. AS+GG designs buildings, cities, masterplans and components of these. It creates designs for an international...
(AS + GG), the same architect who designed the Burj Khalifa while he was working for Skidmore, Owings & Merill (SOM), for which he worked almost 40 years. AS + GG was formed in 2006 by Adrian Smith, Gordon Gill, and Robert Forest. The development of the tower is being managed by Emaar Properties PJSC. Thornton Tomasetti
Thornton Tomasetti
Thornton Tomasetti is a 550+ person structural engineering consulting firm headquartered in New York City...
has been selected as the structural engineering firm, and Environmental Systems Design, Inc.
Environmental Systems Design, Inc.
Environmental Systems Design, Inc. provides mechanical, electrical, plumbing, fire protection, life safety, and technology engineering, in addition to sustainability consulting services. Since 1967 it has developed an integrated approach to high-performance. Interdisciplinary engineering teams...
(ESD) is a part of the AS + GG design team that serves as the building services engineering consultants.
On 2 August 2011, it was publicly announced by Kingdom Holding, the investment company, that a contract had been signed by Saudi Binladin Group (SBG), construction was going to start soon, and that the tower was expected to take 63 months (5 years, 3 months) to complete. Besix
Besix
BESIX is the largest Belgian construction group. It belongs to the BESIX Group and was founded in 1909. In 2005, the Group realized a turnover of approximately €1000 million. Until his retirement in 2002 Paul de Meester was president of the company....
Group (Belgian Six Construct), which constructed the Burj Khalifa, was previously considered for the contract, but did not win, partially because SBG invested in Jeddah Economic Company (JEC), contributing SR1.5 billion (US$400 million) towards the development of the project, and holding a 16.6 percent stake in Jeddah Economic Company. Besix admitted in 2010 that they expected Binladin Group to win the contract. Jeddah Economic Company is a closed joint stock company (PJSC) formed in 2009 as a financial entity for Kingdom Tower and City. It is made up primarily of financiers (stakeholders) Kingdom Holding Company (33.35%), Abrar Holding Company (33.35%), which is owned by Samaual Bakhsh, and businessman Abdulrahman Hassan Sharbatly (16.67%), as well as the tower's own contractor, Saudi Binladin Group (16.63%). JEC's assets have a book value of nearly SR9 billion, broken down between a land bank
Land banking
Land banking is the practice of purchasing raw land with the intent to hold on to it until such a time as it is profitable to sell it on to others for more than was initially paid...
of over 5300000 square metre (the Kingdom City plot) with a value of SR7.3 billion that will be used as collateral
Collateral (finance)
In lending agreements, collateral is a borrower's pledge of specific property to a lender, to secure repayment of a loan.The collateral serves as protection for a lender against a borrower's default - that is, any borrower failing to pay the principal and interest under the terms of a loan obligation...
to attain bank loans, and SR1.5 billion in cash. Kingdom Holding is an investment company
Investment company
An investment company is a company whose main business is holding securities of other companies purely for investment purposes. The investment company invests money on behalf of its shareholders who in turn share in the profits and losses....
founded in 1980 and 95% owned by Prince Talal that has assets valued at over $25 billion, with interests in many major companies such as Walt Disney
Walt Disney
Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist, well-known for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. Along with his brother Roy O...
, Pepsico
PepsiCo
PepsiCo Inc. is an American multinational corporation headquartered in Purchase, New York, United States, with interests in the manufacturing, marketing and distribution of grain-based snack foods, beverages, and other products. PepsiCo was formed in 1965 with the merger of the Pepsi-Cola Company...
, Kodak, Apple, Hewlett Packard, Motorola
Motorola
Motorola, Inc. was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, which was eventually divided into two independent public companies, Motorola Mobility and Motorola Solutions on January 4, 2011, after losing $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009...
, Time Warner
Time Warner
Time Warner is one of the world's largest media companies, headquartered in the Time Warner Center in New York City. Formerly two separate companies, Warner Communications, Inc...
, Newscorp, and Citigroup
Citigroup
Citigroup Inc. or Citi is an American multinational financial services corporation headquartered in Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States. Citigroup was formed from one of the world's largest mergers in history by combining the banking giant Citicorp and financial conglomerate...
, as well as real estate in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
through its Songbird Estates division.
Timeline
In May 2008, soil testingGeotechnical investigation
Geotechnical investigations are performed by geotechnical engineers or engineering geologists to obtain information on the physical properties of soil and rock around a site to design earthworks and foundations for proposed structures and for repair of distress to earthworks and structures caused...
in the area cast doubt over whether the proposed location could support a skyscraper
Skyscraper
A skyscraper is a tall, continuously habitable building of many stories, often designed for office and commercial use. There is no official definition or height above which a building may be classified as a skyscraper...
of the proposed one mile height, and MEED
MEED
MEED is a 54-year-old business intelligence tool for the Middle East and North Africa , providing analysis and commentary on Middle Eastern markets, companies, people and data on the regional projects market.-MEED Magazine:...
reported that the project had been scaled back, making it "up to 500 metres (1,640 ft) shorter."
Reports in 2009 suggested that the project had been put on hold due to the global economic crisis and that Bechtel
Bechtel
Bechtel Corporation is the largest engineering company in the United States, ranking as the 5th-largest privately owned company in the U.S...
(the former engineering firm) was "in the process of ending its involvement with the project." Kingdom Holding Company quickly criticized the news reports, insisting that the project had not been shelved.
In March 2010, Adrian Smith of Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture (AS + GG) was selected as the preliminary architect (though they deny involvement in the earlier, mile-high designs). Later, when the proposal was more serious, they won a design competition between eight leading architectural firms including Kohn Pedersen Fox
Kohn Pedersen Fox
Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates , an architectural firm responsible for several world-renowned buildings, provides architectural, interior and urban design as well as programming and master planning services for clients in both the public and private sectors...
, Pickard Chilton, Pelli Clarke Pelli, and Foster + Partners, as well as the firm Smith formerly worked for, Skidmore, Owings and Merrill
Skidmore, Owings and Merrill
Skidmore, Owings and Merrill LLP is an American architectural and engineering firm that was formed in Chicago in 1936 by Louis Skidmore and Nathaniel Owings; in 1939 they were joined by John O. Merrill. They opened their first branch in New York City, New York in 1937. SOM is one of the largest...
, which was the final competitor in the competition before AS + GG was chosen. In addition to Burj Khalifa, Adrian Smith has designed several other recent supertall towers; the Nanjing Greenland Financial Center in Nanjing
Nanjing
' is the capital of Jiangsu province in China and has a prominent place in Chinese history and culture, having been the capital of China on several occasions...
, China, the Trump International Hotel & Tower in Chicago, Illinois, and the Jin Mao Tower in Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
, as well as the Pearl River Tower
Pearl River Tower
The Pearl River Tower is a clean technology skyscraper under construction at the junction of Jinsui Road/Zhujiang Avenue West, Tianhe District, Guangzhou, China. The tower's architecture and engineering were performed by Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill with Adrian D. Smith and Gordon Gill as...
, which is still under construction in Guangzhou
Guangzhou
Guangzhou , known historically as Canton or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of the Guangdong province in the People's Republic of China. Located in southern China on the Pearl River, about north-northwest of Hong Kong, Guangzhou is a key national transportation hub and trading port...
, China. The four buildings are all among the top eleven tallest in the world, and the Pearl River Tower is a unique tower that uses zero net energy as it gets all its power from wind
Wind power
Wind power is the conversion of wind energy into a useful form of energy, such as using wind turbines to make electricity, windmills for mechanical power, windpumps for water pumping or drainage, or sails to propel ships....
, sunlight
Solar power
Solar energy, radiant light and heat from the sun, has been harnessed by humans since ancient times using a range of ever-evolving technologies. Solar radiation, along with secondary solar-powered resources such as wind and wave power, hydroelectricity and biomass, account for most of the available...
, and geothermal mass.
In October 2010, the owners (Kingdom Holding Company) signed a development agreement with Emaar Properties
Emaar Properties
Emaar Properties , based in the United Arab Emirates, is a Public Joint Stock Company listed on the Dubai Financial Market. Established in 1997 with an initial paid-up capital of AED 1 bn, Emaar Properties is currently the Persian Gulf region's largest land and real estate developer...
PJSC. The final height of the building was questionable, but it was still listed to be over 1 kilometer. Kingdom Holding said construction was progressing.
In March and April 2011, several news agencies reported that the Mile-High Tower design had been approved at that height and that the building would cost almost US$30 billion (SR112.5 billion). This design was going to be drastically larger than the current design, with a floor area of 38000000 ft2 and would have utilized futuristic wind aversion and energy producing technology for sustainability. It and the surrrounding City would have had the ability to accommodate 80,000 residents and one million visitors, according to RIA Novosti. Many things were rumored about the mile-high designs, such as that it would be so high the top would freeze at night, helicopters would be used for construction, parachutes would be part of the fire escape plan, and that an elevator ride to the top would take 12 minutes (multiple transfers would be required) in a typical elevator and five minutes in a high-speed elevator. Adrian Smith denied that he was a part of any of the earlier designs, which had been purported in the media. One source even corrected its article and clarified the misunderstanding.
In early August 2011, the Binladin Group was chosen as the main construction contractor with the signing of a SR4.6 billion contract, which is less than it cost to build the Burj Khalifa (US$1.5 billion). New renderings were revealed and on 2 August it was widely reported that the project was a go at the 1000 m (3,281 ft) height with a building area of 530000 square metre, and will take 63 months to complete. Construction is expected to start no later than December 2011. The foundation for the tower has already been designed and the contract for the piling is being tendered. Announcement of the main construction contract signing caused Kingdom Holding Company's stock to jump 3.2% in one day, in addition to KHC already having reported a 21% rise in second quarter net profit. Also, for the first time, architects Gordon Gill and Adrian Smith officially announced their involvement in the project.
Design
The triangular footprint and sloped exterior of Kingdom Tower is designed to reduce wind loads; its high surface area also makes it ideal for residential units. The overall design of the tower, which will be located near both the Red SeaRed Sea
The Red Sea is a seawater inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. The connection to the ocean is in the south through the Bab el Mandeb strait and the Gulf of Aden. In the north, there is the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and the Gulf of Suez...
and the mouth of the Obhur Creek (Sharm Ob'hur) where it widens as it meets the Red Sea, as well as having frontage on a man-made waterway and harbor that will be built around it, is intended to look like a desert plant shooting upwards as a symbol of Saudi Arabia's growth and future, as well as to add prominence to Jeddah's status as the gateway into the holy city of Mecca
Mecca
Mecca is a city in the Hijaz and the capital of Makkah province in Saudi Arabia. The city is located inland from Jeddah in a narrow valley at a height of above sea level...
. The designer's vision was “one that represents the new spirit in Saudi Arabia" (Smith). The 23 hectare (57 acre) area around Kingdom Tower will contain public space and a shopping mall, as well as other residential and commercial developments, and be known as the Kingdom Tower Water Front District, of which, the tower's site alone will take up 500000 square metre. As with many other very tall skyscrapers, including the Kingdom Centre
Kingdom Centre
Kingdom Centre also called Al Mamlaka Tower is a skyscraper located in the city of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. It is currently the second tallest skyscraper in Saudi Arabia with a height of . It's also the third tallest building with a hole in the world . AL-Mamlka Tower contains a total of 41 floors...
in nearby Riyadh
Riyadh
Riyadh is the capital and largest city of Saudi Arabia. It is also the capital of Riyadh Province, and belongs to the historical regions of Najd and Al-Yamama. It is situated in the center of the Arabian Peninsula on a large plateau, and is home to 5,254,560 people, and the urban center of a...
, which is generally considered to have sparked the recent significant commercial developments around it in the district of Olaya
Olaya (Riyadh)
Olaya District is a growing financial district in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Located in the north side of the city, It hosts important sites and famous local landmarks, such as the Kingdom Centre, which houses the Four Seasons luxurious hotel...
, much of the intention of Kingdom Tower is to be symbolic as well as to raise the surrounding land value rather than its own profitability. To that effect, the tower's architect, Adrian Smith, said that the tower "evokes a bundle of leaves shooting up from the ground–a burst of new life that heralds more growth all around it". Smith states that the tower will create a landmark in which it and the surrounding Kingdom City are interdependent. Talal Al Maiman, a board member of Jeddah Economic Company, said, “Kingdom Tower will be a landmark structure that will greatly increase the value of the hundreds of other properties around it in Kingdom City and indeed throughout North Jeddah.” The concept of profitability derived from building high density developments and malls around such a landmark was taken from the Burj Khalifa, where it has proven successful, as its surrounding malls, hotels and condominiums in the area known as Downtown Dubai have generated the most considerable revenue out of that project as a whole, while the Burj Khalifa itself made little or no profit.
The building will have a total of 59 elevators, five of which will be double-deck elevator
Double-deck elevator
Double-deck elevators are designed with two elevator cars that are attached, one on top of the other. This allows passengers on two consecutive floors to be able to use the elevator simultaneously, significantly increasing the passenger capacity of an elevator shaft...
s, as well as 12 escalators. It will also have the highest observation deck in the world, to which high speed elevators will travel at up to 10 meters (33 feet) per second (slightly over 22 mph (10 m/s)) in both directions. The elevators cannot go faster because the rapid change in air pressure over that much distance would be nauseating; at 3000 ft (914 m), the air pressure is over 10 kPa (1.5 psi) lower than at ground level (about 10% less air pressure). They must also be efficient so the cables are not unbearably heavy. Even as such, the elevator distance limit is about 570 metres (1,870 ft) before the cables become inevitably too heavy and the motor size impractical; Kingdom Tower will have three sky lobbies where elevator transfers can be made, no elevator will go from the bottom to the highest occupied floor. No official floor count has been given, however Smith stated in a television interview that it will be about 50 floors over the Burj Khalifa, which has 163 occupied floors, leading to the inference that Kingdom Tower will have well over 200 floors. The tower will also feature a large, roughly 30 m (98.4 ft) diameter outdoor balcony, known as the sky terrace, on one side of the building for private use by the penthouse floor at level 157; it is not the observation deck. It was originally intended to be a helipad
Helipad
Helipad is a common abbreviation for helicopter landing pad, a landing area for helicopters. While helicopters are able to operate on a variety of relatively flat surfaces, a fabricated helipad provides a clearly marked hard surface away from obstacles where a helicopter can safely...
, but it was revealed to be an unsuitable landing environment by helicopter pilots. The building's large notches will also serve as shaded terraces for other areas of the tower and the exterior of the building will use low-condusive glass to save on cooling costs by reducing thermal loads. In addition, the lower air density, exacerbated by the thin desert atmosphere, will cause the outdoor air temperature towards the top of the tower to be lower than the ground level air, which will provide natural cooling. There is also significantly more air flow (wind) at heights, which is very strong at one kilometer and had a large impact on the structural design of the tower. The Burj Khalifa actually takes in the cooler, cleaner air from the top floors and uses it to air condition the building. Kingdom Tower will be oriented such that no façade directly faces the sun; it will also use the condensate water from the air conditioning system for irrigation
Irrigation
Irrigation may be defined as the science of artificial application of water to the land or soil. It is used to assist in the growing of agricultural crops, maintenance of landscapes, and revegetation of disturbed soils in dry areas and during periods of inadequate rainfall...
and other purposes throughout the building.
Chicago based Environmental Systems Design, Inc.
Environmental Systems Design, Inc.
Environmental Systems Design, Inc. provides mechanical, electrical, plumbing, fire protection, life safety, and technology engineering, in addition to sustainability consulting services. Since 1967 it has developed an integrated approach to high-performance. Interdisciplinary engineering teams...
will provide mechanical, plumbing, electrical and fire protection engineering, as well as teledata, audio/visual, security systems and acoustics. Langan International, together with structural engineer Thornton Tomasetti
Thornton Tomasetti
Thornton Tomasetti is a 550+ person structural engineering consulting firm headquartered in New York City...
, will be responsible for geotechnical engineering
Geotechnical engineering
Geotechnical engineering is the branch of civil engineering concerned with the engineering behavior of earth materials. Geotechnical engineering is important in civil engineering, but is also used by military, mining, petroleum, or any other engineering concerned with construction on or in the ground...
as well as some ground level site work such as transportation engineering and parking, including the design of the proposed 3,000–4,700 car underground parking garage that will be located near, but not under the tower for terrorism reasons. Langan also designed the tower's foundation, which has to be able to support the tower despite the less than optimal subsurface conditions, such as soft rock and permeable coral, which could cause the piles to settle. Thornton Tomasetti has provided the structural engineering for two of the previous world's tallest building title holders, the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur
Kuala Lumpur
Kuala Lumpur is the capital and the second largest city in Malaysia by population. The city proper, making up an area of , has a population of 1.4 million as of 2010. Greater Kuala Lumpur, also known as the Klang Valley, is an urban agglomeration of 7.2 million...
, and the Taipei 101
Taipei 101
Taipei 101 , formerly known as the Taipei World Financial Center, is a landmark skyscraper located in Xinyi District, Taipei, Taiwan. The building ranked officially as the world's tallest from 2004 until the opening of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai in 2010...
in Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
, as well as the under construction Pingan International Finance Center in Shenzhen
Shenzhen
Shenzhen is a major city in the south of Southern China's Guangdong Province, situated immediately north of Hong Kong. The area became China's first—and one of the most successful—Special Economic Zones...
, which will be the tallest building in China after completion. Saudi Binladin Group is the largest construction firm in the Middle East, with over 35,000 workers and hundreds of projects. They recently constructed the topped-out 1972 ft (601 m) Abraj Al-Bait Clock Tower in Mecca, which is the tallest building in Saudi Arabia and second tallest in the world, as well as the largest skyscraper in the world by floor area and volume. Aside from buildings, the firm has also constructed many major infrastructure projects, such as the King Abdulaziz (Jeddah) International Airport
King Abdulaziz International Airport
King Abdulaziz International Airport is an aviation facility located 19 km to the north of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Named after King Abdulaziz Al Saud, the airport is Saudi Arabia's third largest air facility and busiest airport by passenger. The airport occupies an area of 15 square kilometers...
expansion and the 775 km (775,000 m) six lane Al Qassim Expressway through Saudi Arabia. Saudi Binladin Group is owned by the family of the late al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Ladin, whom the family disavowed long before his death. Nonetheless, it has sparked some minor media buzz. When asked his thoughts about this in an interview, Adrian Smith simply stated that they are the largest construction firm in the Middle East, most significant work in Saudi Arabia was done by them, and that it is a very large family that shouldn't be stereotyped by one of its members.
In addition to its primary functions, the building is slated to include a significant amount of retail as well as a wide variety of other unique ammentities with the intention that it functions as a nearly self-sustaining entity, approaching the concept of a "vertical city". The building's design has been applauded as simplistic and buildable, yet bold, brilliantly sculpted, and high-tech, with AS + GG describing it as "an elegant, cost-efficient and highly constructible design." The estimated construction cost of US$1.23 billion, which is less than that of the Burj Khalifa (US$1.5 billion), can be attributed to cheap labor in the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
, particularly Saudi Arabia, and that three shifts will work around the clock to expedite the process. Construction costs have also declined since the global financial crisis.
In July, 2011, a report by consultancy EC Harris found that Saudi Arabia is the cheapest country in the Middle East to build in, half as expensive as Bahrain
Bahrain
' , officially the Kingdom of Bahrain , is a small island state near the western shores of the Persian Gulf. It is ruled by the Al Khalifa royal family. The population in 2010 stood at 1,214,705, including 235,108 non-nationals. Formerly an emirate, Bahrain was declared a kingdom in 2002.Bahrain is...
, and 34% cheaper than the United Arab Emirates
United Arab Emirates
The United Arab Emirates, abbreviated as the UAE, or shortened to "the Emirates", is a state situated in the southeast of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia on the Persian Gulf, bordering Oman, and Saudi Arabia, and sharing sea borders with Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and Iran.The UAE is a...
, where Burj Khalifa is located. The future towers' site is located in very close proximity to King Abdulaziz (Jeddah) International Airport
King Abdulaziz International Airport
King Abdulaziz International Airport is an aviation facility located 19 km to the north of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Named after King Abdulaziz Al Saud, the airport is Saudi Arabia's third largest air facility and busiest airport by passenger. The airport occupies an area of 15 square kilometers...
, whose runways nearly align with the towers' site, which will have an effect on the airspace. While skyscraper experts have stated that towers well over one kilometer, even two kilometers (6,562 feet) high, are technically buildable, physical sustainability and practicality issues come into play in towers of this height. From a real estate perspective, it is considered virtually impossible to create enough demand to justify such a tower, but that at some point someone with a great excess of money will likely do it anyway. As for physical restraints, Bart Leclercq, head of structures for WSP Middle East recently said, “I truly believe that 1 mile—1.6 kilometres—is within range. Over that, it may be possible if there are improvements in concrete quality. But 2km is too big a figure –it’s just a step too far at the moment.”
Sustainability of such a tall building would include issues such as vertical transportation limitations, with elevators only being able to go so far, building sway, caused by wind, and supercolumn settling, which is where the steel columns settle more than the concrete core and cause the floors to be unlevel. Additionally, a very large core size is required in very tall buildings to support the structure as well as to house the large number of elevators needed. The core size consumes a significant amount of the space on the lower and middle floors. One of the ways Kingdom Tower attempts to overcome these issues is with its smooth, sloped-exterior design, which, although more expensive to build, offers superior aerodynamic performance over "stepped" designs such as the Burj Khalifa, allowing it to have a more conservative core overall. This was determined by wind tunnel tests performed at Burj Khalifa. Kingdom Tower will also utilize copious stiffening materials to prevent the excessive sway that would otherwise make the occupants of upper floors nauseous on windy days, including very high strength concrete that will be up to several feet thick in certain parts of the core. This, along with the highly integrated steel frame and shear wall
Shear wall
In structural engineering, a shear wall is a wall composed of braced panels to counter the effects of lateral load acting on a structure. Wind and earthquake loads are the most common loads braced wall lines are designed to counteract...
s, is also intended to prevent catastrophic failure of the structure in the event of a terrorist attack. Traditionally, these physical constraints, namely the space consumed by elevators, were considered to make a building become increasingly less profitable past 80 floors or so. More recently, it has been the advent of truly mixed-use design such as Shanghai Tower and Burj Khalifa, as well as improved building technology, that have outdated this rule of thumb, which generally applied to single use buildings.
Both towers share a similar three-petal triangular footprint for stability and a tapering form, with sheer height and wind being the biggest structural design challenge. The smooth, sloped façade of Kingdom Tower particularly induces a beneficial phenomenon known as "wind vortex shedding," whereas normally when wind swirls around the leeward side of a building, rushing in from both sides to fill the low pressure zone, it would create tornado-like vorticies, which would rock the building from side to side due to the variances in pressure, direction, and velocity, the dynamic façade of Kingdom Tower creates an infinite timing differential (whereas Burj Khalifa is limited by the number of steps) in air pressure exertion in any one particular direction, thus creating a more stable structure, as there is no broad area of outstanding pressure or depression at any given time. Put simply, a smooth taper is more aerodynamic than an irregular or jagged taper, while both are advantageous over rectangular geometries. At Kingdom Tower's height, it is considered essentially unfeasible to use a traditional square design.
To overcome elevator issues, the tower will use its large number of efficient elevators as well as its three sky lobbies, which allows transfers to be made between elevators serving a specific area with no elevator being overburdened. Much was learned from Burj Khalifa that helped with the design of Kingdom Tower not only structurally, but in methods for designing practical mechanical, electrical, and plumbing (MEP) systems, as well as adhering to local regulations and international building code
Building code
A building code, or building control, is a set of rules that specify the minimum acceptable level of safety for constructed objects such as buildings and nonbuilding structures. The main purpose of building codes are to protect public health, safety and general welfare as they relate to the...
s. Despite all the physical challenges, Adrian Smith states that practicality is still the greater challenge over structural durability, even in such supertall designs, and that as with all buildings, Kingdom Tower's form and was primarily derived respective of what the building's uses would be, then in accordance with the structural factors that would have to be considered to deliver it.
Impact
The recent announcement of the tower has provoked widespread and highly divided reaction throughout the media. Those who support the project see it as an investment that, although visionary, will have positive social and economic effects on the area as well as the country in the long term, while others see it as nothing more than the result of self-centered and attention seeking competition between oil-rich gulf nations that will serve no purpose other than as a white elephantWhite elephant
A white elephant is an idiom for a valuable but burdensome possession of which its owner cannot dispose and whose cost is out of proportion to its usefulness or worth...
, costing more and generating less than expected, if it even gets built.
There is an impending real estate boom
Real estate bubble
A real estate bubble or property bubble is a type of economic bubble that occurs periodically in local or global real estate markets...
in Saudi Arabia, with increasing demand and rising prices due to high population growth and a short supply of housing, which may include a demand for high-end luxury units, such as those in Kingdom Tower. To boost growth, the Saudi Arabian government is going to invest US$67 billion (SR251 billion) in building 500,000 homes throughout the country. According to Saudi officials, about 900 new homes are needed a day to meet the demand of the rapidly growing population, which has nearly quadrupled in the past four decades. Kingdom Tower is also an attempt to diversify Saudi Arabia's economy, which, holding a quarter of the world's oil reserves and being one of the founding OPEC
OPEC
OPEC is an intergovernmental organization of twelve developing countries made up of Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela. OPEC has maintained its headquarters in Vienna since 1965, and hosts regular meetings...
nations, is currently largely dependent on its crude oil exportation, which accounts for nearly 75% of government revenues and 90% of exports. This generates enough income to support Saudi Arabia as a welfare state
Welfare state
A welfare state is a "concept of government in which the state plays a key role in the protection and promotion of the economic and social well-being of its citizens. It is based on the principles of equality of opportunity, equitable distribution of wealth, and public responsibility for those...
, which spends billions of dollars on job creation and housing for its lower income residents.
Just as the Kingdom Tower will complement the Kingdom City development that will be built around it, there are many infrastructure and revitalization projects underway and planned throughout Saudi Arabia, such as the US$7.2 billion (SR27.1 billion) new airport terminal under construction at King Abdulaziz (Jeddah) International Airport
King Abdulaziz International Airport
King Abdulaziz International Airport is an aviation facility located 19 km to the north of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Named after King Abdulaziz Al Saud, the airport is Saudi Arabia's third largest air facility and busiest airport by passenger. The airport occupies an area of 15 square kilometers...
, that will complement the Kingdom City as well as develop Saudi Arabia, which has been likened to a Third World country with crumbling infrastructure and widespread disasters, including severe flooding, such as the flash floods in early 2011 that damaged 90% of the roads and over 27,000 buildings in Jeddah. According to a representative of Standard Chartered, which invested US$75 million in Saudi Binladin Group, Saudi Arabia is going to spend over US$400 billion (SR1.5 trillion) on infrastructure over the next few years. According to reports by Citi Investment Research & Analysis, $220 billion worth of development, accounting for 36% of all construction spending in the MENA
MENA
The term MENA, for "Middle East and North Africa", is an acronym often used in academic, military planning and business writing.The term covers an extensive region, extending from Morocco to Iran, including the majority of both the Middle Eastern and Maghreb countries...
region, will be directly or indirectly beneficial to Kingdom Tower. Kingdom Tower and City themselves are intended to set an example of green development, using modern technology and having a low carbon footprint
Carbon footprint
A carbon footprint has historically been defined as "the total set of greenhouse gas emissions caused by an organization, event, product or person.". However, calculating a carbon footprint which conforms to this definition is often impracticable due to the large amount of data required, which is...
relative to the number of people they will support. However, there is also an increasing problem of poor education levels in Arab countries due to a lack of spending in research and education, which it is argued should be invested in rather than building skyscrapers, and that the tower is nothing more than a symbol of hubris
Hubris
Hubris , also hybris, means extreme haughtiness, pride or arrogance. Hubris often indicates a loss of contact with reality and an overestimation of one's own competence or capabilities, especially when the person exhibiting it is in a position of power....
. It has even been likened to the Tower of Babel
Tower of Babel
The Tower of Babel , according to the Book of Genesis, was an enormous tower built in the plain of Shinar .According to the biblical account, a united humanity of the generations following the Great Flood, speaking a single language and migrating from the east, came to the land of Shinar, where...
.
Furthermore, economists have found large new skyscrapers to be a negative economic indicator, with several incidences of new tallest buildings being finished and opening into a bad economy, as they generally start during a financial boom when money is easy and investment is strong, but do not finish until the bubble has burst. Examples include the Singer Building
Singer Building
The Singer Building or Singer Tower at Liberty Street and Broadway in Manhattan, was a 47-story office building completed in 1908 as the headquarters of the Singer Manufacturing Company. It was demolished in 1968 and is now the site of 1 Liberty Plaza....
and Metropolitan Life Insurance Building
Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower
The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower, also known as the Metropolitan Life Tower or Met Life Tower, is a landmark skyscraper located on East 23rd Street between Madison Avenue and Park Avenue South, off of Madison Square Park. in the borough of Manhattan in New York City...
after the Panic of 1907
Panic of 1907
The Panic of 1907, also known as the 1907 Bankers' Panic, was a financial crisis that occurred in the United States when the New York Stock Exchange fell almost 50% from its peak the previous year. Panic occurred, as this was during a time of economic recession, and there were numerous runs on...
, 40 Wall Street
40 Wall Street
40 Wall Street is a 70-story skyscraper in New York City. Originally known as the Bank of Manhattan Trust building, and also known as Manhattan Company Building, it was later known by its street address when its founding tenant merged to form the Chase Manhattan Bank and today is known as the...
, the Chrysler Building
Chrysler Building
The Chrysler Building is an Art Deco style skyscraper in New York City, located on the east side of Manhattan in the Turtle Bay area at the intersection of 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue. Standing at , it was the world's tallest building for 11 months before it was surpassed by the Empire State...
and the Empire State Building
Empire State Building
The Empire State Building is a 102-story landmark skyscraper and American cultural icon in New York City at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and West 34th Street. It has a roof height of 1,250 feet , and with its antenna spire included, it stands a total of 1,454 ft high. Its name is derived...
built during the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
, the World Trade Center
World Trade Center
The original World Trade Center was a complex with seven buildings featuring landmark twin towers in Lower Manhattan, New York City, United States. The complex opened on April 4, 1973, and was destroyed in 2001 during the September 11 attacks. The site is currently being rebuilt with five new...
and Sears Tower
Sears Tower
Sears' optimistic growth projections were not met. Competition from its traditional rivals continued, with new competition by retailing giants such as Kmart, Kohl's, and Wal-Mart. The fortunes of Sears & Roebuck declined in the 1970s as the company lost market share; its management grew more...
built during the 1970s economic downturn, the Petronas Towers built during the Asian Crisis and Contagion of the late 1990s, and the Burj Khalifa built during the late-2000s recession. Much of the study on this phenomenon was done in 1999 by Andrew Lawrence, a research director at Deutsche Bank
Deutsche Bank
Deutsche Bank AG is a global financial service company with its headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany. It employs more than 100,000 people in over 70 countries, and has a large presence in Europe, the Americas, Asia Pacific and the emerging markets...
who created the "skyscraper index," originally as a joke, but that illustrated the very real fact that many of the world's tallest buildings have been built on the eve of financial collapse.
Reception
The developers' theory is that the international attention gained through large developments and having the world's tallest building will incur gentrificationGentrification
Gentrification and urban gentrification refer to the changes that result when wealthier people acquire or rent property in low income and working class communities. Urban gentrification is associated with movement. Consequent to gentrification, the average income increases and average family size...
of the country and even be a financial success in the long run. Rory Olcayto, deputy editor of The Architects’ Journal, said “The race to build the highest skyscraper is quite futile –where do you stop? These buildings are a symbol of an old-fashioned way of thinking,” while architect Adrian Smith states, "...this tower symbolizes the Kingdom as an important global business and cultural leader, and demonstrates the strength and creative vision of its people. It represents new growth and high-performance technology fused into one powerful iconic form”. However, Bob Sinn, principal engineer at Thornton Tomasetti, stated that the practical challenges of building supertall buildings are greater than the structural challenges.
“We intend Kingdom Tower to become both an economic engine and a proud symbol of the Kingdom’s economic and cultural stature in the world community,” said Talal Al Maiman, a board member of both Kingdom Holding Company and Jeddah Economic Company. He continued, "We envision Kingdom Tower as a new iconic marker of Jeddah’s historic importance as the traditional gateway to the holy city of Mecca." The project's primary proponent, Prince Al-Waleed said, "Building this tower in Jeddah sends a financial and economic message that should not be ignored. It has a political depth to it to tell the world that we Saudis invest in our country."
When Alain Robert
Alain Robert
Alain Robert , is a French rock and urban climber, from Digoin, Saône-et-Loire, Bourgogne, France...
, also known as the French Spiderman, was expressing his willingness to climb Kingdom Tower after it is complete if he is given official approval, despite the fact that he will be well into his fifties, heard that it may be up to 1,600 meters, he said, "That doesn’t make much sense,” but that if the height is 1,000 meters that it will be achievable.
Construction
Aside from the geotechnical investigationGeotechnical investigation
Geotechnical investigations are performed by geotechnical engineers or engineering geologists to obtain information on the physical properties of soil and rock around a site to design earthworks and foundations for proposed structures and for repair of distress to earthworks and structures caused...
(soil testing) that took place in 2008, and minor site preparation evidenced by pictures of the site, work on the foundation has not yet begun. While the official construction estimate is five years and three months (63 months), others calculate that it will take significantly longer, over seven years, based on the duration of Burj Khalifa's construction, which was over six years. Statements that construction will begin soon have been made since 2008, but have been postponed each time. As of August 2011, the construction schedule has been slated as "no later than December," with some saying "immediately," and that construction is imminent. This means the tower is expected to be completed during the year 2017, though it is possible that it could be completed by the date the media continues to publish, which is the prior estimate of late 2016. Only if construction does begin promptly and go smoothly can a late 2016 completion be expected. Designs for the foundation were in place by early August and the contract for the piling with Langan International was being tendered. On 16 August 2011, Langan officially announced their involvement and that the foundation and piling had to be uniquely designed to overcome subsurface issues such as soft bedrock
Bedrock
In stratigraphy, bedrock is the native consolidated rock underlying the surface of a terrestrial planet, usually the Earth. Above the bedrock is usually an area of broken and weathered unconsolidated rock in the basal subsoil...
and porous
Porosity
Porosity or void fraction is a measure of the void spaces in a material, and is a fraction of the volume of voids over the total volume, between 0–1, or as a percentage between 0–100%...
coral rock, which normally could not support a skyscraper without settling. The foundation will be similar to that of the Burj Khalifa, but larger. It is expected to be around 60 metres (197 ft) deep with a concrete pad of around 7500 square metre. The concrete will have to have low permeability
Permeation
Permeation, in physics and engineering, is the penetration of a permeate through a solid, and is related to a material's intrinsic permeability...
to keep out corrosive salt water
Salt water
Salt water or saltwater may refer to:* Saline water, water containing salts* Brine, with salt* Brackish water, water that is saltier than fresh water, but not as salty as seawater* Seawater, water from oceans or seas...
from the Red Sea, its depth and size is also considered to be an indicator of what the tower's final height will be. The piles will be up to 200 metres (656 ft) deep and the pad over 300 feet (91 m) across, yet even still the building, which will weigh over 900,000 tons, is expected to settle. The idea is that it settles evenly enough so that the building doesn't tip or put undue stress on the superstructure
Superstructure
A superstructure is an upward extension of an existing structure above a baseline. This term is applied to various kinds of physical structures such as buildings, bridges, or ships...
. Computer modeling programs performed tests at the site to confirm that the foundation design would work.
Construction of the building will rely on cutting edge technology, including the high-strength reinforced concrete and the pumps used to elevate it to record heights, similar to what was used during Burj Khalifa's construction. Bob Sinn, principal of Thornton Tomasetti states, “Concrete quality is getting better and better, as is pumping technology. There have been very strong advances in reinforced concrete over the last 20 years." He continued, “Kingdom Tower is certainly feasible. It’s not a structural challenge. Technically I think a 2 km (6,562 ft)-tall tower could be done, but I don’t think it will be done anytime soon.” Kingdom Tower is not only the only approved structure over 1000 metres (3,281 ft), it is also the only proposal higher than the 828 metres (2,717 ft) Burj Khalifa to be given the green light for construction.
See also
- List of tallest buildings and structures in the world
- List of tallest buildings in Saudi Arabia
- List of buildings with 100 floors or more
External links
- Kingdom Holding Company website
- Slideshow image gallery of renderings by Fox News
- 13:40 WTTW video interview with Adrian Smith about Kingdom Tower on YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....