At a cost of $1 billion, construction of the tower, designed by Spanish-Swiss architect Santiago Calatrava Valls, will start at the end of June and will be finished in time for the World Expo in 2020, according to the developer, Emaar Properties PJSC.
“We wanted to build a new landmark for Dubai,” Emaar chairman Mohamed Alabbar said of the tower, which will be part of the Dubai Creek Harbour project. “When we look at Downtown and the Burj Khalifa, the area is almost full to the rim.”
Alabbar said the new tower will be a “notch taller” than the 160-story Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building, and that at least 20 floors of the building are reserved for restaurants, shops and other facilities.
The tower will also have gardens and an observation deck, Alabbar said, adding “It [the height] will probably be announced when we open the tower but it will be a notch taller than the Burj Khalifa.”
Since dethroning Taiwan’s Taipei 101 as the world’s tallest building in 2010, the 828-meter Burj Khalifa has been dominating Dubai’s skyline that also featured dozens of futuristic skyscrapers, becoming the emirate’s top tourist attraction.
But Burj Khalifa’s reign will soon be over.
Neighboring Saudi Arabia is building the one-kilometer Jeddah Tower, which will have 200 floors. The tower, which will be the world’s tallest building upon completion in 2020, will rise within the Jeddah Economic City in Obhur on the Red Sea coast.
China is also building a skyscraper designed to be the world’s tallest when finished next year or in 2018. One of the two Phoenix Towers, rising in Wuhan in the central province of Hubei, will be taller than the Burj Khalifa by 172 meters.
