Artist's impression of the Burj Dubai.
US firm to design world's tallest tower
01 June 2003
Dubai-based Emaar Properties has named a Chicago-based firm to draw up the designs for what is planned to be the world's tallest tower in the emirate.
The developer said Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, the architectural design consultant on the project, drew inspiration from a desert flower with six petals that is native to the region.
The base of the tower - named Burj Dubai - 'blossoms' and gives the structure a graceful transition from the ground.
The design has three "leaves" that maximise views and the dome-shaped plan profile is used to accentuate a series of steps, up the vertical height of the building, Emaar said. These peel away as the building mass gets taller and creates a cascade of domes on all three sides.
Emaar chairman Mohamed Ali Alabbar said his company had begun registering prospective tenants at the tower, which will be sited on Sheikh Zayed Road. He said the "city within a city" would combine residential, commercial, hotel, and leisure outlets.
The building will feature open green spaces, water features, pedestrian boulevards, an "old town" and one of the world's largest shopping malls, Alabbar said.
Construction of the infrastructure will begin by end-2003.
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