JEDDAH | Kingdom Tower | 3,303 FT / 1,007 M

[blacktrojan3921]

Originally Posted by Troubadour

Actually, a very appropriate analogy: As a mile-high tower, the difference in air pressure between the ground floor and the top becomes significant. People sometimes have trouble acclimating after flights to places like Denver that are in the mile range. So the question must be asked whether upper floors will be pressurized, or if people will be expected to transition from sea level (Jeddah is on the coast) to Denver-altitude in a 12-minute elevator ride - something that sounds potentially problematic. Even taking a half-hour car ride up a mile-high mountain can give some people headaches, nausea, and shortness of breath.

If pressurization will be involved, then the engineers will be entering new territory: To date, the technology is overwhelmingly used in airline cabins - something far smaller and structurally simpler (a metal cylinder) than the floors of a skyscraper. And that brings up a whole host of fascinating technological questions: Will the elevators pass through airlocks? Will blocks of upper floors be environmentally segregated in case of a loss of pressure? Will pressure-maintenance systems be passive or active? Etc. etc.

I'd imagine what would be more of a nightmare is if someone out of stupidity smashed a window on one of the top floors that's pressurized, would be like an airplane suffering explosive decompression; if it's severe enough it could really damage the building structure.

[Kanto]

Originally Posted by M II A II R II K

And plus it would be a nightmare to host it on the worlds tallest buildings posters.

LOL, that's true

[Troubadour]

Originally Posted by blacktrojan3921

I'd imagine what would be more of a nightmare is if someone out of stupidity smashed a window on one of the top floors that's pressurized, would be like an airplane suffering explosive decompression; if it's severe enough it could really damage the building structure.

Well, both fortunately (for the sanity of the engineers) and unfortunately (for dreamers like me) it doesn't look like this is going to be a mile tall - it looks like they're going for 1 km, which means pressure is more of a subtle problem than something requiring structural creativity.

[STR]

So...at 1100 meters...

[Troubadour]

Originally Posted by STR

So...at 1100 meters...

Yeah, that looks about right. A giant tower with an infinite view of absolutely nothing (Jeddah purportedly being the —-end of nowhere). I really hope they do more with the exterior, that render is in serious need of some staggered cladding or large texture elements. Bland is okay in a parallel prism - it is NEVER okay in a spike. A spike must justify itself by being obtrusively beautiful. So far the render fails that standard.

[MolsonExport]

What on earth are they going to fill the tower with? Really, is there that much need for office space? I can understand the market potential for the Makkah clock tower. But not this.

[SkyscrapersOfNewYork]

that is not a building......its just just a giant piece of enclosed space.

[blacktrojan3921]

Originally Posted by Troubadour

Well, both fortunately (for the sanity of the engineers) and unfortunately (for dreamers like me) it doesn't look like this is going to be a mile tall - it looks like they're going for 1 km, which means pressure is more of a subtle problem than something requiring structural creativity.

Oh thank you god, personally I don't think were nowhere near ready for a 5000+ foot tower.

[The North One]

How do they expect to occupy this building?

[Innsertnamehere]

^ they don't.

[Crazy Ivan]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-02...adin-to-build-world-s-tallest-tower.html


Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal awarded Saudi Binladin Group a contract to build the world’s tallest tower in Jeddah. Photographer: Waseem Obaidi/Bloomberg
.
Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal chose Saudi Binladin Group to construct the world’s tallest building in Jeddah.

Kingdom Tower will be more than 1,000 meters (3,281 feet) high and cost 4.6 billion riyals ($1.2 billion) to build, Alwaleed’s investing company, Kingdom Holding Co. (KINGDOM), said in a statement today. Alwaleed told reporters in Riyadh that construction of the tower, which will include homes, offices, and a hotel, will be finished in about five years.

The tower will be the centerpiece of a 100-billion-riyal development in Jeddah known as Kingdom City that was announced in 2008, soon after the onset of the global credit crisis that roiled real-estate markets. Emaar Properties PJSC (EMAAR), the United Arab Emirates’ biggest real-estate developer, is managing the development. Emaar built Burj Khalifa, the Dubai property that’s currently the world’s tallest at 828 meters.

The tower’s construction isn’t likely to help alleviate Saudi Arabia’s growing housing shortage. The Arab world’s largest economy needs to build 900 homes a day over the next five years to meet the demands of a population that has quadrupled over the last 40 years to 28.7 million, Jones Lang LaSalle said March 27.

“Saudis, like a lot of Gulf residents, like to live in villas and individual homes; they don’t like to live in flats or big towers,” said Loic Pelichet, assistant vice president of research at National Bank of Kuwait’s NBK Capital unit. The tower’s construction “changes nothing on the housing demand front.”

‘Prestige Project’

Kingdom Tower will be built in the first phase of a 5.3 million-square-meter development that overlooks the Red Sea and Obhur Creek, the company said.

It’s a “prestige project” that Kingdom Holding has committed itself to building after presumably gaining investor interest, NBK’s Pelichet said. “Is there demand anywhere in the world for a 1,000 meter-high tower? I’m not sure.”

In October, Adrian Smith & Gordon Gill Architecture was selected to design the tower in Jeddah. Adrian Smith designed Burj Khalifa when he was working for Skidmore Owings & Merrill, Gulf News reported on Oct. 22.

Jeddah-based Saudi Binladin Group, Saudi Arabia’s largest construction firm, agreed to become a shareholder in Jeddah Economic Co., the project’s owner, with a stake of about 17 percent, according to today’s statement. Kingdom Holding and Abrar International Holding Co. each own a third of the stock, and Abdurrahman Sharbatly owns the remaining 17 percent.

Saudi Binladin Group, which expanded the holy mosque in Mecca and built large projects across the Middle East, is owned by the family of deceased al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

Kingdom Holding shares rose 1.9 percent to 8 riyals at 12:52 in Riyadh today, giving the company a market value of 29.6 billion riyals.

To contact the reporter on this story: Zainab Fattah in Dubai on [email protected].

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew Blackman at [email protected].

[Fabb]

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/71eef532-bcf6-11e0-bdb1-00144feabdc0.html?ftcamp=rss#axzz1TsTLhsV7

[HurricaneHugo]

Apparently it will get built...

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/08/02/bin-laden-group-to-build-tower/?hpt=hp_t2

[Tom In Chicago]

From the Smith+Gill website profile of this project:

AS+GG Designs Kingdom Tower, to Be the World's Tallest Building

August 2, 2011

Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture is pleased to announce that it is designing Kingdom Tower, to be the world's tallest building, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, near the Red Sea.

At over 1,000 meters and a total construction area of 530,000 square meters (5.7 million square feet), Kingdom Tower will be the centerpiece and first construction phase of the Kingdom City development on a 5.3 million-square-meter site in north Jeddah. The tower's height will be at least 173 meters (568 feet) taller than the world's current tallest building, Dubai's 828-meter-tall Burj Khalifa, which was designed by Adrian Smith while at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. Kingdom Tower will feature a Four Seasons hotel, Four Seasons serviced apartments, Class A office space, luxury condominiums and the world's highest observatory.

Design development of the tower is under way, with construction to begin imminently. Foundation drawings are complete and the piling for the tower is currently being tendered. Kingdom Tower will cost approximately $1.2 billion to construct, while the cost of the entire Kingdom City project is anticipated to be $20 billion.

AS+GG is leading an interdisciplinary design team that also includes building services engineering consultants Environmental Systems Design, Inc. (ESD) and structural engineering consultants Thornton Tomasetti. The developer of Kingdom City, Jeddah Economic Company (JEC), selected the scheme after a lengthy competition process in which SOM, Pickard Chilton, Kohn Pedersen Fox, Pelli Clarke Pelli and Foster + Partners also participated.

"Our vision for Kingdom Tower is one that represents the new spirit of Saudi Arabia,"  said Smith, whose experience in supertall tower design at SOM also includes Jin Mao Tower in Shanghai, Nanjing Greenland Financial Center in Nanjing, China, the Trump International Hotel & Tower in Chicago and Pearl River Tower, now in the late stages of construction in Guangzhou, China. "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. "

The project is the brainchild of His Royal Highness Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Alsaud, nephew of Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah and chairman of Kingdom Holding Company, which is a partner in Jeddah Economic Company along with prominent Jeddah businessmen Samaual Bakhsh and Abdulrahman Hassan Sharbatly and Saudi Binladin Group (SBG). SBG is also the contractor for Kingdom Tower.

"Prince Alwaleed, Mr. Bakhsh, Mr. Sharbatly and I were impressed by the boldness and simplicity of the AS+GG design," said Talal Al Maiman, Executive Director, Development and Domestic Investments, a Board member of Kingdom Holding Company and a board member of JEC. "Kingdom Tower's height is remarkable, obviously, but the building's iconic status will not depend solely on that aspect. Its form is brilliantly sculpted, making it quite simply one of the most beautiful buildings in the world of any height."

In addition to its status as an architectural landmark and economic symbol, Kingdom Tower will enjoy great cultural significance. "We envision Kingdom Tower as an iconic new marker of Jeddah's historic importance as the traditional gateway to the holy city of Mecca," Mr. Al Maiman said. He noted that the southeast leg of Kingdom Tower's tripedal base is on a direct line with the Ka'ba in Mecca, Islam's holiest site. 

AS+GG's design for Kingdom Tower is both highly technological and distinctly organic. "With its slender, subtly asymmetrical massing, the tower evokes a bundle of leaves shooting up from the ground–a burst of new life that heralds more growth all around it," Mr. Smith said.

The sleek, streamlined form of the tower was inspired by the folded fronds of young desert plant growth, Gordon Gill added. "The way the fronds sprout upward from the ground as a single form, then start separating from each other at the top, is an analogy of new growth fused with technology," he said. "We're thrilled to be working with His Highness and Jeddah Economic Company to help define this path for the Kingdom."

While the design is contextual to Saudi Arabia, it also represents an evolution and a refinement of an architectural continuum of skyscraper design. The three-petal footprint is ideal for residential units, and the tapering wings produce an aerodynamic shape that helps reduce structural loading due to wind vortex shedding. The Kingdom Tower design embraces its architectural pedigree, taking full advantage of the proven design strategies and technological strategies of its lineage, refining and advancing them to achieve new heights.

The result is an elegant, cost-efficient and highly constructible design that is at once grounded in built tradition and aggressively forward-looking, taking advantage of new and innovative thinking about technology, building materials, life-cycle considerations and energy conservation. For example, the project will feature a high-performance exterior wall system that will minimize energy consumption by reducing thermal loads. In addition, each of Kingdom Tower's three sides features a series of notches that create pockets of shadow that shield areas of the building from the sun and provide outdoor terraces with stunning views of Jeddah and the Red Sea.

The great height of Kingdom Tower necessitates one of the world's most sophisticated elevator systems. The Kingdom Tower complex will contain 59 elevators, including 54 single-deck and five double-deck elevators, along with 12 escalators. Elevators serving the observatory will travel at a rate of 10 meters per second in both directions.

Another unique feature of the design is a sky terrace, roughly 30 meters (98 feet) in diameter, at level 157. It is an outdoor amenity space intended for use by the penthouse floor.

AS+GG also designed the master plan for the 23-hectare Kingdom Tower Waterfront District, which surrounds the tower and which will include residential and commercial buildings, a shopping mall, high-quality outdoor spaces and other amenities. The Waterfront District provides a cohesive and pedestrian-friendly setting for Kingdom Tower while creating a pleasant neighborhood experience along the Kingdom City lakefront.

The district encompasses a high-end shopping mall designed by AS+GG, plus additional development parcels that accommodate commercial and high-density residential uses, offices, two luxury hotels and high-quality open spaces, including the central Tower Plaza. A serene waterfront promenade connects Kingdom Tower, the various development parcels, the open space areas and the mall together. The result is an exciting mixed-use area that offers a concentrated and comprehensive experience including vibrant shopping, entertainment and open-space amenities. The Waterfront District also provides an array of connections to other areas within Kingdom City's overall master plan, designed by HOK Architects.

About Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture
Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture is dedicated to the design of high-performance architecture in a wide range of typology and scale, from low- and mid-rise residential, commercial and cultural buildings to mixed-use supertall towers and new cities. The office uses a holistic, integrated design approach that explores symbiotic relationships with the natural environment. AS+GG is currently working on projects for clients in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, China, India, South Korea, Malaysia, Canada and the United States. The partnership was founded in 2006 by Adrian Smith, Gordon Gill and Robert Forest. For more information, please visit www.smithgill.com.

. . .

[Nowhereman1280]

Well it's kinda a neat design, I'm rooting for it since it's not my money they are wasting.

Anyhow, I take pride in the fact that is S&G, Chicago pride. Also I take pride in the fact that Adrian Smith is apparently the only human being capable of designing ultra tall towers that aren't — ugly and actually getting them built.

[peanut gallery]

Here's a bigger version from Gizmodo:

[NYguy]

World Architecture News

http://www.worldarchitecturenews.com/index.php?fuseaction=wanappln.projectview&upload_id=17218

[SkyscrapersOfNewYork]

i really like the new design but these ultra tall towers fail to impress me.

[Innsertnamehere]

^ they will impress you if you stand below one of them.

Well of course but these towers are gimmicks. I find the Pearl River tower and New York by Ghery to be far more interesting. These are built to flaunt power and wealth through towers that are not needed and to me thats demeaning to the purpose of architecture but i digress.

[Aleks]

lol, i agreeeee. that's — huge.

although i get the feeling that scale would get lost with all the other/no-other giant towers around. i like the tower and design, but — the massive amount of land wasted all around. maybe they should just forget about all the other projects and fill up this tower.