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Originally Posted by NYC4Life
For other locations like Dubai, it hasn't worked out well so far. Their tall towers like the Burj Khalifa are built on desert and stand mostly empty and were probably built mostly for show.
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Showing off a world-class skyline was certainly one of their reasons for their wild construction. I have to believe, though, that they actually believed they'd have better occupancy rates by now than they actually do.
There are a lot of problems with central planing, especially in an autocracy like the UAE. At one point they had wild plans of building replicas of all the wonders of the world, as well as the largest sports complex, and a third and larger palm islands. They should been less bold.
In any event, we have a new, fantastic skyline to look at. The biggest single-city skyscraper boom ever. Yeah, much of it looks tacky up front, but man does it look fantastic when viewed in full.
Manhattan's boom of the 1920's-30's was more natural. From what I understand, it's occupancy rates aren't thaaat fantastic, but the demand is still high because of a need for fiber-optics, etc.