JEDDAH | Kingdom Tower | 3,303 FT / 1007 M | ON HOLD - Page 15

Don098 · #**281** Posted **Apr 12, 2011, 2:58 PM**

This building makes me want to barf. What a colossal waste of precious resources. It's not needed; it's ostentatious, tasteless, and a scar on modern civilization. This will all be developed in the midst of a developing nation that is politically unstable with abysmal human rights violations. They want to call themselves modern by building this crap? Why don't you spend your money on improving the lives of your citizens so that they don't rebel and knock your tower down during an inevitable civil war in the years to come? Just a thought.

rapid_business · #**282** Posted **Apr 12, 2011, 3:07 PM**

wow.... this is beyond ridiculous.

....

BStyles · #**283** Posted **Apr 12, 2011, 8:03 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dylan Leblanc

Hey, I say the Saudi's should go for it! Just glad this thing isn't being built in my country.

With this comment, I feel so much happier.

JG1324 · #**284** Posted **Apr 12, 2011, 8:27 PM**

Article from Today

Highlights from the Article
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...-building.html

Quote:

-
Kingdom Tower in Saudi Arabia will be 1.6km tall (one mile) when it is completed and consist of hotels, offices, luxury apartments and a shopping centre.

-
twice the height of the world's current tallest skyscraper, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai,

-
It is being financed by the Saudi Royal Family-owned Kingdom Holding Company

-
employed American company Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture who designed the Burj Khalifa.

-
Emaar, which built the Burj, are understood to have won the contract to construct the Kingdom Tower

-

Troubadour · #**285** Posted **Apr 12, 2011, 11:04 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Don098

This building makes me want to barf.

My reaction isn't quite that strong. I'm not a fan of the tenuous needle/stalagmite family of designs pioneered by Wright's Illinois (with the notable exception of the Chicago Spire, whose loss was an epic tragedy). The most recently-posted renderings of Jeddah Tower above show a building that is aesthetically and psychologically worthless - it doesn't inspire, attract, provoke, or in any other way engage the senses, the passions, or thoughts, and yet lacks even the virtues of simplicity.

It is an abstraction that fails to grab the cerebral imagination; a massive structure that fails to impress the macho impulse (it comes off as defensive rather than assertive); smooth without any trace of elegance or compelling flow; and compensates the lack of intrinsic grandeur with a single-minded drive for height at the expense of all other considerations. The sheer philistine pettiness of it is disturbing, because they could build something a bit shorter that looks awesome and still utterly dwarfs the Burj. If it's built as the most recently posted renderings indicate, it will be contemptible as anything other than an engineering laboratory.

Nonetheless, I can't deny it will be a highly challenging and instructive exercise for the people who design and build it, and through them the entire skyscraper community. So as this project proceeds, I'll try to look at it not as architecture, but rather as a bold technological experiment - and I think we'd all be much more satisfied looking at it through that lens.

M II A II R II K · #**286** Posted **Apr 12, 2011, 11:36 PM**

I don't think it's even possible to build it given the logistics and manpower that would be required to build it. Then there are maintenance costs after the fact and energy to run it.

Although if they make it solar powered there's plenty of sunshine!

SkyscrapersOfNewYork · #**287** Posted **Apr 12, 2011, 11:45 PM**

i have to agree with Troubadour, this things feels more like something such as a space station being proposed rather than a skyscraper.

Troubadour · #**288** Posted **Apr 13, 2011, 1:27 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by SkyscrapersOfNewYork

i have to agree with Troubadour, this things feels more like something such as a space station being proposed rather than a skyscraper.

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.

Now that I'm thinking about this project technologically rather than as architecture, I find I like it a lot more. Some day the world will indeed have buildings tall enough to look out into a black sky at high-noon (as per my signature line), and however far into the future that day may be, the Kingdom Tower seems like a nice opportunity to begin exploring pressurization issues. Hopefully they do explore pressurization rather than just ignoring the issue, which would still be an option at 1 mile.

whiteford · #**289** Posted **Apr 13, 2011, 2:03 PM**

it can, and someday, will be done. nothing can hold man back from that which he desires. man has been to the moon and back. this tower will be a walk in the park, as far as human do-ability is concerned.

10023 · #**290** Posted **Apr 13, 2011, 5:48 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by M II A II R II K

I don't think it's even possible to build it given the logistics and manpower that would be required to build it. Then there are maintenance costs after the fact and energy to run it.

Although if they make it solar powered there's plenty of sunshine!

It's being built in a country that sits on the world's largest oil reserves, with a large supply of (basically) slave labor. So cross energy and manpower off the list.

Lecom · #**291** Posted **Apr 13, 2011, 9:48 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by JG1324

Hmm. I know the shorter buildings are placeholders, but if this thing will be twice as tall as the Burj Khalifa, each of those placeholders would have to be about as tall as the Empire State Building.

M II A II R II K · #**292** Posted **Apr 13, 2011, 10:43 PM**

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

Innsertnamehere · #**293** Posted **Apr 13, 2011, 11:53 PM**

how dare the saudi's make us diagram makers go through pain by having to scroll 5 seconds in order to reach the rest of the worlds tallest buildings on the worlds tallest buildings list!

M II A II R II K · #**294** Posted **Apr 14, 2011, 12:10 AM**

I was referring to the printed posters if that thing becomes a reality.

And then there's the fire regulations, but at that height people can use parachutes and have a soft landing.

Tower X · #**295** Posted **Apr 24, 2011, 2:01 AM**

Ok, i just read this in "The AGE" newspaper that my dad showed me.

heres the artical:
Technical advances in building materials, like carbon nanotubes, will enable buildings to reach new heights, experts suggest. The worlds tallest building, the Burj Khailfa in Dubai, could soon be surperseeded by the 1.6km-tall, $28.5 billion megolith in Saudi Arabia, the Kingdom Tower. Similar building heights are unrealistic here. Developer Danieel Grollo, whose compony Grocon is building Melbourne's second tallest building at the CUB site on Swanstin Street, said recently he wouldn't be surprised if the Eureka Tower was superseded in height within the next five years. More skyscrapers were inevutable and would benefit the city, he said.

-all from melbourne saturday age-

comparison:

(old photo)

image from http://ewanrani.blogspot.com/2011/04...eter-16km.html

JDRCRASH · #**296** Posted **Apr 25, 2011, 3:06 AM**

^ To be fair, that diagram doesn't take into account the Burj Khalifa's height increase.

Zapatan · #**297** Posted **Apr 25, 2011, 3:10 AM**

Wow, the mid east sure knows how to build ass ugly buildings

Innsertnamehere · #**298** Posted **Apr 25, 2011, 11:55 AM**

the abraj al bait is also an incorrect render

Obey · #**299** Posted **Apr 28, 2011, 1:55 AM**

Mile-High Skyscraper Planned for Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
http://archrecord.construction.com/y...y_id=158443834

Quote:

A mile-high skyscraper is being planned for a site on the edge of Jeddah within an HOK-designed masterplan.

The 1,600m-tall Kingdom Tower would dwarf the current tallest building in the world, Dubai's Burj Khalifa, which is half its height. Lifts would take 12 minutes to reach the top floor.

Chicago practice Adrian Smith & Gordon Gill Architecture was rumoured to be the architect, but its director of public affairs, Kevin Nance, insisted no announcement had been made.

He said press reports were "based on anonymous, unofficial sources" yet refused to confirm or deny them.

(c) 2011 Building Design. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved.

A service of YellowBrix, Inc.

kiwi4life · #**300** Posted **Apr 30, 2011, 4:40 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by whiteford

it can, and someday, will be done. nothing can hold man back from that which he desires. man has been to the moon and back. this tower will be a walk in the park, as far as human do-ability is concerned.

you are very correct whiteford, this is only the start of a new age too