World's Tallest Building To Open Monday 360
dtmos writes "The Burj Dubai ('Dubai Tower' in Arabic) is scheduled to open to the public on Monday. Its height, claimed to be 824.55m (2,705.2 feet), but believed to be 818m (2,684 feet) — either way, more than half a mile — makes it far taller than Taiwan's Taipei 101, which had been the world's tallest skyscraper at 509m (1,670 feet)."
Great timing (Score:5, Insightful)
Right in time for the Dubai economy to start tanking.
Re:The way to go is up (Score:5, Insightful)
The principle of building up is right, however. Higher population density makes for better public transportation, more services available within walking distance, and nicer, more pristine outdoors spaces.
50 years ago, Dubai (and Abu Dhabi) was nothing more than a small mud brick & stone town in the desert.
Once oil was discovered, the revenues were used to fund explosive development...
BUT the emirates did a terrible job of planning.
There are highrise apartment buildings everywhere, but no parking.
They have incredible population density, but no sewage system to speak of.
Anything you see that is green must be watered constantly or it'll die.
Dubai is a rather good example of how not to build a city.
Re:Impressive.. (Score:4, Insightful)
Having a bunch of not-quite-slaves-because-we-said-we-would-pay-them to build the scenery and fill drinks for the people who matter is just part of the "charm".
Re:Impressive.. (Score:4, Insightful)
Truly sad (Score:4, Insightful)
The USA once was dominant in metrics like this. Now, our leadership position, being pissed away for so many years by inept leadership and increasily divisive politics, has been compromised in many areas.
In education, we rival the 3rd world. There is actually serious discussion about teaching so-called "Intelligent-Design" as a part of our Science curriculum! Our math and science scores are near the bottom, and are actually beaten by 3rd world countries in many cases.
Our production and manufacturing idustries have been bleeding red ink for decades. Once the pinnacle of the 1st world, we now sardonically compliment our own quality. Our upper-middle and upper classes don't buy our American-made cars.
Our leadership in Science development is tanking fast. From our until-recent ban on stem cell research funding, and our generally soft support for "basic Science" research, to our cancelling funding for the SSC supercollider [wikipedia.org], we've sent the message to the scientific community - support is elsewhere!
Tallest building in the world is a pissing contest, that we led for a long time in the last century. We've not only lost it, but our vain attempt to regain it in the so-called "Freedom tower" is mired in controversy, bad design, and travesty, bungled so badly that it's the architectural equivalent of the "mission accomplished" poster of GWB notoriety.
I'm an American, and it's really, really sad to watch my nation slowly collapse in on itself.
Re:Impressive.. (Score:5, Insightful)
You are missing the point. The construction workers, maids etc. are often enslaved. This guy was a CEO, or fairly senior.
The Saudis, Emiratis, Kuwaitis etc. are almost racists, and the countries are tyrannies far worse than the West's enemies like Iran, Libya, Syria Saddam Hussain etc: Syria, Iran and Iraq allow minorities freedom of worship, and religious minorities where much better off under Saddam Hussein than they are in Iraq now.
Re:Great timing (Score:4, Insightful)
Oh definitely. I ride a bike to work in Melbourne and I agree totally we have serious problems.
Re:BASE Jump (Score:2, Insightful)
already happened http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pGp1LX8yZY [youtube.com]
Re:Great timing (Score:3, Insightful)
Or it could be that every decade sees several new highest buildings erected in various places, regardless of pending economic troubles. Any correlation between ongoing construction hubris and economic crashes is likely coincidental.
Re:More than tallest building (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm not sure how having a building at a higher elevation in the Rockies is relevant. If height above sea-level is considered instead of height above local ground-level then the first homeless guy to set up a cardboard box in Denver beat the Dubai Tower by half a mile.
Re:Holes, not poles. (Score:3, Insightful)
Digging holes is WAAAAYYYYY more expensive than building stories (with "normal sized buildings").
A 10 story building costs more than a 5 story building mainly because the taller building needs a deeper fundamentum in the ground.
Re:The way to go is up (Score:3, Insightful)
Just as Phoenix, Arizona is. Building cities in deserts is just not a good idea, and exploiting the environment to the absolute maximum it can take is bound to fail in the long run.
Re:More than tallest building (Score:4, Insightful)
Having at least a parachute while living on upper floors might be a good idea in such a building...
Re:More than tallest building (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Impressive.. (Score:3, Insightful)
Actually, the GP is right. Neoliberalism [wikipedia.org], the driving force behind modern conservative economics that has swept the United States and Canada (and probably other nations), includes, among its components, tax reform, trade liberalization, privatization, and deregulation.
Re:Truly sad (Score:3, Insightful)
The U.S. was still unquestionably the world superpower through the 1990s at least
No set of comments on Slashdot is complete without at least one pointing out how the article reflects America's decline.
Re:The way to go is up (Score:3, Insightful)
The entire place really is just an insane example of how to spend cash, it's totally not self sufficient (They have an indoor ski slope, how much energy does it take? Seriously.... is it on sustainable energy?) I don't mean to throw chip here, because western culture is pretty stupid and wasteful often but I see some real tacky shit over there, it seems like 'we have money, let's do the biggest!!!!!!!!!' (exclamation marks required)
You could just as easily be describing this place. [wikipedia.org]