Overlooking the Red Sea, $2.2 billion (8.4 billion Saudi riyals) in financing has been approved to build Jeddah City, including Jeddah Tower, which alone will cost $1.23 billion. Rising 200 floors in height, of which 26 have been finished, the skyscraper is set to be completed in 2020.
Mounib Hammoud, Chief Executive Officer of Jeddah Economic Company, stated the building will fulfill “the company’s objective of creating a world-class urban center that offers an advanced lifestyle, so that Jeddah may have a new iconic landmark that attracts people from all walks of society with comprehensive services and a multitude of uses.”
Requiring 5.7 million square feet of concrete and 80,000 tons of steel, the foundations will be 200 feet deep, able to withstand the salt water of the nearby ocean.
To counter the issue of wind, the building changes shapes, according to architect Gordon Gill, a partner at Adrian Smith and Gordon Gill Architects, the design architects for the project. “Because it changes shape every few floors, the wind loads go round the building and won’t be as extreme as on a really solid block,” he said.
Although delivering concrete to the upper floors could present a challenge, Sang Dae Kim, the director of the Council on Tall Buildings, said Jeddah Tower should be feasible.
As MHProNews reported July 26, 2013, the Broad Group’s plans to erect the world’s tallest building in China using the modular method had been put on hold. The local government in Hunan Province suspended the plan, allegedly because the Broad Group did not have a building permit. ##
(Image credit: CNNMoney–Jeddah Tower, world’s tallest building)
