@wsnideman: Eh? I was criticising El Frijole's post. I think you need to go back and read again what I wrote.

LittleJon

@Mr.Purple: Then why would he say "reverse 911"?

LittleJon

Is that irony? An arab country builds the tallest building, you know it's just begging to be knocked over

toyotaboy

Oh wow, I couldn't imagine being that high all the time.

smashingparadox

That's pretty sweet, and definitely impressive, but honestly, I like China's new CCTV building better. Sorry Dubai.

Ike_Skelton

Tower of Babel.

Curves

Also, it's amazing to me how much dubai has embraced capitalism.

Dubai - 1990

Dubai - 2004

Sussudio at 11:49 AM
Reply
*

@Git Em SteveDave: Who the hell would want to go to an Islamic country for a vacation anyways?

Yeah, what are people thinking?

/the answer is, Europeans. Not everyone wants to fly halfway across the earth to get to the Caribbean or Florida

/from the Caribbean

lordargent

@jimbut: Carbon footprint, carbon schmootprint. Who gives a rat's ass? Your guru, Al Gore, runs from country to country speaking for $40,000.00 a pop about how we're all fucking up the world. Why doesn't he just stay home and do all of that via teleconference? He could use the Internet that he invented. OH, never mind. He couldn't get as much money for that. I guess it's OK for him to run up his "carbon footprint" so he can collect his cash for spreading the word.

yelraf

@TideGuy: I'm not saying that. YOU are doing the assuming here. I was saying that they are doing all of this construction to get a tourist industry thriving, so people won't think of them as an oil country or a banking haven, and have it become their main source of income. I am sorry I did not explain myself to you better.

Also, how do you congratulate a "fail". Congratulate is defined as: To express joy or acknowledgment as for achievement(achievement being the opposite of fail, BTW) and also:to express one's pleasure to (a person) at his or her success(success being another antonym of fail). Just FYI, Dictionaries are on sale now for the back to school season. Pick one up. All of the great books are contained therein.

Git Em SteveDave displays attention-grabbing vanity

I'm using this as an example as to why steel prices have and continue to increase outpacing inflation at ludicrous speed.

@Luizzle:
@nystreetfilms:

Can we make a rule that this comment along with that other Crysis comment automatically get disemvoweled?

SeattleTed

@wsnideman: Now that is the stupidest thing I have ever heard. There are no innocents in war (Duh!). And if it were it sure as hell wont be a muslim (Hey they asked for it!).

LONG LIVE AMERICA - and if you don't like it move or don't come over here!

@LittleJon: Damn right my man. I say we send a missle over there during the opening ceremony.

Deterrence is the only way to make a muslim listen (END OF STORY!)!

grizzley_nuts

@bobdobbs: Well with our new-age, clean-lined, glass-laden brand of architecture, giant gorillas wouldn't have much of a place in this world anyway.

@smartboydan has a headache: Now the earth is anatomically correct.

@jimbut: The generation of man cometh and goeth, but the earth abideth forever and ever. In 1,000 years, Dubai will just be a pockmark, though those skyscrapers will make an awesome desolate boom when they collapse.

Kaiser-Machead's WALL-E fetish

And please please jealous people, why don't we just admire this amazing structure instead of being so stereotype (ohh these Muslims or terrorists or w/e) and please stop saying oil oil (did anyone forced you to buy oil ?) go ride a bike or something.

tartooob

Git Em SteveDave: The sad thing is that Dubai is trying to build up a tourist industry before their oil money runs out

IIRC, they hardly get any money from oil right now. Also, a large chunk of their GDP comes from business as well. (though I guess tourism and business tourism go hand in hand).

"Dubai's gross domestic product as of 2005 was US$37 billion.[9] Although Dubai's economy was built on the back of the oil industry,[65] revenues from oil and natural gas currently account for less than 6% of the emirate's revenues." - Wikipedia

"The oil sector's contribution to Dubai's GDP has fallen from 5.4% in 2005 to 5.1% last year, according to a report by the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry." - [www.ameinfo.com]

lordargent

@nystreetfilms: lol +1

tartooob

@jayhawk11: I know, but they are trying to build up their tourist industry as their new main source of income, instead of either banking,oil, etc

Git Em SteveDave displays attention-grabbing vanity

@Git Em SteveDave displays attention-grabbing vanity: Congratulations! I was waiting to see who would be the first to assume that since Dubai is in the Middle East then they must be "Oil Rich." Fail

TideGuy

@wsnideman: Sorry, the message needed to go to El Frijole. - "a reverse 911 target" sounds a lot like us attacking the terrorists. It doesn't make any sense.

wsnideman

@Kaiser-Machead's WALL-E fetish: Don't encourage him.

Rabid Penguin

@Git Em SteveDave displays attention-grabbing vanity: The transfer of wealth from the US to the UAE has been the largest in the history of civilization, their money isn't going to run out, especially as the US tumbles deeper and deeper into recession and continues to need outside sources of capital to keep the housing market afloat or fund our various wars.

zamafir

But will it blend?

Luizzle

Woof! I hope this sucker doesn't star in the latest remake of Towering Inferno!

Maksimir

i wonder what kind of carbon footprint that left on the planet!? thanks dubai for killing the earth at a rapid pace.

jimbut

That's going to make SOME demo project when we're all driving around in solar-powered scooters in forty years.

Housapan

@russdanger: I was thinking more like, "If you look to your left you can see Panama"!

How high to you have to be to start noticing the curvature of the Earth?

CSX321

ironically, I'll bet a high level exec leaving his car at ground level probably takes longer to get to his office than it takes me to leave my house, drive to work, and get to my Office Spacetacular cubicle.

...granted, he probably has a window.

rainfever

It looks to me like Dubai is compensating for something.

smartboydan has a headache

It's impressive by size, but that's about it. The London Cucumber, the Petronas Towers, the Chrysler Building or even the 101 in Taipeh are, though smaller, much more interesting skyscrapers from an architectural point of view. Emirates got a tradition of gigantomania combined with bad taste.

hanswurst0815

It doesn't look like a stack of pringles. I went and checked. Maybe I just don't see it.

theMockingNoob

@LittleJon: That is the stupidest thing I have heard in a long time. Even if we were at war with Dubai, would you feel comfortable with attacking civilians? We are NOT terrorists.

wsnideman

What bugs me is everybody is developing these giant buildings, but nobody is developing giant gorillas.

bobdobbs

@nystreetfilms: It will in fact blend. Think of a giant swizzle stick stirring the clouds.

Kaiser-Machead's WALL-E fetish

@Git Em SteveDave displays attention-grabbing vanity: Who the hell would want to go to an Islamic country for a vacation anyways? If you read the trade magazines you constantly get stories about women getting arrested for "lewd acts" not to mention the alcohol problem. I'll stick to the Mediterranean and Hawaii for my sand and sun thank you.

The only reason any companies even locate there is because they can subsidize everything because of the oil money, everything is wrought with inefficiency.

Sussudio

@Git Em SteveDave displays attention-grabbing vanity: Funny enough, oil is one of the smallest portions of their GDP: [en.wikipedia.org]

jayhawk11

@LittleJon: He means that it is bait for another attack by terrorists. Nothing to do with who caused 9/11.

Mr.Purple

BUT WILL IT BLEND???

nystreetfilms

'Dubai is currently under construction. Please come back in 100 years.'

Boy that's an easy target.... (just sayin')

future-proof

@russdanger: I'm just waiting for the first suicide attempt from the observation deck. He burns up in the atmosphere, and incinerates before he even touches the ground!

Kaiser-Machead's WALL-E fetish

That's...tall.

I can hear the tour-guide on the observation deck now...

"If you look to your right, you can see the Persian Gulf. Look to your left, there's a LOT of sand. Thank you for visiting the Burj Dubai tower!, have a nice day."

russdanger

@El Frijole: The sad thing is that Dubai is trying to build up a tourist industry before their oil money runs out, but just ONE act of terrorism would make all of their work go to naught.

Git Em SteveDave displays attention-grabbing vanity

Being scared of heights, they won't ever have to worry about me going in this building. No way, no how would I be one of the crane operators way up there.

allstarecho

I just kept scrolling down on the top image, amazed that I hadn't reached the base of the tower yet. Jeeeeeez.

Canadian Impostor

@El Frijole: "Looks like a reverse 911 target to me."

What is that supposed to mean?

I hope you're not suggesting that Dubai had anything to do with 911 just because it's a muslim emerate in the same sub-continent as people we were responsible. Because if you are then you're are a moron. If your not, then I apologize for misunderstand you.

LittleJon

Doesn't get more phallic than this.

And with excess need for phallicy comes a side order of ridiculousness.

Marvelous feat, yes...most definitely. But I sure hope they have the military presence and reaction time to boot to protect this.

While you don't build great marvels like this with that in mind - this IS a post 9-11 world.

shorty63136

@El Frijole: + 1

lldsandsll

It's always been a dream of an architect to raise a spire from the imagination, and poke God right in the eyes.

Kaiser-Machead's WALL-E fetish

While impressive it just looks weird. Its so much taller than anything in the area it would be like the Sears Tower being built in Billings, MT.

CubFan81

It shows how advanced we are. But its so sad that we are not smart enough to put an end to war, famine, and the destruction of our planet. all we care about is the iphone.

SilenceisGolden

@Rabid Penguin: The odd depth of field and haze over the city really does give the whole thing a rendered look to it. It's making my brain hurt.

rjp

Good God. Do the workers wear parachutes?

AHemp

@Rabid Penguin: Yeah I saw it a week ago or so, and didn't believe it was real. But I went to the website and they have a bunch of em.

But yeah, that is awesome.

Log1c

pretttttaaaayyy preeetttaaaaay ridiculous

MrBlahBlah

"Sometimes a skyscraper is just a skyscraper." -- Sigmund Freud

bobdobbs

The elevator pic is from Emirates Towers, not the new skyscraper. The photo gallery says that and there is a pic here, for example:

[flickr.com]

twid

Long live the CN Tower...

KJA

(insert snarky comment here)

kaffeen

funny, the photo is too tall for my screen display...

Y2KGTP

The first picture looks like a 3D rendering from a new Sim City game or something.. I'm not sure what the second picture is.

Rabid Penguin

Looks like a reverse 911 target to me.
-EF

El Frijole

Now that is impressive.

everfade

Where's the LEGO version?

jayhawk11

@pardyhardy: Not to be a vocabu-nazi but I believe the commonly accepted name for the phobia relating to a fear of heights is:

Acrophobia

Not to be confused with Arachnophobia or an irrational fear of spiders...

On a completely different topic; I wonder how many tuned mass dampers this building has? Any one know?

bpapa9013

@yelraf: The guy didn't mention Al Gore! Why do climate change deniers have to try to change a scientific issue in to a political attack on one man?

The fact is that all credible climate scietists agree on the existance of anthropomorphic climate change. Shit! Even the Bush administration has had to accept it after his scientific advisers gave him an education. This is not about Al Gore!

LittleJon

@Git Em SteveDave displays attention-grabbing vanity: Actually, there was a period separating my acknowledgment for your achievement and the word "Fail" which was used to mark the end of a declarative sentence, indicate an abbreviation, etc.; full stop.

If we want to nitpick I think you may have meant words instead of books in the following sentence "All of the great books are contained therein"

No hard feelings, it's all in fun.

Back on topic: Dubai does not care if they increase the pace of the destruction of the earth. When the time comes they will all jump into this "building" and blast off to find another homeland.

TideGuy

Allah help me. There is no amount of money in the world that would get me to work on that crane at the top.

GirlGadget

@smashingparadox: I spent a couple of years being at least that high, back in college...

bpapa9013

@Git Em SteveDave displays attention-grabbing vanity: through the core makes sense. i could just imagine every load bumping into the building multiple times. especially with winds off the gulf.

phryed

@RE-L: Exactly how many people in Dubai are in need, hmm? Please enlighten us.

yelraf

@SilenceisGolden: Half true. I agree with the first part.. but who cares about the iPhone?

@yelraf: Al Gore shall go hug a polar bear. And never let go.

But, to be on topic, this tower is ridiculous... I would not want to work on one of those cranes, and I'm not even an altophobiac. They seem to be just.. perched there. I wonder how they will get them down.

And I wonder why they need so much space... are offices in super duper high demand, or is admiration?
They did do a god job segmenting the elevator system though... a set of elevators seems to cover a relatively low amount of floors.

pardyhardy

@phryed: Actually, I think the cranes are used to lift the crane operators' balls into the cab. After that, I'm not sure what they lift.

yelraf

Wasting away so much money on things that won't last. When so many people in their own country are in need.

Yup, that could be any other country too. But Dubai is sure showing the entire world how to waste money!

RE-L

@twid: it looks like it too but its not the same.

hu_hu_cool

@phryed: IIRC, it's brought up through the core. The real bitch is getting the concrete up there. It requires this high pressure set up which is very finicky.

Git Em SteveDave displays attention-grabbing vanity

@grizzley_nuts: Deterrence is the only way to make a muslim listen? Wow, really? Are you serious? That's just... unbelievably ignorant.

@toyotaboy: Yeah, hahaha, those wacky Arabs! A handful of them certainly are representative of the entire population! WoooOOOooo!

zaidmian

@phryed: There's no "think" about it. They do.

And it works just like a regular crane. 2,000 some odd feet really isn't that far of a lift. Granted you have to deal with weather conditions, but its not as ludicrous as it would appear.

jayhawk11

@lordargent: I would love to go to Dubai. I watched a whole special on making the palm islands, and it's just f-ing amazing. Sussudio apparently has a problem. I like a dry heat. It's better than God awful Florida w/all of their humidity and water bugs.

Git Em SteveDave displays attention-grabbing vanity

Was Viagra the main building ingredient here? Mine is bigger than yours! And you know if it stay like that for more than four hours, you're supposed to go see a doctor man.

whatnot22

do you think those cranes at the top actually lift stuff off the ground? how does this work?

phryed

I can't wait to go to the top of THAT!

stryder100

@bpapa9013: After encountering a rather ornery red-kneed tarantula, I feel that there's no such thing as an irrational fear of spiders.

Kaiser-Machead's WALL-E fetish

Is it hallow inside all the way to the top? If so they should mount a powerful laser at the top pointing straight down to the floor so people can see how much the top sways in the wind.

JackTheTripper

@Ham_Sandwich: "Those silly Islamic countries...always trying to have the biggest Phallic symbol."

What you mean just like America did for the longest time, and would still if it could: a) afford it, and b) still do big projects?

LittleJon

@SilenceisGolden:

I couldn't disagree more.

I don't only care about the iPhone. I really like my Sonos as well.

RalphWiggum

A reverse 911 is a 119. Just sayin'

MarlboroTestMonkey7

@yelraf: Correct, but that doesn't mean that humans are not also a factor. Nor does it mean that the economic costs of that factor are not immense and don't out-weigh the costs of doing something about it.

LittleJon

@ El Frijole

Do you really think 911 was about blowing up tall buildings just because they are tall? Thats even more idiotic than implying that Dubai had anything to do with it.

tomholiday

Is that sucker leaning?

OsoMan

It's so, so ...

big

ljj

Those silly Islamic countries...always trying to have the biggest Phallic symbol.

Seriously, that thing is amazing. I was in Dubai about 1 year ago and it looked like they had barely started building that behemouth, and now it is just about done.

I wonder what the penthouse costs?

Ham_Sandwich

Dubai and Bahrain are building their tourist industries on being the least ridiculous places in the 'hood - plus some seriously nice beaches. I wouldn't fly all the way from NY to go there, but it I was living/working in Saudi, Kuwait, Yemen, the Horn of Africa or even Turkey it would be a pretty fun jaunt.

I know there was a woman arrested recently because she would not stop having sex on a public beach when asked and then assualted the cop. That's not exactly burka-land (certainly not Saudi where you can be arrested for having coffee with a man not your husband).

Canoehead

Holy crap. If you marched every person in Dubai into the tower, I just calculated each one would have almost 17 square feet of space.

Thud

@LittleJon: I'm not a climate change denier. Does the climate change over time? Yes. It always has and always will. Are we able to control it? No. Does it change because of us? No. It changes, period. No matter what we do, the climate will at some point change to such a state that we will no longer be able to survive on this planet. That's the way it works.

And if Al Gore doesn't want to be associated with the theory of anthropomorphic climate change, tell him to STFU.

yelraf

queue up a vangelis playlist and get in your flying car.

dedalus987

What's with the "about to be completed" line... the site clearly states completion expected August *2009*...

Stem_Sell

@El Frijole: Um, do research. The only terrorism they ever do is glue crusty old diamonds to a Benz and think people want to spend a grand to touch it.

gizmodohomepage

Look up the Al Burj and Mile High Tower. Supposed to blow the Burj Dubai out of the water. Definitely an engineering feat to behold for years to come. And I think people fail to realize that another motive for building this structure is to be put on the map as a model for the future. Dubai is building itself into the minds of people around the world as an advanced and spectacular site.

dnyyanks62

Impressive, I guess, but it still is surrounded by a sandy wasteland.

bimplebean

Has anyone considered the potential for film making and TV production that all this will give Dubai in the next 10 years?
I for one can't wait to see a hugh bio-engineered APE wearing a nuclear powered exoskelton climbing one of these
monsterous buildings.

((And I hope when the ape gets to the top he drops his iPhone on Al Gore :-P ))

Beryen

The sad thing is the US used to be the home of theb tallest buildings in teh world for almost a century...

Sic Transit Gloria Mundi :(

helldiver

@Alfonzo: wow, that comment totally failed. i was trying to say that grizzley nuts was a racist bigot.

Alfonzo

href="#c7300557">wsnideman: sorry. not you. @grizzley_nuts: @

Alfonzo

RE-L: Wasting away so much money on things that won't last. When so many people in their own country are in need.

Think for a second how many construction jobs are required to build such a structure. And once the structure is operational, think how many jobs will be created to maintain it.

/throwing money at poverty doesn't solve anything, poor folks need decent jobs, not handouts.

lordargent

I can't think of a better symbol of man's insignificance and greatness. Also, can you imagine that friggin' crane operator? How long is that commute, me wonders?

mildretard

@wsnideman: ...
...
...
are you an idiot?

Alfonzo

@yelraf: Plus, you know what they say about arguing on the Internet...

yelraf

@LittleJon: With all due respect, let's drop this and stare at the shiny, new gadgets. We're each entitled to our opinion and, I suspect, neither of us is primed for changing ours right now.

yelraf

@LittleJon: There's no physical or financial reason why something this big could not be built in America. There a lots of NIMBY, enviro, regulatory and other reasons. There is also, after 9-11 a very real fear of spending one's days in a giant target. I think that there is also a realization that putting so many people in one giant building is also pretty inconvenient.

Canoehead

The Al Burj is supposed to be 400 m bigger than the Burj Dubai. There crazy.

apple....ofcourse..

Say what you will. I travel through Dubai every three months. It is astounding. If you stand right next to that thing, it still looks fake.

MR OPTIMUS PRIME

Ugh. Where's that disemvoweller?

mildretard

If this thing ever collapses. it's going to be like 911 x 10,000.

FinalValgas

They had this on build it bigger, or one of those shows on the discovery channel a month or so ago. Freaking cool building. Which ever show Danny what's his name is the host of, he's afraid of heights, so naturally they shove him in one of the cranes on the top.

Barry99705

WHERE THE HELL IS THE PICTURE FROM THE TOP LOOKING DOWN!?!!?!?

phantam

mmmmmmm, pringles

@yelraf:

stick to your guns, homie.
weather changes, and we ain't big enough to help OR hinder that change.

godwhacker

The rumor is that it takes two days to walk down from the top and that is without the superfluous rope bridges, rotating spike pits, and puzzle locked doors.

SinAmos

All that's missing is two giant testicles at the base of the tower . . .

Hodo

@yelraf: an, an, an, an, an, an...not and.

yelraf

@Beryen: Man...too many acronyms. I'm sittin' here trying to figure out what the hell and A.P.E. is...and then it hit me.

yelraf

@godwhacker: Oh, I'm stickin' to my guns. I'm just tired of sniping back and forth about it. After all, we're all gadget/gear heads on here, so let's talk about the common ground.

yelraf

Wouldn't you like to have the 21 megapixel version.

heroineworshipper

I saw a documentary on the building of this tower. It didn't inspire confidence. One of the main support walls was 22 cm of center, so that just added more concrete to thicken it. One guy spilled fuel on rebar that was already in place, and they told these Indian laborers (arabs in Dubai don't work on physical labor by the way, they import Indians) to take some soap and wash off the rebar by hand. Also, when they were pouring the concrete on the rebar, the rebar was so hot (the air temp was over 120 degrees), that the rebar actually burned the concrete. It may look cool, but that is what the cameras showed. Imagine what the cameras didn't see.

ronreal

I bet you get a great view of all the sand and desert haze from there. I mean, if you're going to build a tower like this, why not put it where there's some kind of incredible scenery. Well, maybe if you're into a million shades of blinding bright tan.

ArtInvent

@pizzlepaps: Do they have ATM machines in the Burj Dubai Tower?

yelraf

Sorry, I just can't think of any reason I'd want to pay money to travel to Dubai. I'm a free thinking kind of guy and I don't really appreciate governments who punish, oh I dunno, kissing on a beach.

Tower schmower, the place stinks of widespread religious retardism to me.

The_Archon

burj means tower, for all those tortologists saying 'dubai tower tower'

pizzlepaps

@jayhawk11:
It's not complete by any means, but someone does have the beginnings of an LDraw plan underway. Beyond that, in 2011 the LEGOLAND Dubai park is supposed to open (hopefully not an open-air park like LLCA, since the sun will be even more abusive to those poor little bricks), and I can't see them _not_ doing the Burj al Dubai.

@zamafir:
The UAE? I would have figured we bought more oil from Saudi Arabia. You know, being that they are the world's largest producer and exporter of oil. Even the US produces more oil than the UAE (though we clearly import much more than we produce).

@Git Em SteveDave displays attention-grabbing vanity:
Now if they could have just made the Palm Island thing look less NSFW...

Purple Dave

@yelraf: Every cause needs the a spokesperson to bring the issue to the masses. Even to the stupid people. Yes, you can attack him all you want about his plane trips across the globe, but it makes you look silly, unimaginative, disingenuous, and completely ignorant about the issues at hand. One person doesn't cause global warming.

berribrand

@johnnyabnormal:
[gizmodo.com]

bout 1/2 way down between two rabid penguin comments

no problem.....

godwhacker

Has anyone witnessed any disemvoweling? I've been waiting for it to happen, but no dice.

johnnyabnormal

People say your life flashes before your eyes when you're about to die. Well, if I fell from that thing I'd die from an epileptic seizure before I hit the ground...

kab30

@jhnnbnrml:
Ths s wht t lks lk whn y'r dsmvwlld.

Rabid Penguin

@El Frijole: A reverse 9-11 project? You mean use it to blow up a couple of airplanes?

davehimself

@godwhacker: Ha!! Thanks.

johnnyabnormal

@grizzley_nuts: Already banned! I wondered why there wasn't more angry vitriol being spouted from your direction.

ALT

@godwhacker: What was wrong with that comment in the first place?

yelraf

@grizzley_nuts: 1) We are not in a war with Islam in general my friend, so there ARE civilian casualties and 2) Muslims are not machines bred to destroy you. Was that post just a bad joke?

ALT

dubai seems like such a magical place
lets invade there next, please mr bush? pleeeeease?

flynboarder07

@berribrand: Plus, we're past that point, dude. Read the rest of the posts.

yelraf

@berribrand: Nor do billions...

yelraf

i recently heard they had ran out of lego bricks shame it was coming along quite nicely

jmzwheadon

So when did Gandalf talk to the moth to bring the Roc so he could escape the top of this thing?

Stabio

@davehimself: Anti-aircraft guns on Burj Dubai would be all kinds of awesome.

Gann

@lordargent: unless of course you use coyote importers to bring in laborers from the indian sub-continent and other parts of souteast asia, pay them barely enough wages to make their monthly importation patments, and stuff them across the "street" (or tracks if you prefer), into concrete cube hell for a place to live with no running water, no sanitation, and no means of cooling.

But don't take my word for it, you can read about it in one of those ultra conservative "rags".
It's called National Geographic.

mikeg916

If there's a bathroom on the top floor, I have a feeling it will be used a lot.

frigg

@yelraf:

it was one the the comments that have lost their meaning through over-use

cough*willitblend*cough

godwhacker

If I could afford to live that high I'd also be able to afford a parachuting platform off of my bedroom.

Pulling can-openers from that high up before popping your chute?

Epic.

Slippy-

Babylon anyone?

famouslauren

Yeah, its amazing what you can build with a large enough supply of Indian slave laborers.

Seriously, for all this talk about China's human rights abuses...Dubai is about as bad as it gets.

niteflyp38

@LittleJon:

That was a joke, simply directed at the building competitions going on. Don't take it so hard...it was not some anti-Islam statement. And you are right, I'm sure the U.S. would be building a 5,000 story building to the moon right now if their president wasn't too busy bankrupting the country with the whole Iraq debacle. Aren't they planning on colonizing the moon by 2020?

Ham_Sandwich

OMG! The tallest skyscraper that actually uses the top floors!? AMAZING!

Mr_LaZy

@MrDo:

Dubai isn't bad, but it is far from a tourist destination. I think they will mostly promote the tax haven aspect.

Ham_Sandwich

amazing what you can afford to build when you pay your workers 7 bucks a day.

this thing will lose money. transforming dubai into a "tourist" destination just doesn't seem like a profitable task. Nothing says "fun for the whole family" like industrial sprawl.

MrDo

@niteflyp38:

I lived in India for two years. Women carrying babies were used to carry buckets of concrete up the stairs, balanced on their heads, instead of using a crane, during the construction of new buildings. This wasn't in all cases, but I saw it happen many times.

The odd things is most of us look at it as abuse, most of the local workers just look at as earning a wage.

I'm no expert on this topic, but I thought Dubai was better than that. I know one construction worker from Canada making a crapload of money working over there. That's about all I know though.

Ham_Sandwich

@jayhawk11:

Smallest portions? Maybe if you are just talking about Dubai.

[www.cia.gov]

I'd still boycott them for their treatment of women as property and religious oppression. If I can't take my wife and daughter what good is it?

psych0fred

@Ham_Sandwich:

Conditions for workers in Dubai are actually among the worst in the world. It is not just a case of "cheap labor" that to us looks obscene but to the workers is a normal job, it is actually slave-like conditions. Wikipedia has a few sentences about this under "Government and Politics" on the Dubai article page, and the group Human Rights Watch has described the conditions of Dubai's hundred's of thousands of imported workers as subhuman.

niteflyp38

long skyscraper is looong.

roflwaffles

@niteflyp38:

When I lived in India, I was right in the middle of it and saw some awful conditions (some good ones too). Very good people there. I haven't done any research, but I will concede the point on Dubai since I never ventured into the dark side on any visit. I'm sure you can't build a 180 story building so quickly without treating humans as comodities. In some countries, if a worker falls off the buliding and dies, the construction company pays the equivalent to about %500 - $1,000 to the family, and move on with an new worker.

Ham_Sandwich

@OsoMan: Buildings are engineered to sway a little bit. If they were completely rigid, they would collapse.

Petezah

@Canoehead: Sure there is, we have room for flatter wider building with more truck docks and parking. Imagine parking just to travel a mile up.

gizmodohomepage

ArtInvent: I bet you get a great view of all the sand and desert haze from there.

Dubai is by the ocean.

So while one side is sand, the other side is water.

lordargent

@antitrust311: You speak the truth. Dubai is beautiful. The islands they built from scratch are nothing less than an engineering marvel. People on the internet would rather be insulting and funny (in their own minds) than take an honest moment to actually appreciate the incredible work of the people building this stunning structure.

KBeat

@ronreal: I watched the same show, and came away with the complete opposite impression. The professionals they had brought in to oversee the project were on their game and let nothing slide. They had the workers build simple masonry walls dozens of times over until they got it perfect. They rejected glass sample after glass sample at huge expense locating the perfect refraction property for light. Nothing in the special gave me any concern regarding the structural integrity of the building.

I've been in and around the building trades for 20 years. Visit any large construction project and you'll find dozens upon dozens of errors on a daily basis. It's why it's such a stressful job.

KBeat

@Sussudio: Agghh ignorant Americans. You make me sick. I spent a week in Dubai and it is an amazing and beautiful city. The surrounding area is not all desert. There are beautiful mountains with Oases. I have visited many countries in the Middle East and it is refreshing to see Dubai as a modern, cultural and tolerant city(compared to their neighbors), whereas most nations in the Middle East are busy murdering each other in the name of Allah, people in the UAE are building a future for themselves. Maybe you should travel outside the USA and get more of a Global perspective on life???

antitrust311

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 ... blast-off!

knackers

@BiZarRroBALlmeR:

I did and nearly needed Depends.

Ham_Sandwich

@nystreetfilms

That made my day.

TheWTOisGOD

@psych0fred: Uh...who else would I be talking about? The GDP of Dubai is only about 6% oil/petroleum products. The rest is split amongst banking and other stuff.

Its a pretty common misconception that Dubai is building all this stuff with oil money, but thats a relatively tiny fraction of the money thats being dumped into that city/emirate.

Anybody else surprised that this thread and the one about the huge record collection are the most commented on a day when we learned that Bill and Melinda Gates have a pro-condom ringtone in India, and that the new iPhone firmware apparently disables the ability to make calls?

jayhawk11

@KJA: how about that glass floor in the CN tower? I couldn't get myself to walk on it.

BiZarRroBALlmeR

@yelraf: Apparently the PC gods don't find that offensive. It is a little tired, though. :)

yelraf

@godwhacker: Oh...I thought it was just for stuff that's considered offensive no matter what the context. Hey, lemme try one...

What's a Zune?

Did it work?

yelraf

@knackers: If you look REALLY carefully, you can even see the killer whale chained to the base of it.

yelraf

That's pretty damn scary - but it looks awesome nonetheless.

NagChampa

not that I'm a star wars nut but wasn't there some prison shaped liked this that han solo blasted into orbit? Harrison Ford in The Impenetrable Quickening! Ford, a young arms smuggler wearing old man makeup is running a deal with the emirate when he discovers that the sheikh is no arab, he's an arabalien! The hero then discovers that the entire UAE is from another world and are trying to dominate the planet by building a giant polarising super-giga-ultra-magnet-antenna that orients the Western hemisphere into the suns rays stopping the day and night cycle and frying America. Ryan Schottler(Ford) breaks into the necks of sentries and doors to discover the positive dark neutrino mass driver reactor and its miniature Large Hadron Collider(to kill us all, duh) that Schottler has to now annihilate. He breaks into the alarm control unit to send the emergency protection signal, all the aliens come to the tower and go to their protective stasis's, and Schottler blows the core with his alread extreme awesomeness. And then he takes the money for the arms deal, while sitting on a pile of guns, tanks, planes, literally in a pile with say a humvee crushing a helicopter on top of a mountain of ammo, gold, dollars, and tanks. Pan out to show magneto thingie blasting off into the sun, while Schottler takes the last line with "If only they came in peace they'd leave in peace motherfucka!"

CrashingOut

Okay being serious now, I really want to know what kind of LOS horizon this thing has. UAE is small country with a lot of money and a cutting edge military but a small one at that. With all that $ they could probably build a static AWACS. The top of that tower classifies as airborne :) and the top floors could be a Air Control center covering a larger area than any ground based ATC surveillance unit ever. With a phased array rotating unit they could if they spent real dough incorporate SRBM/MRBM monitoring and make sure some neighbor doesn't go apeshit saying "FIRE ZE MISSILES" without being able to respond. My .02 because I don't know why they didnt think of this

CrashingOut

@grizzley_nuts: You are a first-class idiot.

Hestika

I have no interest in getting into the whole Dubai/911/phallic/enviromental/Las Vegas/tacky conversation that always comes up with any mention of this thing, but I did want to say:

that is one hell of an incredible photograph, for all kinds of reasons. Nice work David.

superbad

@phantam: That's in the R section under tea-bagging.

pardyhardy

I was just thinking it would have been fun to do that shot with a tilt/shift lens so it looks like a model (like Olivo Barbieri's work).

superbad

@Canoehead: I agree there's no physical or financial reason why something this big couldn't be built in America, but I think this country has lost the will and ability to carry out big projects.

The US managed to put men on the moon in a decade, but it's going to probably take 2 decades for them to build the San Francisco to San Diego high speed rail they're talking about (if it ever happens).

As you say there's NIMBY and various legal hold-ups, but I also think the public doesn't have the stomach to spend their tax payer dollars on long-term infrastructure projects (if they can't see the benefits within a year they're unhappy) and corporations won't invest in anything that doesn't have a near-term payoff (partly because the way executive compensation is tied in to the quarterly or annual bottom line).

LittleJon

@bobdobbs: oh yeah, well sometimes it's a big....wait it isn't brown, quoting carlin won't work here. plus it looks like the phallic humor has already been overused.

and, unless the elevators can break the sound barrier, living in the penthouse will likely add an hour to your daily commute.

i took one look at that first picture, and without reading the caption, said "dubai".
the UAE has some stupid-rich landlords, and some architects that like to play god. and i must say it's an awe-inspiring combination.

rimplestultskin

well, at least they made it look exactly like the CGI renderings. Now thats being honest

mikail511

@MrDo: thats there only option since they ran out of oil

mikail511

@LittleJon: remeber that we're building the chicago spire, which looks much more kick ass

mikail511

It's pretty fricking cool. And a feat of engineering..

-Core-

if it has utility then good else its a waste of money..... or rather men's untiring obsession to have something bigger .... and we all know where that inferiority complex comes from.

meher

That's incredible. It's like Final Fantasy, but for real!

/geekout

You Cannot Untoast

This amazing building has been designed by American architects. The architectural firm is: Skidmore ,Owings and Merill. The same firm that in the late 1930s designed the Pentagon!

AccaliaAnchialus

Glad you all like the photos, just thought i would join this discussion as my old man "don't have the time" I was in the helicopter when he took the photos. it was unbelievable. When talking to the people in Dubai, it is very clear that they are worried of terrorist attacks. they have already put a 3mile exclusion zone around the Burj Al Arab Hotel. and there are talks of exclusion zones around the Burj Tower before it is complete.

ben_driver

Most posts here are so stupid and bloody ignorant. Have any of you even been to Dubai???

There's a reason why millions of people visit the country as tourists and keep coming back.

The astounding fact is that the city(not country BTW) is profitable w/o oil money.

@RE-L: "Wasting away so much money on things that won't last. When so many people in their own country are in need."
Citizens of UAE(Dubai incl.) are friggin rich or taken care of by the govt. .....

ashwinaj

That's tall and all, but it still doesn't look nice from an architectural standpoint.

skilled1

But the Hadron Collider is right around the corner :(

mangamonster

you can't see it from space... fail

BigViper

weird that the tallest building isnt in usa. even more weird that you build in a POS where you should be putting in a kilometer high in your face skyscraper. you unitedstatesians are funny =)

darklybishop

Now just attach a big broadcast tower and you got yourself a space elevator!

madpharmy

How long will it take them to finish the interior and find tenants?

Plasmafire

That is impressive, no doubt. Awe-inspiring, even.

charliew77