Excitement is building about the progress of the next tower expected to become the world’s tallest skyscraper.
The Burj Khalifa in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, holds the current record – but is expected to hand the title to the Dubai Creek Tower some time during the next few months.
Burj Khalifa was topped out in 2008 at 2,717 feet tall (828 metres) and opened to the public in 2010.
Since then, the tower has stood proud as the world’s tallest building by far.
Officially known as The Tower at the Dubai Creek Harbour, the new skyscraper will be higher than the Burj Khalifa, but the construction company and architects are tight-lipped about by how much.
How high will the tower reach?
The rumours are the building will hit 3,045 feet (928 metres), overshadowing the Burj Khalifa by as much as 100 metres – the length of the shortest sprint race in athletics.
The tower will be topped by an oval flower bud shape that contains 10 observation decks, with the Pinnacle Room giving a 360-degree view of the city and beyond.
With 210 floors and costing more than $1 billion to build, the Dubai Creek Tower is also one of the costliest buildings ever.
At night, the tower will project a powerful beam of light into the sky that will be visible from miles around.
But the Dubai Creek Tower’s time as the tallest building may be short-lived.
Mile-High Tower construction stalls
Architects in Saudi Arabia have plans for the Kingdom Tower in Jeddah – now called the Jeddah Tower or Mile-High Tower.
The skyscraper is under construction and will reach a height of 3,281 feet (1,000 metres).
Construction has stalled at the 63rdfloor since the Saudi government stripped the project owner Al-Waleed bin Talal of his assets in a corruption purge.
The tower was planned as a 1.6-kilometre giant, but tests proved the underlying geology was not strong enough to bear the structure.
Despite being the former skyscraper capital of the world, the USA now only has two buildings ranked among the 20 highest ever built – One World Trade Centre in New York, hitting 1,776 feet (541 metres) and Willis Tower, Chicago, at 1,396 feet (425 metres)
