Property in Dubai
Abu Dhabi studying plans for 224-storey skyscraper
The conceptual design for 224-storey skyscraper is currently under consideration by Abu Dhabi Planning Committee, noted the leading architect, who created the design.
The Santa Monica-based Tommy Landau, and his team, is trying to launch the ambitious $3.5bn project, said a report in the Los Angeles Times.
Although Landau is aware that it would take years for construction to begin, the architect revealed that the building will offer more than 11million square feet of office spaces, hotels, shops or condominiums.
Hoped to be housed in a man-made island in Abu Dhabi, the tower when implemented would make a statement to the rest of the world, particularly to its neighbouring emirate Dubai.
The defining statement would be the ability of the tower to create more energy than it uses, said David Kubit, the Newport Beach developer, also a consultant to the project.
The architect and his team plan to install a massive clock mounted at the same height as the top of New York’s Empire State Building, but less than halfway up the proposed tower. The wide base of the tower would house a restaurant, which could rotate diners inside as if on a Ferris wheel. The entire floors would be handed over to shopping centers, or gardens, and vast museum of Middle Eastern antiquities.
New York and Chicago had competed for decades to host the highest buildings, and the race continued in Asia and then to Middle East. The latest record holder is the UAE’s ‘Burj Dubai’, which is still under construction at 162 floors. Meanwhile, a Saudi-based billionaire has just announced plans to construct a building taller than Burj Dubai, at Jeddah in Saudi Arabia.
Abu Dhabi may be next inline to hold the record, as this proposal seemed exciting for the royal family in Abu Dhabi, said Sam Zakhem, a U.S. Ambassador to Bahrain, and part of Laudau’s group.
Posted on 27/9/2009
