It was originally going to be the first mile-high skyscraper, but apparently Jeddah has the wrong sort of sand. Now contracts have been signed, plans revealed, and it's going to be just the one kilometre high. Which will still make it the tallest building in the world:
Saudi billionaire, Alwaleed bin Talal, is building a 1000 meter tower that will include a hotel, luxurious residential apartments and offices. Talal’s company, The Kingdom Holding Company, announced the execution of the agreement between Jeddah Economic (one of the partner companies) and the Bin Laden Group. The Kingdom Tower will be built in Jeddah on the Red Sea.
Spectacular renderings of the new tower were released last week:
That little pod sticking out about two-thirds of the way up? That 's an open-air observation platform. You go to the edge, look down, then turn round and look up at the spire above you, and…oooh…vertigo just thinking about it.
Supertall building experts Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill are to complete the design for a stunning new tower to anchor the proposed $20bn Kingdom City masterplanning project in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The firm carefully quashed internet rumours that they were working on a ‘mile-high’ tower, yet did not deny involvement in the Kingdom Tower scheme.
Reassuringly elegant for a tower of such epic proportions – the completed Kingdom Tower will soar at over 1000m (at least 173m taller than the Burj Khalifa which currently holds the title of the world’s tallest building) with a total construction area of 530,000 sq m – the structure is being touted as a new marker of Jeddah’s importance as a gateway to the city of Mecca and has been directly inspired by the folded fronds of a young desert plant. Adrian Smith details: “With its slender, subtly asymmetrical massing, the tower evokes a bundle of leaves shooting up from the ground – a burst of new life that heralds more growth all around it.”
Smith’s partner Gordon Gill continues: “The way the fronds sprout upward from the ground as a single form, then start separating from each other at the top, is an analogy of the new growth fused with technology.” The graceful needle is also designed to symbolise the city of Jeddah as an economic power and cultural leader, with a focus on the ‘strength and creative vision of its people’.
Hmm…
More at SkyscraperCity. And Wikipedia are already up to speed…
Mick Hartley 
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