JEDDAH — Saudi Arabia is set to begin work next week on what will become the tallest building in the world and will rise over the Burj Khalifa, according to IBNLive.com. The Burj Khalifa in Dubai, standing at 828 meters, is the tallest standing tower in the world to date.
The Kingdom Tower is to dethrone the Emirati tower at more than 1,000 meters. The Kingdom Tower will be 173.1 meters taller than the Khalifa tower. Foundation work for the Kingdom Tower began in December and above-ground work will start on April 27, said Mashable. The Kingdom Tower is expected to be completed in 63 months.
The Kingdom Tower will stretch a kilometer high and include a hotel, serviced apartments, luxury condominiums and offices. The building reportedly will have 200 floors, 160 of which are habitable. The tower is part of the first phase of Kingdom City, which is being built north of the Red Sea.
It is expected to cost around $1.2 billion (TL 2.6 billion) and will include a hotel and retail and luxury residential projects. The tower, designed by Chicago-based Adrian Smith & Gordon Gill Architecture, is the first phase of the planned Kingdom City, a sprawling, $20 billion, two-square mile urban development project first announced in 2008 as the global financial crisis was squeezing world markets.
