History rises in Dubai

How many Chicago residents were fortunate enough to see the making of the world's tallest inhabited building, the Sears Tower, that stands 442 metres tall with 108 levels?

How many of them really took interest or monitored the progress of its construction, when thousands of workers, engineers and technical professionals were sweating day and night to create history?

Well, not too many people are born with that luck, I guess. However, the 1.2 million residents of Dubai are lucky for a number of reasons. For one, they live in an ever-growing metropolis which is witnessing the creation of the world's tallest man-made structure Burj Dubai. Most importantly, it is happening now!

In what used to be an erstwhile military facility, housing the country's then Central Military Command, has now become the centre of a global construction marvel the Burj Dubai development which will host along with the world's tallest tower the world's biggest shopping mall Dubai Mall.

The Burj Dubai development is the flagship project of Emaar Properties, the world's largest property developer by market capitalisation, that will be a mixed-use 500-acre community combining commercial, residential, hotel, entertainment, shopping and leisure outlets in open green spaces dotted with lakes and other water features.

To be inhabited by more than 30,000 families, or about 100,000 residents when completed, 'the world's most prestigious one square kilometre' will have a development value exceeding $20 billion (Dh73 billion) at current market prices.

Most prestigious

"Once completed, this will be the most prestigious and valuable one sqaure kilometre site on earth," Emaar chairman Mohammad Ali Al Abbar had said.

A consortium led by South Korea's Samsung Corporation in 2004 won the bid to build the tower for $900 million (Dh3.285 billion).

Although the tower's foundation was laid in January 2005, the main contractor Samsung formally began to raise the structure from the 3.5-metre thick rough slab on April 15 last year just a year ago.

"Currently approximately 3,000 workers belonging to 30 construction companies are working at the site. At present there are 11 cranes on the Burj Dubai site," Greg Sang, Assistant Director for Projects, Emaar Properties, told Gulf News last week.

"But this will increase to closer to 5,000 at the peak of construction next year."

Construction of the tower, which this week has reached 40th floor, is "over 20 per cent of the total habitable floors". In simple arithmetic it means the tower could rise to a mammoth 200-floor level dwarfing all other developments in the world, and nearly doubling the Sears Tower in terms housing the highest habitable floor.

The world's tallest inhabited building, the Sears Tower, is 442 metres tall having 108 levels.

Construction work of such a magnitude remains both an engineering, human resources and logistical challenge, which sometimes could become a nightmare.

Burj Dubai recently hit the headlines for the wrong reasons as on-site workers were protesting delays caused due to transportation and logistics issues.

"Emaar and its contractors follow a strict international standards guide," Sang said.

"Given the prominence of the tower, both locally and internationally, it is our intention that the tower be a showpiece, not just when it is completed, but also during its construction. That said, the highest safety standards are in place and are effectively being implemented. We are following the standard international safety regulations necessary for any construction site.

"In Dubai, the main contractor is required to establish a safety program in line with such requirements and also specifically address issues and implement systems for working on heights, perimeter protection, use of cranes, working in elevator hoist-ways and service shafts, fire safety and emergency evacuation. We also have an onsite paramedic staffed first aid facilities office."

The technical challenge, however, is of a different magnitude altogether. "As for any tall building, wind forces dominate the structural design. Extensive wind tunnel testing, modeling the actual winds the Burj Dubai will experience during its lifetime, has been carried out. The preliminary design was fine tuned in response to the results of the wind tunnel tests," Sang said. "Not typical for tall buildings, but the Burj Dubai has been designed to last for at least 100 years."

Emaar has kept the Burj Dubai's height a secret. However, the technology used will allow the engineers to raise its height while construction is in progress. It would be interesting to see where the height stands finally, hopefully by 2008.

A floor per week

Meanwhile, history, as the tower's slogan says, is rising at the rate of a floor per week by pushing the limits of engineering and technology.

"The Burj Dubai development will single handedly shift Dubai's centre of gravity and become home to more than 100 nationalities and feature some of the world's finest residential, leisure, dining and entertainment options," Sang says.

"Burj Dubai offers an unparalleled lifestyle it is 7-star luxury living. It is a concentration of the world's best living space, facilities and amenities,

"It offers a world class lifestyle at the heart of the most prestigious square kilometre on earth. It offers access to a unique way of life that cannot be experienced or replicated anywhere else in the world."

The tower will offer premium residential and retail space. It will be surrounded by The Old Town, The Dubai Mall, Burj Dubai Business Hub, Burj Views, Burj Dubai Boulevard, The Residences, restaurants, hotels, residential facilities and much more all located on the banks of a spectacular man-made lake.

The development will drive Dubai's premier downtown. Apart from the signature architecture of the Burj Dubai and The Dubai Mall, what makes this new downtown special is its proximity to Shaikh Zayed Road and Dubai's main commercial centres. The development will be self-sustaining with a 24-hour lifestyle and a buzz that percolates right through the residential, retail, business, entertainment, leisure and dining facilities. It will be the place to live, work and play.

So how does one feel to be directly associated to this prestigious project?

"It is an honour to be working on a record breaking project and global icon. I am proud to be a part of history in the making and being part of a team that is setting new benchmarks for architecture, pushing engineering and science to new limits and achieving what no other development has," Sang says.

Sale of various components of the tower has already been completed, said its officials.

"Effectively, the Burj Dubai residences were sold out at two private invitations only functions held for guests. These functions were never advertised," said Abdulla M. Bin Lahej, Emaar Properties' Director for Construction. "The Burj Dubai Corporate Suites are also effectively sold out these went through a slightly different process and companies went through a pre-qualification stage before they were asked to bid for the available office space."

However, meeting deadline for completion is another issue racing against time. "The Burj Dubai's general contractors, Samsung Corporation and project managers, Turner Construction International are working to schedule with a rate of one floor every four/five days on the tower. The tower is scheduled to meet its completion date at the end of 2008," Bin Lahej says.

With a rate of one floor per 4/5 days, 30,000 workers are working day and night to ensure the project completes in time when the rest of the city's inhabitants are either busy rushing to and from work, watching television or resting in peace.

With this, Burj Dubai developer Emaar Properties is reshaping the future, true to its slogan.