Saudi Arabia's Prince Alwaleed bin Talal has teamed
up with the Bin Laden Group in a grandiose project to build the world's
tallest tower in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah, outdoing Dubai's Burj
al Khalifa, the current titleholder.
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The proposed skyscraper, the Kingdom Tower, will soar more than a kilometre
into the sky and take five years to build. It is the latest in a long line
of glitzy mega-projects in the oil-rich Gulf countries that are as much
about national and personal prestige as they are about showcasing their
economic clout.
The tower, which will include luxury apartments, offices and a shopping
centre, is thought to be the brainchild of the Saudi billionaire Prince
Alwaleed, nephew of King Abdullah.
The prince, one of the world's wealthiest men, said yesterday that his
company, Kingdom Holding Co, had signed a $1.2bn deal with the Bin Laden Co,
a Saudi construction firm owned by the family of the slain terror chief
Osama bin Laden, to build the tower on the outskirts of Jeddah.
The tower, designed by Chicago-based Adrian Smith & Gordon Gill
Architecture, will if completed be the glimmering centrepiece of a $20bn new
city that looks out over the Red Sea, as well as a prized trophy for its
wealthy backers.
Currently, Dubai's Burj al Khalifa, which was completed last year, is the
highest building in the world at 828m, with its nearest rival, the Taipei
101 in Taiwan, lagging some way behind at 509m. The eventual height of the
Saudi tower is expected to soar substantially higher than 1,000m, but its
backers are cagey about the exact scope.
In recent years, the Gulf states have embraced ever more grandiose and
ambitious ventures such as man-made islands and luxury housing developments,
even as the West looks at years of austerity. Such "prestige projects"
have become synonymous with the region, at times masking more serious
underlying economic problems.
Dubai unveiled the $1.5bn Burj al Khalifa last January even as its financial
and real-estate markets were crumbling. Just months before, it had been
forced to borrow cash from neighbouring emirate Abu Dhabi to deal with its
deepening debt problems. In the end, Dubai paid a steep price for the
bailout, naming the tower in honour of the president of the UAE, Sheik
Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahyan.
For Saudi Arabia, the world's largest exporter of oil, the project will help
the kingdom to diversify away from an energy-fuelled economy, putting
Jeddah, the country's third-largest city, on the map, and encouraging
much-needed investment. Amid uncertain economic climes, Prince Alwaleed said
that the new project was intended to "send a message of strength".
"To a significant extent these types of projects are confidence and
image-building measures," said Jarmo Kotilaine, chief economist at
Jeddah-based National Commercial Bank. "They are used to enhance the
identity of a city and to demonstrate a strong, booming economy."
But some question the purpose of continuing to build ever more elaborate
skyscrapers in an era when architecture has evolved to allow designs that
are arguably more interesting and innovative.
"It's a rather futile exercise to build taller and taller," said
Rory Ocayto, deputy editor of Architects' Journal. "We know we can do
it, but to what end?"