Monument, jewel, icon. You might after reading this call it the 8th Wonder Of The World! That's Burj-ul-Arab. A feat considered impossible by many. Those who took on the job proved that sometimes the impossible CAN be made possible.
"Burj dubai will be known by many names,
But only a few privileged group of people will call it home."
Let us get on to informing my readers of the astonishing features of this building. The height of this exceptional building is currently 531.3 meters and it has 145 floors. Burj Dubai has employed the world's highest elevator installation. There are 26 terraces in all and parts of the tower reach upwards in a helical shape. Helical shape is in the shape of a helix or a spiral. (I guess the tour guide forgot to show us these terraces or else they would have been in the pictures ;) ) There are Observatory elevators at the Burj Dubai. These have the maximum capacity for 21 people on each deck. It is also said that these elevators will have the worlds longest travel distance from the lowest to highest and will travel at 10m/sec. They will be the fastest elevators in the World. The Observation deck is located 442m above the ground and will be the highest publicly accessible observation deck in the world. The building service staff/ fireman's elevator will have a capacity 5500 kg and will be the world's tallest service elevator. Burj is the first building in which certain elevators will be programmed to permit controlled evacuation for emergencies (fire or security events)
The rebar used for the tower is 31400 metric tons; it would extend over a quarter of the globe. Rebar is the steel rod or the reinforcement that glues concrete together. The curtain wall, at the front, is equivalent to 17 football (soccer) fields or 25 American football fields. (whoa!!!) Burj Dubai's electricity demands are approximately at 36 million VA, which is roughly equivalent to 360000 hundred watt light bulbs that operate at the same time. The water system at the Burj will supply an average of about 946 000 liters (250 000 gallons) of water everyday. There are 200m of spectacular dancing fountains at the foot of the Burj Dubai and some of them right in front of the entrance (refer to pictures). At cooling times the Burj Dubai requires approximately 10 000 tons of cooling per hour, which is equivalent to the capacity provided by 10 000 tons ( 22.4 million lbs or 10.2 million kg) of melting ice in a day.
Burj is now the tallest building in the world in all four categorizes that are recognized by the Council on Tall Buildings and the Urban Habitat (CTBUH) this body compiles and ranks the Worlds tallest buildings. Burj Dubai will also house one of the first Armani hotels in the World. At 110 levels and 380 m high burj Dubai shared the honor of having the largest number of floors in any building in the world, just as many as the Sears Towers in Chicago. The cranes that had been employed could go up to 2m/sec (120m/min) were used to move men and material on site. The top of the spire (a pyramid-like shape) can b seen by a person who is 95 km (60 miles) away.
