Dubai Tower World's Tallest Structure

Developers Say Burj Dubai World's Tallest Free-Standing Structure



Burj Dubai, the world's tallest building since July, has also become
the tallest free-standing structure on earth, reaching 1,822 feet, the
developers said.
The Dubai Tower's final height is a closely guarded secret, but
completion of the concrete, glass and steel structure is expected by
the end of 2008. The building's relentless climb is one example of
Dubai's stratospheric rise from a sleepy desert town on the Persian
Gulf to one of the principal business centers in the Middle East.

The Burj Dubai surpassed Canada's Toronto-based CN Tower on Thursday,
which at 1,822 feet, had been the world's tallest free-standing
structure since 1976, the developers said in a press release.

In July, the Dubai Tower, as it is known in English, moved past
Taiwan's 1,667-foot Taipei 101, the highest skyscraper in the world
since 2004.

"The Burj Dubai is setting new world records in the construction of
super-tall buildings," said Mohmmad Ali al-Abbar, chairman of Burj's
state-owned developer, Emaar Properties.

"This architectural and construction masterpiece is truly an
inspirational human achievement that celebrates the can-do mind-set of
Dubai," al-Abbar said to local media Thursday.

By the end of 2008, the developers say, the Burj will fulfill all four
criteria for the tallest building, listed by the Chicago-based Council
on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. The criteria include: the height
of the structural top, the highest occupied floor, the top of the roof,
and the tip of the spire, pinnacle, antenna, mast or flag pole.