[Jawbone54]

Allrighty...

A Saudi prince wants to put $10,000,000,000 into building a mile-high (read that thrice) tower that will dwarf Dubai Tower.

See the whole article here.

On a clear day, the view from the top will take in the Middle East, North Africa and the Indian Ocean - providing you've a head for heights.
Plans for a mile-high tower in the Saudi Arabian desert have been unveiled by the billionaire owner of London's Savoy Hotel.

At 5,250ft, the £5billion project, masterminded by two British engineering consultancies, will be twice as high as its nearest rivals, skyscrapers under construction in Dubai and Kuwait, and almost seven times as high as the Canary Wharf tower in London's Docklands.

Okay, so now they're just showing off.

[turtle777]

Yeah, I'd call it the big bird-flippin' tower of Dubable.

-t

[boy8cookie]

How would you build such a monstrosity ? It would have to build itself !

[Cipher13]

[Cipher13]

On another note, you'll be able to join the mile-high club in comfort.

[MM-o4]

Originally Posted by Cipher13 

On another note, you'll be able to join the mile-high club in comfort.

my thoughts exactly. Better for the environment to

[Kerrigan]

This is certainly something to inspire awe of biblical proportions (if it is ever finished, that is).

[Jawbone54]

Yeah, Drudge is calling it a modern day Tower of Babel.

I call it a modern day muscle flex. Too bad that $10,000,000,000 can't go to something that would actually make a difference in the world.

[voodoo]

Originally Posted by Cipher13 

On another note, you'll be able to join the mile-high club in comfort.

I think the largest nationality of that club is Peruvian

[Doofy]

No need to panic. This thing will fall over within minutes of being completed:

At 5,250ft, the £5billion project, masterminded by two British engineering consultancies

Yes, that's right - British engineering. Same people who can't build a bridge over the Thames. Same people who can't put a probe onto Mars. Same people who can't design a reliable car.

They should have got the Germans to do it.

[turtle777]

-t

[torsoboy]

I wouldn't want to be the one welding those beams together at the top of that thing. I wonder how long the elevator ride would take. Or how a fire department would make it to the top to put out a fire.

[Brien]

Well... good luck with that, Mr. Richguywithtoomuchfreetime.

Then again, assuming I was in the area I'd totally go for going to the top of that thing.

[Love Calm Quiet]

Originally Posted by torsoboy 

I wouldn't want to be the one welding those beams together at the top of that thing. I wonder how long the elevator ride would take. Or how a fire department would make it to the top to put out a fire.

There's no need for fire-fighting/rescuing capabiity. There'll be several "break glass in case of fire" boxes with abundant supplies of cyanide capsules on each floor. That way everyone can relax and "go easy."

On another note: Let's all burn more oil and support the dude's noble campaign. :/

[Kerrigan]

Doofy, what are you talking about? British architects are among the highest quality in the world. They make quality, attractive buildings efficiently and inexpensively (see: Scottish Parliament). Britain's architectural talent is the envy of the world. Not to mention, British architects can cook up some very stylish buildings.





Two thousand years from now, tourists will be swarming all over these places and wondering how such masterpieces could have been built so long ago.

[- - e r i k - -]

Hooray for crazy rich guys!

[ctt1wbw]

The sway at the top would be enough to topple it, if you could get construction cranes that high. Then the firemain system would be enormous, with pumps so big and heavy to force water that high... You couldn't get a fire team up there in an emergency...

[Love Calm Quiet]

Originally Posted by Kerrigan 

Not to mention, British architects can cook up some very stylish buildings.

And then... there are those whose pictures you provided.

Inspired, perhaps, by British teeth? (snaggly - who's got time for braces after all?)

[Dakar the Fourth]

At the risk of sounding american-centric, no US landmark made the competition list?

[ghporter]

Our towers tend to spur others to build bigger ones. We DID have the first skyscraper, the Sears Tower WAS the tallest building for a while, etc. It's the old gunslinger syndrome, but we seem to have gotten out of the "gosh let's build something uselessly tall and immense just for the bragging rights." Maybe "The Towering Inferno" had something to do with that...

[Dakar the Fourth]

I'm not sure I understand the point you're making.

[ghporter]

Which one? "Outdoing the Americans" or "The Towering Inferno"? The film was a lovely bit of schlock-action. Based on two different, but extremely similar novels about an enormously tall building that caught fire during it's opening festivities, Irwin Allen made it the biggest and baddest disaster film ever (at that time). But it had just enough of a ring of truth to make it legitimately scary.

[residentEvil]

april fools!!!

[ghporter]

I'd buy that very easily. A Saudi building that looks that phallic? Without any classical Muslim architectural features? Not terribly likely... Except today.

[Dakar the Fourth]

Um, ok, so why isn't there a US landmark on the competition list?

[f1000]

Originally Posted by Dakar the Fourth 

At the risk of sounding american-centric, no US landmark made the competition list?

Chicago is currently constructing a skyscraper that will be slightly shorter than the Burj Dubai. This Jeddah tower, by contrast, is still only a proposal, and a ridiculous one at that.

As the U.S. has become more egalitarian, fewer individuals have been able to monopolize the monstrous resources needed to construct economically disastrous personal pyramids. Since the 1960's, 50 stories has been the economic sweet spot for skyscraper construction, which is why Manhattan and Chicago are densely packed with such structures. The supertalls going up in primarily non-Western developing countries, by contrast, are egotistical white elephants. Many are soaring monuments to monarchs, dictators, or oligarchs, and are a direct consequence of extreme economic disparities.

Saudi Arabia is in no economic position to raise a mile tall edifice. Its quarter century of poor/non-existent family-planning and economic development has already resulted in a downward spiral of declining cGDP with respect to the U.S. and a subsequent rise in radicalism from disaffected youths with a sense of entitlement:

cGDP (real GDP/capita versus the U.S.)

Saudi Arabia SAU 1970 66%
Saudi Arabia SAU 1975 114%
Saudi Arabia SAU 1980 108%
Saudi Arabia SAU 1985 62%
Saudi Arabia SAU 1990 55%
Saudi Arabia SAU 1995 49%
Saudi Arabia SAU 2000 46%
Saudi Arabia SAU 2001 43%
Saudi Arabia SAU 2002 43%
Saudi Arabia SAU 2003 39%

If Saudi Arabia's elites continue to waste their oil-wealth on personal pyramids such as this one, Americans will continue to experience the consequences. North Korea, for example, spent close to 2% of its annual GDP in the early 90's on constructing what would have been one of the tallest buildings in the world at the time. 20 years later, the concrete monstrosity remains unfinished (and is in fact crumbling), and the U.S., South Korea, Japan, and China have been obligated to provide the incompetent Kim monarchy with fuel and food aid to help the impoverished people.

[osiris]

The bigger the better, the tighter the sweater.

[Gankdawg]

Originally Posted by residentEvil 

april fools!!!

I think so. Does that country measure height in feet? And since when is a mile 5,250 ft? That's 30 ft shy in my books.

[Doofy]

Originally Posted by Gankdawg 

Does that country measure height in feet?

The country where the article was written does.

[d4nth3m4n]

Originally Posted by Dakar the Fourth 

Um, ok, so why isn't there a US landmark on the competition list?

because it's a british newspaper that wrote the article?

dailymail .co .uk

[Dakar the Fourth]

...and that makes sense how? They included a tower from Malaysia and Canada.

[alligator]

There actually are limits to the materials used to create buildings. I have no idea what they are, but I would expect the bottom layers to melt at some point due to the pressure. Also, didn't Paolo Solari propose a megaopolis like this once? Someone look him up in Wikipedia.

[Jawbone54]

Originally Posted by Dakar the Fourth 

...and that makes sense how? They included a tower from Malaysia and Canada.

Canadians have towers? I thought they all lived and worked in igloos.

[Dakar the Fourth]

I waiting to find out we have no towers of consequence. A little surprising if its true, but seems like the most logical reason.

[Doofy]

Originally Posted by Jawbone54 

Canadians have towers? I thought they all lived and worked in igloos rainbow-coloured mosques.

Fixilovelyness.

[wallinbl]

Originally Posted by Dakar the Fourth 

I waiting to find out we have no towers of consequence. A little surprising if its true, but seems like the most logical reason.

List of tallest buildings and structures in the world - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Dakar the Fourth]

Originally Posted by wallinbl 

List of tallest buildings and structures in the world - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

April Foo-- oh, thanks.

[Dakar the Fourth]

Wow, that list makes their choices look completely arbitrary. Weird.

[osiris]

Originally Posted by Jawbone54 

Canadians have towers? I thought they all lived and worked in igloos.

I thought that was an antenna.
The CN tower:
http://www.cntower.ca/portal/SmartDefault.aspx?ac=417

[f1000]

Originally Posted by alligator 

There actually are limits to the materials used to create buildings. I have no idea what they are, but I would expect the bottom layers to melt at some point due to the pressure.

I guess someone forgot to tell mountains that they're supposed to melt.

[ShortcutToMoncton]

Originally Posted by osiris 

I thought that was an antenna.
The CN tower:
http://www.cntower.ca/portal/SmartDefault.aspx?ac=417

Yeah the top part is. There's an overpriced restaurant, café and observation deck on the first area, and that little bubble close to the top is a smaller observation area.

Great view in the evenings, though.

greg

[ShortcutToMoncton]

Originally Posted by f1000 

I guess someone forgot to tell mountains that they're supposed to melt.

I spent the last 5 minutes attempting to make a joke about the asthenosphere, but it just wasn't happening

[Eug]

Originally Posted by ShortcutToMoncton 

Yeah the top part is. There's an overpriced restaurant, café and observation deck on the first area, and that little bubble close to the top is a smaller observation area.

Great view in the evenings, though.

greg

I take the stairs up about once every 1 or 2 years.

My best time is 16 minutes 51 seconds, but some crazy dude did it in under 8 minutes.

18th Annual Canada Life CN Tower Climb for WWF Canada

[ShortcutToMoncton]

You're clearly insane.

My girl did the climb this year. I think she did 25 minutes or something. I wouldn't even bother bother to try. I hate cardio with the passion of a thousand burning suns.

greg

[Dakar the Fourth]

Originally Posted by ShortcutToMoncton 

I hate cardio with the passion of a thousand burning calories.

greg

Alright, not funny, but I felt compelled to do it anyway.

[ghporter]

Originally Posted by ShortcutToMoncton 

Yeah the top part is. There's an overpriced restaurant, café and observation deck on the first area, and that little bubble close to the top is a smaller observation area.

Great view in the evenings, though.

greg

Totally worth it, at least in the world of "revolving restaurants on very tall things." I've eaten at the Tower of the Americas here in San Antonio, as well as the CN Tower-CN for the win. San Antonio's view is beautiful, but you can't beat airplanes landing BELOW you, and being able to see Buffalo's lights across the lake.

[Railroader]

Originally Posted by f1000 

I guess someone forgot to tell mountains that they're supposed to melt.

Them mountains have some pretty good foundations.

Steel will melt under the compression needed to build such a building. Stone will disintegrate under the pressure. There are some modern concretes that can take the pressure, but they can't take the movement that the building would have.

I am sure the History Channel will do a Modern Marvels about it soon.

[shawnh]

Originally Posted by MM-o4 

my thoughts exactly. Better for the environment to

Actually buildings pollute the environment (mostly the air too) just as much as cars these days.

A building that tall is impractical.

[TETENAL]

Originally Posted by shawnh 

Actually buildings pollute the environment (mostly the air too) just as much as cars these days.

Not necessarily.

Zero-energy building - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Laminar]

Originally Posted by ghporter 

and being able to see Buffalo's lights across the lake.

Seeing some hope in the distance?