Tallest Building Resumes Construction After Years of Delay

Resuming construction after years of setbacks, the Jeddah Tower aims to redefine the skyline with its ambitious height and innovative design. Once completed, it will symbolize Saudi Arabia's vision for economic development and technological advancement, standing as a testament to human ingenuity and architectural prowess in the Gulf region.

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Jeddah Tower Sets to Be the World's Tallest Building

After Bakr bin Laden, president of the contractor company Bin Laden Group and half-brother of Osama Bin Laden, was detained during the 2017-2019 Saudi Arabian purge, the development of the Jeddah Tower, which had commenced in 2013, was halted in 2018. Moreover, additional delays came from the COVID-19 epidemic. When construction stopped sixty years ago, approximately one-third of the building had been finished. Jeddah has been dominated by the unfinished skeleton of the building ever since.

Nevertheless, at the beginning of September 2023, construction on the Jeddah Tower, which is expected to become the tallest skyscraper in the world, was restarted in Saudi Arabia after being delayed for several years. Jeddah Tower gets its name from being situated in the second-most populated city in Saudi Arabia and a significant port city along the Red Sea.

Once it is finished, the skyscraper, which was once known as Kingdom Tower, will reach a height of 3,280 feet, making it the first building in the world to reach a height of more than one kilometer. Among the several megaprojects now being carried out in the kingdom, this one is part of an ambitious economic development project near the Red Sea estimated to cost twenty billion dollars.

Designed by Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture, a Chicago-based firm, Jeddah Tower is a venture worth $1.2 billion and will include a variety of residential and commercial properties, including condominiums, short-term rentals, and luxury hotels. This under-construction building will reportedly surpass Dubai's Burj Khalifa, now the world's highest skyscraper, by more than 500 feet after it is finished being constructed and strategically located in the Gulf region.

It will be eleven times taller than the Statue of Liberty and twice as tall as the Empire State Building in New York. Therefore, an innovative elevator system consisting of 59 lifts that will transfer people at speeds of up to 33 feet per second will be included in the tower.

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Notable Features of Jeddah Tower

The tower's progressive revelation of its streamlined architectural design will symbolize a harmonious fusion of technological and organic elements as the Jeddah Economic City development advances. While its tapering wings generate an aerodynamic design that decreases wind loads, its three-petal footprint maximizes the effectiveness of residential space. 

An attractive, cost-efficient, and highly constructible design rooted in history and forward-looking, including new thinking about technology, construction materials, life-cycle considerations, and energy conservation, is ultimately the product of this endeavor. It is anticipated that the elevator system of the tower will be among the most advanced in the world, with elevators capable of traveling at speeds of up to ten meters per second. The best observatory in the world will be located on a sky terrace that will be accessible to the general public and will be located at level 157.

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