In 2008 the billionaire Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal of Saudi Arabia announced his intention to build the world’s tallest building: the first kilometric-high skyscraper (3,281 feet), known as the Jeddah Tower. The skyscraper aimed to be the landmark of an urban oasis called Jeddah Economic City, located between the two holy cities of Mecca and Medina and with the ambition to become Saudi Arabia’s Dubai.

• Nearly 15 years later, the works for its construction are stalled, also due to political intrigue and the Covid pandemic.
• Only a third of the tower has been built and at the moment there are no plans to restart construction.
• The Jeddah Tower was also designed by Adrian Smith, the architect of the current title-holder for the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa, in Dubai.

The two structures share some design elements, such as the Y-shaped plan, with three exterior walls instead of four. The three-walled design, in fact, is more aerodynamic and resists better the gusts of wind at high altitudes, difficult to predict, especially in the desert.

Will there be a building taller than Jeddah Tower?

The Empire State Building was the tallest building in the world – until it wasn’t. The Burj Khalifa is the tallest building in the world today – until someone, someday builds an even bigger one. In fact, the world was meant to have a taller tower by now.

Will the Jeddah Tower ever be completed?

Jeddah Tower Progress: What Happened to the World’s Tallest Tower? Construction Renee McKeown Thu 05 Mar 20 Print

• Construction on the world’s tallest tower was scheduled to finish this year but there is no end in sight for the ambitious project.
• Work on the Jeddah Tower stalled in 2018, less than one quarter of the way through the 1,000 metre high Saudi Arabian project.
• First started in 2013 the skyscraper would have been taller than Dubai’s Burj Khalifa at 830 metres and would have been the heart of Jeddah Economic City.
• Thornton Tomasetti principal Robert Sinn said he is part of the engineering company that provided structural design services for building formerly known as Kingdom Tower.
• “The project halted construction on the tower about two years ago,” Sinn said.
• “We are hopeful that construction will recommence this year.
• “There is no revised completion date, construction on the surrounding masterplan is ongoing.”
• Related:

▲ The abandoned Jeddah Tower and Jeddah Economic City site.

1. In February, building developer Jeddah Economic Company posted a video to their Twitter page promoting the tower.
2. The footage included parent company Kingdom Holding’s chief executive officer Talal Almaiman visiting the site and an image of the elongated building featuring the words: “Vision 2030 Kingdom of Saudi Arabia”.
3. Almaiman has been part of the project since it was initiated by Kingdom Holding Co owner Prince Alwaleed bin Talal.
4. The building was originally going to be a mile-high tower but was downgraded to one kilometre.
5. As of 22 October, 2017 the central core of the tower was officially at level 60 and the walls were 248m high.
6. In March 2018 after construction recommenced however little progress was made.
7. The mega-tall skyscraper is expected to be the heart of Kingdom City, a 23-million square metre mixed-use development site which currently looks like a construction zone.

▲ The world’s tallest tower is the centrepiece of the yet to be built Jeddah Economic City. A Four Seasons hotel and serviced apartment was planned to anchor the building along with office space, luxury condominiums and an observatory overlooking the Red Sea and Obhur Creek.

Kingdom Holding and Bill Gate’s Cascade Investment Management each hold a 47.5 per cent interest in Four Seasons. The 1,000 metre skyscraper was Adrian Smith+Gordon Gill Architecture; Adrian Smith was also the architect behind the Burj Khalifa when he was part of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. Kingdom Holding Co, the Jeddah Economic Company and Adrian Smith+Gordon Gill Architecture did not respond to The Urban Developer’s requests for comment at the time of publishing.

AUTHOR Renee McKeown : Jeddah Tower Progress: What Happened to the World’s Tallest Tower?

What happened to Saudi Arabia’s tallest building Jeddah?

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What is the Jeddah skyscraper project?

Jeddah Tower Progress: What Happened to the World’s Tallest Tower? Construction Renee McKeown Thu 05 Mar 20 Print

• Construction on the world’s tallest tower was scheduled to finish this year but there is no end in sight for the ambitious project.
• Work on the Jeddah Tower stalled in 2018, less than one quarter of the way through the 1,000 metre high Saudi Arabian project.
• First started in 2013 the skyscraper would have been taller than Dubai’s Burj Khalifa at 830 metres and would have been the heart of Jeddah Economic City.
• Thornton Tomasetti principal Robert Sinn said he is part of the engineering company that provided structural design services for building formerly known as Kingdom Tower.
• “The project halted construction on the tower about two years ago,” Sinn said.
• “We are hopeful that construction will recommence this year.
• “There is no revised completion date, construction on the surrounding masterplan is ongoing.”
• Related:

▲ The abandoned Jeddah Tower and Jeddah Economic City site.

1. In February, building developer Jeddah Economic Company posted a video to their Twitter page promoting the tower.
2. The footage included parent company Kingdom Holding’s chief executive officer Talal Almaiman visiting the site and an image of the elongated building featuring the words: “Vision 2030 Kingdom of Saudi Arabia”.
3. Almaiman has been part of the project since it was initiated by Kingdom Holding Co owner Prince Alwaleed bin Talal.
4. The building was originally going to be a mile-high tower but was downgraded to one kilometre.
5. As of 22 October, 2017 the central core of the tower was officially at level 60 and the walls were 248m high.
6. In March 2018 after construction recommenced however little progress was made.
7. The mega-tall skyscraper is expected to be the heart of Kingdom City, a 23-million square metre mixed-use development site which currently looks like a construction zone.

▲ The world’s tallest tower is the centrepiece of the yet to be built Jeddah Economic City. A Four Seasons hotel and serviced apartment was planned to anchor the building along with office space, luxury condominiums and an observatory overlooking the Red Sea and Obhur Creek.

1. Ingdom Holding and Bill Gate’s Cascade Investment Management each hold a 47.5 per cent interest in Four Seasons.
2. The 1,000 metre skyscraper was Adrian Smith+Gordon Gill Architecture; Adrian Smith was also the architect behind the Burj Khalifa when he was part of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill.
3. Ingdom Holding Co, the Jeddah Economic Company and Adrian Smith+Gordon Gill Architecture did not respond to The Urban Developer’s requests for comment at the time of publishing.

AUTHOR Renee McKeown : Jeddah Tower Progress: What Happened to the World’s Tallest Tower?

How did Burj Khalifa influence the design of Jeddah Tower?

Elevators – The large, outdoor sky terrace will overlook the Red Sea and have an area of over 697 square metres (7,500 sq ft). The building will have a total of 59 elevators, five of which will be double-deck elevators, as well as 12 escalators. The elevators are made by the Finnish company Kone,

• It will also have the highest observation deck in the world, to which high speed elevators will travel at up to 10 metres (33 feet) per second (36 km/h or 22 mph) in both directions.
• The elevators cannot go faster because the change in air pressure at such a rapid speed could cause nausea ; at 914 m (3,000 ft), the air pressure is over 10 kPa (1.5 psi) lower than at ground level (a 10% reduction in air pressure).

They must also be efficient so the cables are not unbearably heavy. Jeddah Tower will have three sky lobbies where elevator transfers can be made, and no elevator will go from the bottom to the highest occupied floor. No official floor count has been given; however, Smith stated in a television interview that it will be about 50 floors more than the Burj Khalifa, which has 163 occupied floors, leading to the inference that Jeddah Tower will have over 200 floors.

The tower will also feature a large, roughly 30 m (98 ft) diameter outdoor balcony, known as the sky terrace, on one side of the building for private use by the penthouse floor at level 157; it is not the observation deck. It was originally intended to be a helipad, but it was revealed to be an unsuitable landing environment by helicopter pilots.

The lower air density, exacerbated by the thin desert atmosphere, will cause the outdoor air temperature towards the top of the tower to be lower than the ground level air, which will provide natural cooling. There is also significantly more air flow (wind) at heights, which is very strong at one kilometre and had a large impact on the structural design of the tower.

1. The Burj Khalifa actually takes in the cooler, cleaner air from the top floors and uses it to air condition the building.
2. Jeddah Tower will be oriented such that no façade directly faces the sun; it will also use the condensate water from the air conditioning system for irrigation and other purposes throughout the building.

To overcome elevator issues, the tower will use its large number of efficient elevators as well as its three sky lobbies, which allows transfers to be made between elevators serving a specific area with no elevator being overburdened. Much was learned from Burj Khalifa that helped with the design of Jeddah Tower not only structurally, but in methods for designing practical mechanical, electrical, and plumbing (MEP) systems, as well as adhering to local regulations and international building codes,

Despite all the physical challenges, Adrian Smith states that practicality is still the greater challenge over structural durability, even in such super-tall designs, and that as with all buildings, Jeddah Tower’s form was primarily derived respective of what the building’s uses would be, then in accordance with the structural factors that would have to be considered to deliver it.

Orange S.A. are designing the information and communications infrastructure of the building.