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On a High at 828 metres
As it stabs into azure winter skies, the renamed Burj Khalifa presents shimmering evidence of having pushed the architectural envelope. At 828 metres - or 172 metres shy of a kilometre - it is the highest man-made structure and has a silent laugh at all comparative statistics.
- PUBLISHED: Mon 4 Jan 2010, 9:35 PM UPDATED: Mon 6 Apr 2015, 2:22 PM
- By:
- Narendra Jha
When it was inaugurated on Monday by His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, the quiet over its statistics lifted: clearly, it had surpassed by far Chicago's Willis Tower, Kuala Lumpur's Petronas Twin Towers, and the Taipei 101 - spire or no spire!
Was the Willis Tower (formerly Sears) higher or were the Petronas? There was the annoying question of spires. They counted for Petronas, not Willis, but the dispute faded into irrelevance after Taipei 101 was complete. Burj 'Dubai', renamed Burj Khalifa by Shaikh Mohammed,has put paid to it all for a long time to come.
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It did not start off competing merely against habitable structures. At 828 metres, it dwarfs even the 553-metre CN Tower in Toronto, known since 1975 as the world tallest freestanding structure. Of course, nobody really lives there, But thousands are going to be doing so on the 160-plus floors here to unsurpassed views of Dubai and the Arabian Gulf.
No sooner was it declared open than fireworks lit up the night in floral effulgence. And those fired from ground-level struggled to scale the majestic height of the building.
The obsession with heights is older than Sir Edmund Hillary's conquest of Everest. He was not the first to dream it. He merely made the dream come true. But unlike the Everest ascent, going to the 123rd floor observation deck here is not going to be arduous at all. Double-decker elevators ensure a smooth ride - all under the guidance of modern-day sherpas in control rooms.
The view from the top is breathtaking. It is a good thing that the building is clad in reinforced glass, because breathing in the higher winds at those heights is not known to be an easy pulmonary function. Looking down is not for those with vertigo, a thought that gives us pause: picture the thousands who worked on the structure while it was naked and still rising.
It is not a tall story of triumph. If anything, it is a story of standing tall triumphantly. It demonstrates Dubai's quintessence: If you can dream it, you can live it. Such has been Shaikh Mohammed's vision and such is the enterprise of those who helped give it shape.
Builders Emaar deserve to be congratulated for having surmounted impossible odds in even time. Indeed, there was talk of the delay in completion. But put it down to our expectations of magical Dubai, not their efforts. Even one of the seven wonders of the modern world, the architectonic Taj Mahal, took 20 years to build. They have accomplished the eighth wonder in about a quarter the time!