New world’s tallest building planned for Saudi Arabia

Less than two years after the Burj Khalifa opened in Dubai, Saudi Arabia‘s Prince Alwaleed bin Talal has announced a new world’s tallest building to be built on the Red Sea resort town of Jeddah. The Saudi building is planned to be 172 meters (564 feet) taller than the Burj and will stand at 1,000 meters or 3,281 feet. It will be part of the $20 billion “megadevelopment” Kingdom City and will house luxury condos, offices, and of course, a hotel. The prince has signed a $1.23 billion deal with the Bin Laden Group, the largest construction firm in Saudi Arabia and unaffiliated with Osama Bin Laden, to complete the new tallest building in five years.

Last month, Gadling explored the 2,717 foot Burj Khalifa. Gadling and Huffington Post blogger Melanie Nayer was one of the first guests at the Ritz-Carlton Hong Kong earlier this year, currently the highest hotel in the world. Check out our gallery below of the world’s tallest buildings.

%Gallery-129861%

Image of Dubai’s Burj Khalifa by Flickr user Jason Rodman.

Dubai’s Burj skyscraper grows to tallest building on planet

If you’ve been following the construction of the Burj skyscraper in Dubai, things are coming to a head pretty quick. Many of the lower floors are now complete with glass detailing, while floors on the top seem to keep appearing. I say “keep appearing” because nobody really knows how tall the building will eventually be, nor what the developers have in mind.

What we do know is that the building recently passed the height of the KVLY tower in North Dakota, the tallest (albeit least exciting) free stranding structure in North America, and is currently rocking about 694 meters, or about a half mile, tall.

Who knows how long the Burj will keep its record for the world’s tallest building; there are already several planned structures in the middle east that would compete in height with this building, including the “Mile High Tower” planned in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Over at Burjdubaiskyscraper.com, our friends have put together a pretty comprehensive media site detailing the construction of the behemoth, including a wealth of interesting photos. Check out Gadling’s gallery of the Burj as well as interesting trivia at Burjdubaiskyscraper.

%Gallery-30344%

Check out more weird buildings around the world: