Construction on world’s tallest building resumes after 5-year hiatus
This colossus is once again creeping towards the clouds.
After a half-decade-long pause, Saudi Arabia’s record-breaking Jeddah Tower is once again being built up.
Although ground was broken for the giant of a building back in 2013, the endeavor has been repeatedly delayed in the decade since, Dezeen reported.
Among other problems impacting the tower’s completion was the 2017 “corruption” purge-related arrest of Bakr bin Laden, owner of former tower contractor the Binladin Group.
(At the time of his arrest five years ago, the tower had reached a height of 50 stories.)
As a result, a Dubai-based publication called Middle East Economic Digest (MEED) reports that developer Jeddah Economic Company is seeking bids through the end of this year for a new contractor able to complete the super-tall.
“The tower will be more than 1,000 meters [over 3,280-feet] tall, and it is back in full motion,” a source close to the project told MEED, the magazine reported.
Currently, the behemoth (which was previously called Kingdom Tower) stands upon finished foundations and pilings, but is only one-third complete.
Once finished, renderings reveal the tower will taper towards the top and boast a glassy facade.
The leviathan is designed by Adrian Smith + Gill Gordon Architecture, the same Chicago-based firm behind Manhattan’s Central Park Tower, which stands at 131 stories and 1,550 feet in the air, making it the globe’s highest residential building.
Meanwhile, back in Saudi Arabia, there’s another development vying with Jeddah for being the nation’s biggest mega-development: Once complete, the $1 trillion desert complex Neom will, among other over-the-top features, include a 75-mile-long, mirror-wrapped project called The Line.
