Burj Khalifa

Burj Khalifa stands in Downtown Dubai, beside The Dubai Mall and the Dubai Fountain. The developer Emaar Properties began construction in January 2004, the exterior was finished in October 2009, and the tower officially opened on 4 January 2010. It has been the tallest building in the world since then.

During construction the project was called Burj Dubai. At the opening it was renamed in honour of Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, then President of the United Arab Emirates. The design is by Adrian Smith of the architecture firm Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, with structural engineering by Bill Baker.

The tower reaches about 828 metres to its tip and has 154 usable floors above ground. Its Y shaped floor plan, said to be inspired by the desert flower Hymenocallis, steps back in a spiral as it rises, which helps reduce wind loads on the structure. The building holds offices, private apartments and the Armani Hotel Dubai on its lower floors.

Visitors reach the At the Top observation deck on floors 124 and 125, at about 452 metres, and the higher At the Top SKY on floor 148, at about 555 metres. The Lounge on floors 152 to 154 opened in 2019. At the foot of the tower, the Dubai Fountain, about 270 metres long, sends water up to 150 metres high in evening shows set to music, and the tower facade is used for light displays and the New Year fireworks.

Tickets for the observation decks are sold through the official At the Top website, with higher prices at sunset and for the upper levels. Booking a timed slot online in advance is the easiest option. The entrance is on the lower ground floor of The Dubai Mall, and the Burj Khalifa/Dubai Mall metro station is linked by a covered walkway.

How was Burj Khalifa built?

Burj Khalifa cost about 1.5 billion US dollars (AED 5.5 billion) and rests on 192 piles, each 1.5 metres across and 43 metres long. The builders poured about 330,000 cubic metres of concrete and placed 55,000 tonnes of reinforcing steel, while the spire alone uses more than 4,000 tonnes of steel.

The outside is clad in about 142,000 square metres of glass and aluminium, made up of more than 26,000 glass panels. Cleaning every window is a three to four month job for a team of around 36 workers using machines that run on tracks around the facade. Concrete for the upper floors was pumped to a height of 606 metres, a world record at the time.

The tower has 57 lifts, and the double-deck cabins that serve the observation decks travel at up to 10 metres per second. There are 2,909 stairs from the ground floor to floor 160. About 900 private apartments sit on floors 20 to 108, and the Armani Hotel Dubai, with 304 rooms across 15 of the lower floors, opened on 27 April 2010. The At.mosphere restaurant on floor 122, at about 442 metres, was listed as the highest restaurant in the world. Its other records include the most floors in a building and the longest lift travel distance, at 504 metres.