Kingdom Tower Construction To Commence From January 2012

Early this year Kingdom holding, the company headed by Prince Al Waleed bin Talal, announced their plans to build a skyscraper that will surpass height of the present tallest skyscraper Burj Khalifa, and the preparations began subsequently. The US$ 1.2 billion #-Link-Snipped-# will rise to a height greater than 1km.

The chief architect of the tower Adrian Smith, a partner in Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture, #-Link-Snipped-# that the construction of the tower will begin in January, 2012. Smith was also the chief architect of Burj Khalifa.



The project has been progressing fast and has reached the high level detailing of the designs. Some details regarding the features of the tower were also released. The tower will house a six level apartment “Sky palace” of 2787 square meters area from the 158^th floor making it the highest level residential apartment in the world.

Just below this apartment will be the “sky terrace”. The purpose of which is not yet been confirmed. Originally it was created with an idea of serving as a helipad, but the idea was later given up, as it would be difficult for the pilots to land at such a height with its wind conditions. It will mostly be used for viewing the sunset in the red sea. It is present in the 157^th floor, and will be 25m wide.

The balcony design here has taken into consideration the wind conditions and made it safer to have more balconies. Kingdom Tower will have more balconies than Burj Kalifa. And just like in the case of Burj Khalifa the company has kept final height of Kingdom Tower under warps. The final height of the skyscraper remains a secret now. All that the officials say is that the building will be over 1,000 meters.