Jeddah Tower
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At over 1,000 meters (3,280 feet) and a total built area of 530,000 square meters (5.7 million square feet), Jeddah Tower—formerly known as Kingdom Tower—will be the centerpiece and first construction phase of the $20 billion Kingdom City development in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, near the Red Sea.
Expected to cost $1.2 billion to construct, Jeddah Tower, which is now under construction, will be a mixed-use building featuring a luxury hotel, office space, serviced apartments, luxury condominiums and the world’s highest observatory. Jeddah Tower’s height will be at least 173 meters (568 feet) taller than Burj Khalifa, which was designed by Adrian Smith while at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill.
AS+GG’s design for Jeddah Tower is both highly technological and distinctly organic. With its slender, subtly asymmetrical massing, the tower evokes a bundle of leaves shooting up from the ground—a burst of new life that heralds more growth all around it. This symbolizes the tower as a catalyst for increased development around it.
The sleek, streamlined form of the tower can be interpreted as a reference to the folded fronds of young desert plant growth. The way the fronds sprout upward from the ground as a single form, then start separating from each other at the top, is an analogy of new growth fused with technology.
While the design is contextual to Saudi Arabia, it also represents an evolution and a refinement of an architectural continuum of skyscraper design. The three-petal footprint is ideal for residential units, and the tapering wings produce an aerodynamic shape that helps reduce structural loading due to wind vortex shedding. Jeddah Tower’s design embraces its architectural pedigree, taking full advantage of the proven design strategies and technological strategies of its lineage, refining, and advancing them to achieve new heights.
The result is an elegant, cost-efficient, and highly constructible design that is at once grounded in built tradition and aggressively forward-looking, taking advantage of new and innovative thinking about technology, building materials, life-cycle considerations, and energy conservation. For example, the project will feature a high-performance exterior wall system that will minimize energy consumption by reducing thermal loads. In addition, each of Jeddah Tower’s three sides features a series of notches that create pockets of shadow that shield areas of the building from the sun and provide outdoor terraces with stunning views of Jeddah and the Red Sea.
The great height of Jeddah Tower necessitates one of the world’s most sophisticated elevator systems. The Jeddah Tower complex will contain 59 elevators, including 54 single-deck and five double-deck elevators, along with 12 escalators. Elevators serving the observatory will travel at a rate of 10 meters per second in both directions.
Another unique feature of the design is a sky terrace, roughly 30 meters (98 feet) in diameter, at level 157. The sky terrace will be open to the public and will be considered the world’s highest observatory once opened.
1 May 2021 | Architectural Record
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26 jul 18 | Forbes
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25 Jun 18 | The Architect's Newspaper
Saudi Arabia is building a future for its millennial population
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11 Jan 18 | CNN International
Saudi Arabia to build world's tallest tower, reaching 1 kilometer into the sky
Dubai, long champion of all things biggest, longest and most expensive, will soon have some competition from neighboring Saudi Arabia... MORE
12 May 17 | The Architectural Review
Jeddah Tower in Saudi Arabia by Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture
The tallest building in the world when completed, at around one km.. MORE
21 feb 17 | Curbed
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1 sep 16 | Civil Engineering Surveyor
Learnings from the Jeddah Tower
With a final projected height of 1km, the Jeddah Tower is set to break all records for the world's tallest building... MORE
jun 16 | Structure
Rising to the Clouds with Confidence
The Upper-Level Wind Climate Assessment for the Jeddah Tower... MORE
3 feb 16 | The Wall Street Journal
Jeddah Aiming for Towering Height
The builder of the world's future tallest tower hopes it will redefine the cityscape in this desert region and project the Saudi kingdom's ambition to be a global powerhouse... MORE
31 dec 15 | City Lab
Can a Skyscraper Soar Above the Clouds?
Fact-checking an awesome rendering of Jeddah Tower, soon to be the tallest building in the world... MORE
6 dec 15 | The Telegraph
Onwards and upwards for the skyscraper
From the Square Mile to Saudi’s deserts, the world is still in love with sheer scale... MORE
2 dec 15 | Chicago Tribune
Saudi Arabia plans to build the world's tallest skyscraper
Dubai's superlative-loving rulers are on notice: Saudi Arabia seems to be getting serious about stealing your crowning glory... MORE
mar 14 | Architectural Record
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30 aug 11 | Arabian Business
Kingdom Tower architect grapples the wind at 3,000 ft
Kingdom Tower, Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal’s project to erect the world’s tallest building in Jeddah, is designed to imitate the contours of a sprouting desert plant... MORE
14 aug 11 | New York Magazine
Higher
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3 aug 11 | Chicago Tribune
Chicago firm's design towers over the rest
The competition to design a new skyscraper in Saudi Arabia had a simple but lofty rule: The tower had to be the world's first kilometer-tall building... MORE
3 aug 11 | Construction Week Online
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3 aug 11 | The Wall Street Journal
Saudis Plan World's Tallest Tower
Saudi Arabia's Prince Alwaleed bin Talal announced plans to build the world's tallest building in Jeddah less than two years after the Burj Khalifa opened in Dubai at a height that many thought wouldn't be surpassed for years... MORE
2 aug 11 | msnbc.com
World's tallest building coming to Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia unveiled plans Tuesday to build the world's tallest tower — a mixed-use structure that will rise two-thirds of a mile high — in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah... MORE
2 aug 11 | The Huffington Post
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At six feet, Adrian Smith is fairly tall for an architect. But now, with the announcement that his Kingdom Tower in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, will begin construction this year, he may qualify as the world's tallest architect... MORE
2 aug 11 | World Architecture News
AS+GG confirmed for Kingdom Tower
After months of rumour and suspicion, AS+GG confirms it is designing a $1.2bn, 1000+m tower in Jeddah... MORE
2 aug 11 | The Chicago Tribune
Chicago architecture firm to design world's tallest tower
A tower designed by Chicago architects Adrian Smith and Gordon Gill and to be built in Saudi Arabia will be the world's tallest building if completed, according to plans unveiled today... MORE
2 aug 11 | The Washington Post with Bloomberg Business
Saudi presses forward with plans to build world's tallest tower, outdoing neighbor Dubai
Saudi Arabia took a key step forward Tuesday in its plan to build the world’s tallest tower and outdo Gulf neighbor Dubai, which inaugurated its own record-breaking skyscraper less than two years ago... MORE
2 aug 11 | The Baltimore Sun
Chicago architecture firm to design world's tallest tower
The proposed tower, which will rise more than 1,000 meters and take just over five years to complete, is the centerpiece of the planned Kingdom City development being built outside Jeddah by Prince Alwaleed's Kingdom Holding... MORE
2 aug 11 | Financial Times
Saudi Arabia plans world's tallest tower
Saudi Arabia’s Prince Alwaleed bin Talal’s investment vehicle, Kingdom Holding, has announced that an associate company will partner with the country’s Bin Laden Group to build a tower near Jeddah that would replace Dubai’s 828m Burj Khalifa as the world’s tallest building... MORE
2 aug 11 | Emirates 24/7
Kingdom Tower to top reigning champ Burj Khalifa by 173m
The US-headquartered architectural practice Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture (AS+GG) has revealed the design for the Kingdom Tower, which is to be the world’s tallest building at 1 kilometre height... MORE
2 aug 11 | The Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago firm designing new tallest building
The Chicago-based firm of Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture is designing what is to be the world’s tallest building, Kingdom Tower, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, near the Red Sea... MORE
2 aug 11 | AS+GG Press Release
AS+GG designs Kingdom Tower to be the world’s next tallest building
Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture is pleased to announce that it is designing Kingdom Tower,world’s next tallest building, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, near the Red Sea... MORE
