Quote:
|
Originally Posted by garry7772000
This is all overwhelming and breathtaking to say the least. It appears that the rest of the world is becoming more futuristic, very quickly, than America. The scrapers I saw in the movie Star wars reminds me of what Dubai is building; I don't see these type of visions in skyscraper building and construction in America.
Hopefully we'll get our economy back on track and get back in the thick of things.
Garry
|
Whoa there, careful now. Slow down. Building a skyscraper like this in the US is much different than in Asia. Several points.
1) As someone pointed out, the Burj Dubai is costing a similar amount (I've ever seen figures lower than) as the Trump Tower Chicago, whose roof rises to 1,130ft. Construction costs are way higher here. Do a little research as to who's providing the labor in Dubai (certainly not Emiratis!), and how much they're getting paid, what benefits they receive, what safety regulations are protecting them, and so on.
2) Consider the planning/zoning/approval/political process American projects have to go through; the red tape is insane. Trump took 4+ years from conception of Trump Tower Chicago to having a shovel in the ground. In America, we deal with NIMBYs, who fight tooth and nail through the political process to prevent towers from getting built high.
In Dubai and elsewhere in Asia (with exceptions in places like tokyo), its just a rubber stamp. Done and done.
We're doin' just fine here in America; look at NY, Chicago, Miami, Philly, just to name a few. And to the north, Toronto and Vancouver are booming.
If the Freedom Tower actually gets built, it will be a much bigger accomplishment on the part of humanity (and real estate developers) than Burj Dubai could ever hope to be; though I'm biased as a Chicagoan, I think Trump made a huge accomplishment in getting his TTC built.
All this said, I'm a fan of alot these projects going up in Dubai. Alot are bland, but you can say that of highrise booms anywhere in the world. The Burj Dubai isn't groundbreaking in design so much as height. But a reliably pleasing and proportional design from Adrian Smith.
I think the Burj al-Arab Hotel (the Sail) is fantastic.