Nakheel Tower

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Nakheel Tower
Artist's rendering of Nakheel Tower at night.
Information
Location	Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Status	Never built[1]
Use	Mixed
Height
Antenna/Spire	1,400 m (4,600 ft)
Technical details
Floor count	>200
Floor area	1,490,000 m2 (16,000,000 sq ft)
Companies
Architect	Woods Bagot
Structural Engineer	WSP Cantor Seinuk
Developer	Nakheel Properties
References: [2][3]

Nakheel Tower (Arabic: برج نخيل‎) was a proposed supertall skyscraper in Dubai, United Arab Emirates by developer Nakheel. The project was previously called Al Burj (Arabic: البرج‎ "The Tower").^[4]

In January 2009, it was announced that the project was put on hold due to financial problems.^[5][6] As a result of the Dubai World 2009 debt standstill, Nakheel Group's financial problems increased considerably and the tower was consequently cancelled in December 2009.^[7]

Nakheel was in talks with several potential contractors which include South Korea's Samsung Engineering & Construction (who are also building Burj Dubai), Japanese Shimizu Corporation and Australian Grocon. WSP is Lead Consultant for the structure, heading a consortium that includes LERA of New York and VDM of Australia, and working with architects Woods Bagot.^[8] The proposed tower was going to be 1,400 m (4,600 ft).^[9]

[edit] Location

The tower was proposed in 2003 as the centrepiece of Palm Jumeirah, one of the world's largest man-made islands. It was to be named "The Pinnacle" and rise from the centre of a canal on the trunk of the island. The height was to be 750 m (2,461 ft) and the building was to consist of 120 floors of luxury apartments. It was replaced by the Trump International Hotel and Tower and moved to the Dubai Waterfront. Although ground leveling and land reclamation has begun on the Dubai Waterfront, construction of the tower never started because of the proximity to the Al Maktoum International Airport, which is currently under construction.^[3]

The location has now been changed again to a plot near Jumeirah Lake Towers and Dubai Marina, and soil testing has begun.^[10] The tower will be the focal point of Nakheel's plans for the Ibn Battuta Mall development next to Jumeirah Islands and Jumeirah Lake Towers. It will be the center of the Nakheel Harbour and Tower complex, which will include about 20 smaller towers of up to 90 stories, a marina, and part of the Arabian Canal. The development will be next to the revamped shopping mall.^[9]

[edit] Design

The original design conceived by Pei Partnership Architects was to have 631,000 m² (6,792,000 sq ft) of floorspace comprising ultra-luxury apartments, restaurants, a large health club, and an observation deck.^{[citation needed]} The building actually consisted of three separate towers built around a hollow interior and joined together by several sky bridges functioning as sky lobbies. On top of each sky bridge was a sky garden. One of the towers was shorter than the other two with a large outdoor pool on the roof, while the other two were topped with large spires.^{[citation needed]}

A later redesign had the basic shape remain the same - three towers connected by sky bridges with two twin spires and one tower shorter than the others. As for the number of sky bridges, the original design^{[citation needed]} showed only 4, but later renderings showed at first 6, then 9 or 10. The building is also to be mixed-use rather than wholly residential.^{[citation needed]}

With Woods Bagot replacing Pei Partnership as the architectural partner,^[2] the latest released design has named the development Nakheel Harbour and Tower.^[11][12] Though in exterior appearance and function it will be a single tower over 1,000 metres (3,300 ft) tall, this even grander incarnation "will be made up of four towers with four individual cores forming an approximate 100 meter diameter radius." ^[13] Nakheel also claims on their engineering page that the towers will be joined by four-level, full diameter sky bridges at approximately every twenty-five floors. The sky bridges will act to tie the buildings together structurally as well as to provide each part of the building with its own village centre in the sky. It is the four codependent foundations that provide the necessary structural support for such a great relative height increase over existing supertalls. The design includes a distinctive crescent-shaped podium encircling the base of the tower.^[14]

The tower will be serviced by 156 lifts at sufficient speeds and capacities to allow for travel from the ground floor to the observation deck in four minutes.^[15]

[edit] Height

Projections of Nakheel Tower's final height have varied widely. Nakheel is believed to be engaging in a strategy of secrecy similar to that employed by Emaar with Burj Dubai. According to officials at Nakheel, the tower was originally designed to be at least 700 m (2,297 ft) tall and have more than 160 floors^{[citation needed]}, although an early render showed the tower with more than 200 floors^{[citation needed]}. Companies involved in the project reported an initial height expectation of 1,600 m (5,249 ft) which was later reduced to 1,200 m (3,937 ft)^[16]. In July, 2007, Nakheel CEO Chris O'Donnell was reported to have said that "height isn't everything" and suggested that Al Burj might not be any taller than the Burj Dubai, which is 818 m (2,684 ft).^[17] Yet only a week later, Nakheel reaffirmed that the tower would be taller than 1 kilometre.^[2] A report on 20 June 2008 claimed that the tower is planned to be 1,400 metres (4,593 ft) tall.^[9]

[edit] Name

This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2009)

There are three names that have been proposed for the tower. Al Burj, Tall Tower, and Nakheel Tower. None have officially been decided yet although Al Burj is most commonly used. It is most likely that no official name will be given until the tower is approved. Currently the most probable name for the building is Nakheel Tower.

The first name given to the tower was Al Burj. The name Al Burj stuck for the longest period of any of the three names. After Al Burj the project was renamed Tall Tower. This name only lasted a few months until being switched to the current name, Nakheel Tower.

[edit] See also

• Developments in Dubai
• List of tallest buildings in Dubai
• Proposed tall buildings and structures

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Dubai Waterfront website
• Nakheel Properties
• Nakheel Harbour Tower Renderings
• Nakheel Harbour and Tower
• SkyscraperCity discussion topic
• Emporis.com database entry for Al Burj
• "Burj Dubai gets a rival" - article