Once again, Adrian Smith followed the Y-shaped design to bring in structural integrity. Once again, the purpose for building this is to diversify Saudi Arabia’s economy so that it doesn’t need to rely on oil only. Similar to the Burj Khalifa, this building would be used to build a new district, Jeddah Economic City. The construction of this building began in 2013, And about 1/4th of the tower was constructed but unfortunately, in early 2018 the construction was halted.
Since then, the construction hasn’t restarted. The thing is, between 2017-2019 there was an anti-corruption purge in Saudi Arabia, and the major investors investing in this project were arrested. And then the Covid-19 pandemic hit. And the delay still continues. Publicly, no one knows when the construction will restart, but if it is restarted, this is the only building that can break Burj Khalifa’s record.
The second project that has a high potential is in Dubai, the Dubai Creek Tower. This Creek Tower designed by a Spanish architect will be an observation tower in Dubai. It was planned around 2016-2018 and the foundation has been laid already. but the construction is stopped here as well. Originally, it was planned to be inaugurated during the 2020 Expo, but it couldn’t happen. The exact height of this tower has not been revealed yet, but it is believed to be between 838m-1,300m.
