Slashdot Mirror
Saudi Arabia Constructing World's Tallest Building
kkleiner writes "1,000 meters, or 3,280 feet. That's two-thirds of a mile. When the Kingdom Tower is built on the outskirts of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia it will not only become the tallest building in the world, it will shatter the old record. The total cost for the tower is approximately $1.2 billion. It features a Four Seasons hotel, Four Seasons serviced apartments, luxury condominiums, top class office space and the world's highest observatory."
TFA says its being built on the outskirts of Jeddah, so depending on how far out they mean by "outskirts", the light pollution may be manageable.
The bigger issue, I think, is that this is basically a giant vanity project that will probably end up like the Burj Khalifa: Deep in debt with rapidly falling rents and tons of empty space. Jeddah is right next to Mecca, so they probably won't have a lot of trouble filling it with rich foreign Muslims during the Hajj, but it seems like it would be a bit of a challenge during other parts of the year. I guess the Saudis have enough money to burn on crap like this, but it seems they could find a more intelligent way to invest in their own country other than building giant luxury hotels.
For the most part, the rich don't like shitty backwater Arab countries. Just ask Bahrain... They might be rich, but the vast majority of the civilized world still finds them and their horribly repressive culture fucking disgusting.
isn't the middle of a city a bad place for an observatory with all the light pollution and whatnot?
I think they mean observatory as in "a place to look out and observe". Not an astronomical observatory.
The most prominent ruin-to-be from the height of the empire, the days of peak oil. Give it 50 years and the few rag-clad scavengers populating the lower levels will wonder what the fuck anyone thought when they built this....
Brings to mind the Aztechnology building from Shadowrun. C*O's and filthy rich at the top, and the just plain filthy at the bottom.
"Curiouser and Curiouser...." -Alice
You should check out what they are doing to their own subjects, makes their relationship to the rest of the world look downright friendly.
I don't think they mean an astronomical observatory. I believe it's just a deck where people can view the surrounding land. An astronomical observatory wouldn't be very useful on top of a building even a quarter of that height. Not only do you have to contend with light pollution, and regular pollution, but those buildings sway so much that you couldn't possibly get an exposure of any significant duration.
Yes. It's a closely guarded secret, lest someone else design and construct another tower from scratch, in less time than it takes them to construct, and makes it one foot taller, stealing their thunder. That should eliminate any doubt as to whether this is anything more than a giant architectural penis.
I think a lot of what we attribute to our superior economic system, or work ethic, or diversity (or maybe we don't attribute it to anything, and simply take for granted that we are #1 and always will be) is actually very predictable based on the discovery of the world's largest stockpile of undeveloped natural resources in 1492. A new resource is discovered or developed, it is exploited resulting in growth, then it peters out. Look at how population growth within the US has shifted from California to Texas in the last decade. Some say it is mostly superior governance, I say it is mostly cheap land.
I guess that explains Japan's economic success. Or Hong Kong's. Or Switzerland's. Or Taiwan's. Or Korea's. Yep. Land. I'm not sure I am fully able to explain America's economic success. But I think an hypothesis is forming for me about America's economic decline, that it is associated with an intellectual decline exemplified by half-baked economic ideologies indirectly referred to in the above comment.
This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when first he appears as a protector - Plato (423 to 327 BC)
And then they'd go back to starving again.
I heard it said once, and it seems true for the most part when describing populations: People don't starve, people are starved.
They are starved by communism (forced farm collectivation), a kleptocracy that keeps everything to the dictator and his supporters, wars that displace people and ruin crops, or they are purposely starved as part of a program by the rulers to suppress a certain demographic.
Donations of food will only temporarily alleviate the problem. A bomb dropped on the dictator's palace might be money better spent.