Concrete Constructed High-Rise Set to Claim New Height Record

Secretive Dubai Developer Hopes to Break Height Record, ENR November 24, 2003, is a brief but interesting description of a 100-plus stories tall high rise set to break ground before the end of the year. The structure is cast-in-place concrete frame with two-way flat plate floor slabs, designed by SOM Chicago. Spiraling, stepped massing is designed to minimize the effects of wind vortices. The structure has a nine-second period, and has sufficient mass that no tensile reinforcing to resist overturning forces is required in the 50-meter (64 foot) deep foundation piles.

When completed in 2008, the tower will reportedly "comfortably" exceed the height of the current tallest tower under construction, the 508-meter (1,667 foot) Taipei 101.

Seperate editorial, Forget the Old-Time Skyscrapers, Skypokers Are Here, mentions other tall buildings in conceptual, design, or construction stage, including the 492 meter (1,615 foot) Shanghai World Financial Center, a 1,620 foot tower in Pusan, South Korea, and a 1,776 foot tower in New York City.