Calling all development junkies

[UrbanFuture]

Moderators,

Wasn't sure where to put this, please move as you see fit.

Over the past several years I have lived in Charlotte, I've truly enjoyed hearing and watching new towers rise from the ground. Unfortunately this construction post is not about Charlotte. But it is interesting to compare what we have seen as "boom times" compared to some other places around the world. I got this email from a friend, about some of the stuff going on in Dubai. Most of this has been well known for a while. I can't speak for the dates and sizes being 100% factual, but its still incredible. Most of it also seems monumentally unfriendly to the environment and unsustainable sadly.

"Dubai in 1990

The same street in 2003

Last year

Dubai is said to currently have 7-18% of all the world's cranes.

The Dubai Waterfront. When completed it will become the largest waterfront development in the world.

All of this was built in the last 5 years, including that island that looks like a palm tree. The Palm Islands in Dubai. New Dutch dredging technology was used to create these massive man made islands. They are the largest artificial islands in the world and can be seen from space. Three of these Palms will be made with the last one being the largest of them all. Upon completion, the resort will have 2,000 villas, 40 luxury hotels, shopping centers, movie theaters, and many other facilities. It is expected to support a population of approximately 500,000 people. It is advertised as being visible from the moon.

The World Islands. 300 artificially created islands in the shape of the world. Each island will have an estimated cost of $25-30 million.

The Burj al-Arab hotel in Dubai. The worlds tallest hotel. Considered the only '7 star' hotel and the most luxurious hotel in the world. It stands on an artificial island in the sea.

Hydropolis, the world's first underwater hotel. Entirely built in Germany and then assembled in Dubai, it is scheduled to be completed by 2009 after many delays.

The Burj Dubai. Construction began in 2005 and is expected to be complete by 2008. At an estimated height of over 800 meters, it will easily be world's tallest building when finished. It will be almost 40% taller than the the current tallest building, the Taipei 101.

This is what downtown Dubai will look like around 2008-2009. More than 140 stories of the Burj Dubai have already been completed. It is already the worlds tallest man made structure and it is still not scheduled to be completed for at least another year.

The Al Burj. This will be the centerpiece of the Dubai Waterfront. Once completed it will take over the title of the tallest structure in the world from the Burj Dubai. Recently it was announced that the final height of this tower will be 1200 meters. That would make it more than 30% taller than the Burj Dubai and three times as tall as the Empire State Building.

The Burj al Alam, or The World Tower. Upon completion it will rank as the world's highest hotel. It is expected to be finished by 2009. At 480 meters it will only be 28 meters shorter than the Taipei 101.

The Trump International Hotel & Tower, which will be the centerpiece of one of the palm islands, The Palm Jumeirah

Orginal Dubailand. Currently, the largest amusement park collection in the world is Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, which is also the largest single-site employer in the United states with 58,000 employees. Dubailand will be twice the size.

Dubailand will be built on 3 billion square feet (107 miles^2) at an estimated $20 billion price tag. The site will include a purported 45 mega projects and 200 hundred other smaller projects.

DubaiSports City. A huge collection of sports arenas located in Dubailand.

Currently, the Walt Disney World Resort is the #1 tourist destination in the world. Once fully completed, Dubailand will easily take over that title since it is expected to attract 200,000 visitors daily.

The Dubai Marina is an entirely man made development that will contain over 200 highrise buildings when finished. It will be home to some of the tallest residential structures in the world. The completed first phase of the project is shown. Most of the other high rise buildings will be finished by 2009-2010.

The Dubai Mall will be the largest shopping mall in the world with over 9 million square feet of shopping and around 1000 stores.It will be completed in 2008.

Ski Dubai, which is already open, is the largest indoor skiing facility in the world. This is a rendered image of another future indoor skiing facility that is being planned.

Some of the tallest buildings in the world, such as Ocean Heights and The Princess Tower, which will be the largest residential building in the world at over a 100 stories, will line the Dubai Marina. The UAE Spaceport would be the first spaceport in the world if construction ever gets under way. Some other crazy stuff, The Dubai Metro system, once completed, will become the largest fully automated rail system in the world. The Dubai World Central International Airport will become the largest airport in size when it is completed. It will also eventually become the busiest airport in the world, based on passenger volume. There are more construction workers in Dubai than there are actual citizens."

EDIT: corrected some spelling errors that were in the email.

[jme3]

I don't mean to seem mean-spirited (maybe I do! ) but all of this development just screams, "please look at us; we're not pissants in the middle of nowhere, we're important too"! And in terms of money they certainly have a stockpile of it thanks to our being raped at the gaspumps but no matter how glitzy these things seem, these overnight sensation, skyline-in-a-box developments are just devoid of any real, earned character like the skylines of other cities, most notably New York. I guess the Dubai establishment is not doing anything profoundly illegal but it really bothers me to know that we are funding 1) the elitist establishment in places like Dubai, 2) the elitist establishment at places like Exxon and 3) Al-Qaeda terrorists. End of rant...

[DCMetroRaleigh]

I know there are Ramada Inns in Dubia, but are there any moderate-priced hotels there for tourists that are not wealthy? I so want to visit there.

[mad_park]

who is going to occupy all of that office space?

[DCMetroRaleigh]

Dubai makes Vegas look like Fargo.

[Appetite for Construction]

Where does Dubai get drinking water from?

It also seems like there must be an insane amount of horizontal construction on the ground to put in the infrastructure to support all these towers.

[cltheel.sdl]

^Desalinization plants, I assume.

[Appetite for Construction]

^Desalinization plants, I assume.

[Raintree21]

While you're linking, here's the link to the Dubai thread.

[UrbanFuture]

hmmm i did not look very hard for the appropriate thread it seems...