Kingdom tower

KINGDOM TOWER
A rendered view of the completed Kingdom Tower

Kingdom Tower, is a skyscraper currently under construction in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, at a preliminary cost
of SR4.6 billion (US$1.23 billion). It will be the centrepiece and first phase of a SR75 billion (US$20
billion) proposed development known as Kingdom City that will be located along the Red Sea on the north side
of Jeddah. If completed as planned, the Kingdom Tower will reach unprecedented heights, becoming the tallest
building in the world, as well as the first structure to reach the one-kilometre-high mark. (Initially planned to be
1.6 kilometres (1 mi) high, the geology of the area proved unsuitable for a tower of that height.)
The design, created by American architect Adrian Smith, who also designed Burj Khalifa, incorporates many
unique structural and aesthetic features. The creator and leader of the project is Saudi Arabian Prince Al-
Waleed bin Talal, the wealthiest man in the Middle East, and nephew of the late King Abdullah. Al-Waleed is
the chairman of Kingdom Holding Company (KHC), which is a partner in Jeddah Economic Company (JEC),
which was formed in 2009 for the development of Kingdom Tower and City. Reception of the proposal has
been highly polarized; it has received high praise from some as a culturally significant icon that will symbolize
the nation's wealth and power, while others question its socioeconomic motives, and forecast that it will have
negative financial consequences.
OVERVIEW
The building has been scaled down from its initial 1.6 km (about one mile) proposal, which was never fully
designed, to a height of at least 1,000 metres (3,281 ft) (the exact height is being kept private while in
development, similar to the Burj Khalifa). At about one kilometre, the Kingdom Tower would still be by far
the tallest building or structure in the world to date, standing 180 m (591 ft) taller than the Burj Khalifa
in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Kingdom Tower's 50-hectare (120-acre) plot with surrounding buildings will be the first of a three-phase
Kingdom City development. The three-phase project proposed for a large area of undeveloped waterfront land
with an area of 5.2 km2
(2.0 sq mi). It was originally planned to cover 23 km2
(8.9 sq mi) and cost SR100
billion. The area is located roughly 20 km (12 mi) north of the port city of Jeddah. Kingdom City was designed
by HOK Architects, and is estimated to cost at least SR75 billion (US$20 billion) and take around ten years to
build.

The development will essentially become a new district of Jeddah. The second phase of the project will be
the infrastructure development needed to support the city, and the third phase has not yet been revealed. The
focal point of the development, and Kingdom Tower's primary use, will be to house a Four Seasons hotel, Four
Seasons serviced apartments, Class A office space, and luxury condominiums. The Tower will also have the
world’s highest observatory. Although the Kingdom City plot is nearly isolated from the current urban core of
Jeddah, northward is generally considered the direction in which the city will spread in the future: however, no
land tracts of such size were available closer to the city.
The primary design of Kingdom Tower is Chicago-based architect Adrian Smith of Adrian Smith + Gordon
Gill Architecture (AS + GG), the same architect who designed the Burj Khalifa while he was working for
Skidmore, Owings & Merill (SOM), for which he worked almost 40 years. AS + GG was formed in 2006 by
Adrian Smith, Gordon Gill, and Robert Forest. The development of the tower is being managed by Emaar
Properties PJSC. Thornton Tomasetti has been selected as the structural engineering firm, and Environmental
Systems Design, Inc. (ESD) is a part of the AS + GG design team that serves as the building services
engineering consultants. On 2 August 2011, it was publicly announced by Kingdom Holding, the investment
company, that a contract had been signed by Saudi Binladin Group (SBG), that construction was going to start
soon, and that the tower was expected to take 63 months to complete.
Besix Group (Belgian Six Construct), which constructed the Burj Khalifa, was previously considered for the
contract, but did not win, partially because SBG invested in Jeddah Economic Company (JEC), contributing
SR1.5 billion (US$400 million) towards the development of the project, and holding a 16.6 percent stake in
Jeddah Economic Company. Besix admitted in 2010 that they expected Binladin Group to win the
contract. Jeddah Economic Company is a closed joint stock company (PJSC) formed in 2009 as a financial
entity for Kingdom Tower and City. It is made up primarily of financiers (stakeholders) Kingdom Holding
Company (33.35%), Abrar Holding Company (33.35%), which is owned by Samaual Bakhsh, and businessman
Abdul rahman Hassan Sharbatly (16.67%), as well as the tower's own contractor, Saudi Binladin Group
(16.63%). JEC's assets have a book value of nearly SR9 billion, broken down between a land bank of over
5,300,000 m2
(57,048,725 sq ft) (the Kingdom City plot) with a value of SR7.3 billion that will be used
as collateral to attain bank loans, and SR1.5 billion in cash. Kingdom Holding is an investment
company founded in 1980 and 95% owned by Prince Talal that has assets valued at over $25 billion, with
interests in many major companies such as Walt Disney, Pepsico, Kodak, Apple, Hewlett
Packard, Motorola, Time Warner, Newscorp, Pinnacle Infotech Solutions and Citigroup, as well as real estate in
London through its Songbird Estates division.
GENERAL INFORMATION
STATUS Under Construction
TYPE Mixed –use: Office, hotel, residential, apartments,
observation, retail.
ARCHITECTURAL STYLE Neo-futurism megatall skyscraper
LOCATION Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
CONSTRUCTION STARTED 1 April 2013
ESTIMATED COMPLETION 2018
OPENING 2019
COST SR 4.6 billion ( US $1.23 billion)
OWNER Kingdom Holding Company
Abraar Holding Company
Abdul Rahman Hassan Sharbatly
Saudi Binladin Group
MANAGEMENT CBRE group

HEIGHT
ARCHITECTURAL 1,008 M. ( 3,307 ft )
TOP FLOOR 630 M. (2,067 ft ))
OBSERVATORY 637.5 M. ( 2,092 ft )
TECHNICAL DETAILS
STRUCTURAL SYSTEM Reinforced concrete and steel, all glass façade
FLOOR COUNT 167 ( 2 below ground ) ( 252 including
uninhabitablefloors in the spire)
FLOOR AREA 3,19,000 sq. m.
LIFTS / ELEVATORS 58 ( 54 single deck and 4 double deck )
DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION
ARCHITECT Adrian D. Smith, Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill
Architecture
DEVELOPER Jeddah Economic Company ( JEC )
ENGINEER Langan International
STRUCTURAL ENGINEER Thornton Tomasetti
MAIN CONTRACTOR Saudi Binladen Group
CONSTRUCTION HISTORY
In May 2008, soil testing in the area cast doubt over whether the proposed location could support
a skyscraper of the proposed one mile height, and MEED reported that the project had been scaled back,
making it "up to 500 metres (1,640 ft) shorter."
Reports in 2009 suggested that the project had been put on hold due to the global economic crisis and
that Bechtel (the former engineering firm) was "in the process of ending its involvement with the project."
Kingdom Holding Company quickly criticized the news reports, insisting that the project had not been shelved.
In March 2010, Adrian Smith of Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture (AS + GG) was selected as the
preliminary architect (though they deny involvement in the earlier, mile-high designs). Later, when the proposal
was more serious, they won a design competition between eight leading architectural firms including Kohn
Pedersen Fox, Pickard Chilton, Pelli Clarke Pelli, and Foster + Partners, as well as the firm Smith formerly
worked for, Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, which was the final competitor in the competition before AS + GG
was chosen. In addition to Burj Khalifa, Adrian Smith has designed several other recent supertall towers;
the Zifeng Tower in Nanjing, China, the Trump International Hotel & Tower in Chicago, and the Jin Mao
Tower in Shanghai, as well as the Pearl River Tower in Guangzhou, China. The four buildings are all among
the top eleven tallest in the world. Furthermore, the Pearl River Tower is a unique tower that was originally
designed to use zero net energy by drawing all its needed power from wind,sunlight, and geothermal
mass, though this design goal was not fully achieved.
In October 2010, the owners (Kingdom Holding Company) signed a development agreement with Emaar
Properties PJSC. The final height of the building was questionable, but it was still listed to be over 1 kilometre.
Kingdom Holding said construction was progressing.
In March and April 2011, several news agencies reported that the Mile-High Tower design had been approved
at that height and that the building would cost almost US$30 billion (SR112.5 billion). This design was going to
be drastically larger than the current design, with a floor area of 3,530,316 m2
(38,000,000 sq ft) and would
have utilized futuristic wind aversion and energy producing technology for sustainability. It and the
surrounding City would have had the ability to accommodate 80,000 residents and one million

visitors, according to RIA Novosti. Many things were rumored about the mile-high designs, such as that it
would be so high the top would freeze at night, helicopters would be used for construction, parachutes would be
part of the fire escape plan, and that an elevator ride to the top would take 12 minutes (multiple transfers would
be required) in a typical elevator and five minutes in a high-speed elevator. Adrian Smith denied that he was a
part of any of the earlier designs, which had been purported in the media. One source even corrected its article
and clarified the misunderstanding.
In early August 2011, the Binladin Group was chosen as the main construction contractor with the signing of a
SR4.6 billion (US$1.23 billion) contract, which is less than it cost to build the Burj Khalifa (US$1.5
billion). New renderings were revealed and on 2 August it was widely reported that the project was a go at the
1,000 m (3,281 ft) height with a building area of 530,000 square metres (5,704,873 sq ft), and will take 63
months to complete. Announcement of the main construction contract signing caused Kingdom Holding
Company's stock to jump 3.2% in one day, in addition to KHC already having reported a 21% rise in second
quarter net profit. Also, for the first time, architects Gordon Gill and Adrian Smith officially announced their
involvement in the project.
The schematic design of the landscape of the Kingdom Tower
On 13 August 2012, it was announced that the landscaping contract for the Kingdom Tower was to be awarded
to Landtech Designs, a US based company, who will be responsible for irrigating 34,000 square metres (8.5
acres) of green space by utilizing the latest technology in sustainable irrigation. The supply of water to irrigate
the green space would be collected through rainwater. On 21 September 2012 it was announced that financing
for the Kingdom Tower was complete. Talal Al Maiman, chief executive officer and managing director of
Kingdom Real Estate Development Co. said in an interview "We have all the investors, all the finance, all the

money we need," Al Maiman said. "It took us beyond 20 months to convince investors, working every detail
and aspect of financing."
On 10 October 2012, Kingdom Holding awarded contracts totaling $98 million. Kingdom Holding Co. has
signed a deal with Subul Development Company for the sale of land in the Kingdom Riyadh Land project for
$66.5 million. The Kingdom Riyadh Land project, a mixed-use commercial and residential development, will
generate more than $5.33 billion of total investment and will house up to 75,000 people. The final master plan
contract was awarded to Omrania & Associates and Barton Willmore. Bauer, a German Foundations equipment
manufacturer and contractor was awarded a US$32 million contract to support the initial phases of construction
of the Kingdom Tower. This includes the installation of 270 bored piles with diameters of 1.5 meters and 1.8
meters. The enabling works are expected to begin before the end of 2012 and take about 10 months to
complete.
On 21 February 2013, the Jeddah Economic Company (JEC) announced that it had appointed an EC
Harris/Mace joint venture team to project manage the iconic Kingdom Tower project. The team will be
providing project, commercial and design management for the Kingdom Tower development. CEO of JEC,
Waleed Abduljaleel Batterjee said that the reason Mace was hired is to use the same team that worked for The
Shard in London. On the other hand, EC Harris also has a long list of projects in the region including the Grand
Millenium Al-Wahda Hotel, Abu Dhabi’s largest hotel complex.
On 29 April 2013 news was reported that the Saudi Water Company had signed a 2.2 billion-riyal ($587
million) supply deal with Jeddah Economic Co. for the Kingdom tower project. The 25-year agreement to
supply 156,000 cubic meters of treated and drinking water a day, enough for 62 Olympic-size pools, was signed
by the chief executive of the Jeddah-based developer, Waleed Batraji, and Loay al-Musallam, head of National
Water Company.
Construction started on April 1, 2013.Piling was completed in December 2013. Above-ground construction
commenced in September 2014. As of May 2015 the building stands at 75m tall with the building expected to
be completed in November 2019.
DESIGN
The triangular footprint and sloped exterior of Kingdom Tower is designed to reduce wind loads; its high
surface area also makes it ideal for residential units. The overall design of the tower, which will be located near
both the Red Sea and the mouth of the Obhur Creek (Sharm Ob'hur) where it widens as it meets the Red Sea, as
well as having frontage on a man-made waterway and harbor that will be built around it, is intended to look like
a desert plant shooting upwards as a symbol of Saudi Arabia's growth and future, as well as to add prominence
to Jeddah's status as the gateway into the holy city of Mecca. The designer's vision was “one that represents the
new spirit in Saudi Arabia" (Smith). The 23 hectare (57 acre) area around Kingdom Tower will contain public
space and a shopping mall, as well as other residential and commercial developments, and be known as the
Kingdom Tower Water Front District, of which, the tower's site alone will take up
500,000 m2
(5,381,955 sq ft).
As with many other very tall skyscrapers, including the Kingdom Centre in Riyadh, which is generally
considered to have sparked the recent significant commercial developments around it in the district
of Olaya, much of the intention of Kingdom Tower is to be symbolic as well as to raise the surrounding land
value rather than its own profitability. To that effect, the tower's architect, Adrian Smith, said that the tower
"evokes a bundle of leaves shooting up from the ground–a burst of new life that heralds more growth all around
it". Smith states that the tower will create a landmark in which it and the surrounding Kingdom City are
interdependent. Talal Al Maiman, a board member of Jeddah Economic Company, said, “Kingdom Tower will
be a landmark structure that will greatly increase the value of the hundreds of other properties around it in

Kingdom City and indeed throughout North Jeddah.” The concept of profitability derived from building high
density developments and malls around such a landmark was taken from the Burj Khalifa, where it has proven
successful, as its surrounding malls, hotels and condominiums in the area known as Downtown Dubai have
generated the most considerable revenue out of that project as a whole, while the Burj Khalifa itself made little
or no profit.

Detailed rendering of Kingdom Tower cut out to show floors
The building will have a total of 59 elevators, five
of which will be double-deck elevators, as well as
12 escalators. It will also have the highest
observation deck in the world, to which high
speed elevators will travel at up to 10 metres
(33 feet) per second (slightly over 35 km/h
(22 mph)) in both directions. The elevators cannot
go faster because the rapid change in air pressure
over that much distance would be nauseating; at
914 m (3,000 ft), the air pressure is over 10 kPa
(1.5 psi) lower than at ground level (about 10%
less air pressure). They must also be efficient so
the cables are not unbearably heavy. Kingdom
Tower will have three sky lobbies where elevator
transfers can be made, and no elevator will go
from the bottom to the highest occupied floor.
No official floor count has been given, however
Smith stated in a television interview that it will
be about 50 floors more than the Burj Khalifa,
which has 163 occupied floors, leading to the
inference that Kingdom Tower will have over
200 floors. The tower will also feature a large,
roughly 30 m (98 ft) diameter outdoor balcony,
known as the sky terrace, on one side of the
building for private use by the penthouse floor at
level 157; it is not the observation deck. It was
originally intended to be a helipad, but it was
revealed to be an unsuitable landing environment
by helicopter pilots. The building's large notches
will also serve as shaded terraces for other areas
of the tower and the exterior of the building will
use low-conductivity glass to save on cooling
costs by reducing thermal loads.
In addition, the lower air density, exacerbated by
the thin desert atmosphere, will cause the outdoor
air temperature towards the top of the tower to be
lower than the ground level air, which will
provide natural cooling. There is also
significantly more air flow (wind) at heights,
which is very strong at one kilometre and had a
large impact on the structural design of the tower.
The Burj Khalifa actually takes in the cooler,
cleaner air from the top floors and uses it to air
condition the building. Kingdom Tower will be
oriented such that no façade directly faces the
sun; it will also use the condensate water from the
air conditioning system for irrigation and other
purposes throughout the building.

A rendering showing the bottom of the unique, glass-floored, circular sky terrace that will overlook the Red Sea
from over 610 M. (2,000 ft.).
Chicago-based Environmental Systems Design, Inc. will provide mechanical, plumbing, electrical and fire
protection engineering, as well as teledata, audio/visual, security systems and acoustics. Langan International
will be responsible for geotechnical engineering as well as some ground level site work such as transportation
engineering and parking, including the design of the proposed 3,000–4,700 car underground parking garage that
will be located near, but not under the tower for terrorism reasons.
Langan also designed the tower's foundation, which has to be able to support the tower despite the less than
optimal subsurface conditions, such as soft rock and permeable coral, which could cause the piles to
settle. Thornton Tomasetti has provided the structural engineering for two of the previous world's tallest
building title holders, the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, and the Taipei 101 in Taiwan, as well as the under
construction Ping An Finance Centre in Shenzhen, which will be the tallest building in China after completion.
Saudi Binladin Group is the largest construction firm in the Middle East, with over 35,000 workers and
hundreds of projects. They recently constructed the topped-out 601 m (1,972 ft) Abraj Al-Bait Clock Tower in
Mecca, which is the tallest building in Saudi Arabia and second tallest in the world, as well as the largest
skyscraper in the world by floor area and volume. Aside from buildings, the firm has also constructed many
major infrastructure projects, such as the King Abdulaziz (Jeddah) International Airport expansion and the
775 km (482 mi) six lane Al Qassim Expressway through Saudi Arabia. Saudi Binladin Group is owned by the
family of the late al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. Nonetheless, it has sparked some minor media buzz.
When asked his thoughts about this in an interview, Adrian Smith simply stated that they are the largest
construction firm in the Middle East, most significant work in Saudi Arabia was done by them, and that it is a
very large family that shouldn't be stereotyped by one of its members. Furthermore, in January 2012, New York
City judge George B. Daniels ruled that no charges could be filed against SBG to repay the victims of 9/11 as
there is no evidence of the construction firm financially supporting bin Laden after he was removed as a
shareholder following the1993 World Trade Center bombing.

The large, outdoor sky terrace will look overlook the Red Sea and have an area of over 697 Sq. M.
Additionally, a very large core size is required in very tall buildings to support the structure as well as to house
the large number of elevators needed. The core size consumes a significant amount of the space on the lower
and middle floors. One of the ways Kingdom Tower attempts to overcome these issues is with its smooth,
sloped-exterior design, which, although more expensive to build, offers superior aerodynamic performance over
"stepped" designs such as the Burj Khalifa, allowing it to have a more conservative core overall. This was
determined by wind tunnel tests performed at Burj Khalifa. Kingdom Tower will also utilize copious stiffening
materials to prevent the excessive sway that would otherwise make the occupants of upper floors nauseated on
windy days, including very high strength concrete that will be up to several metres thick in certain parts of the
core. This, along with the highly integrated steel frame and shear walls, is also intended to prevent catastrophic
failure of the structure in the event of a terrorist attack. Traditionally, the space consumed by elevators was
considered to make a building become increasingly less profitable past 80 floors or so. More recently, it has
been the advent of truly mixed-use design such as Shanghai Tower and Burj Khalifa, as well as improved
building technology, that have outdated this rule of thumb, which generally applied to single use buildings.
Both towers share a similar three-petal triangular footprint for stability and a tapering form, with sheer height
and wind being the biggest structural design challenge. The smooth, sloped façade of Kingdom Tower
particularly induces a beneficial phenomenon known as "wind vortex shedding," whereas normally when wind
swirls around the leeward side of a building, rushing in from both sides to fill the low pressure zone, it would
create tornado-like vortices, which would rock the building from side to side due to variations in pressure,
In addition to its primary functions, the building
is slated to include a significant amount of retail
as well as a wide variety of other unique
ammentities with the intention that it functions
as a nearly self-sustaining entity, approaching
the concept of a "vertical city". The building's
design has been applauded as simplistic and
buildable, yet bold, brilliantly sculpted, and
high-tech, with AS + GG describing it as "an
elegant, cost-efficient and highly constructible
design." The estimated construction cost of
US$1.23 billion, which is less than that of the
Burj Khalifa (US$1.5 billion), can be attributed
to cheap labor in the Middle East, particularly
Saudi Arabia, and that three shifts will work
around the clock to expedite the process.
Construction costs have also declined since the
global financial crisis.
Sustainability of such a tall building would
include issues such as vertical transportation
limitations, with elevators only being able to go
so far, building sway, caused by wind, and super
column settling, which occurs because concrete
tends to shrink as it hydrates and settles under
load, whereas steel is dimensionally stable,
thereby causing the floors to become unlevel.

direction, and velocity, the dynamic façade of Kingdom Tower creates an infinite timing differential (whereas
Burj Khalifa is limited by the number of steps) in air pressure exertion in any one particular direction, thus
creating a more stable structure, as there is no broad area of outstanding pressure or depression at any given
time. Put simply, a smooth taper is more aerodynamic than an irregular or jagged taper, while both are
advantageous over rectangular geometries. At Kingdom Tower's height, it is considered essentially unfeasible
to use a traditional square design.
To overcome elevator issues, the tower will use its large number of efficient elevators as well as its three sky
lobbies, which allows transfers to be made between elevators serving a specific area with no elevator being
overburdened. Much was learned from Burj Khalifa that helped with the design of Kingdom Tower not only
structurally, but in methods for designing practical mechanical, electrical, and plumbing (MEP) systems, as
well as adhering to local regulations and international building codes. Despite all the physical challenges,
Adrian Smith states that practicality is still the greater challenge over structural durability, even in such super-
tall designs, and that as with all buildings, Kingdom Tower's form was primarily derived respective of what the
building's uses would be, then in accordance with the structural factors that would have to be considered to
deliver it.
IMPACT
There is an impending real estate boom in Saudi Arabia, with increasing demand and rising prices due to high
population growth and a short supply of housing, which may include a demand for high-end luxury units, such
as those in Kingdom Tower. To boost growth, the Saudi Arabian government is going to invest US$67 billion
(SR251 billion) in building 500,000 homes throughout the country. According to Saudi officials, about 900 new
homes are needed a day to meet the demand of the rapidly growing population, which has nearly quadrupled in
the past four decades. Kingdom Tower is also an attempt to diversify Saudi Arabia's economy, which, holding a
quarter of the world's oil reserves and being one of the founding OPEC nations, is currently largely dependent
on its crude oil exportation, which accounts for nearly 75% of government revenues and 90% of exports. This
generates enough income to support Saudi Arabia as a welfare state, which spends billions of dollars on job
creation and housing for its lower income residents.
Just as the Kingdom Tower will complement the Kingdom City development that will be built around it, there
are many infrastructure and revitalization projects underway and planned throughout Saudi Arabia, such as the
US$7.2 billion (SR27.1 billion) new airport terminal under construction at King Abdulaziz (Jeddah)
International Airport, that will complement the Kingdom City as well as develop Saudi Arabia, which has been
likened to a Third World country with crumbling infrastructure and widespread disasters, including severe
flooding, such as the flash floods in early 2011 that damaged 90% of the roads and over 27,000 buildings in
Jeddah. According to a representative of Standard Chartered, which invested US$75 million in Saudi Binladin
Group, Saudi Arabia is going to spend over US$400 billion (SR1.5 trillion) on infrastructure over the next few
years. According to reports by Citi Investment Research & Analysis, $220 billion worth of development,
accounting for 36% of all construction spending in the MENA region, will be directly or indirectly beneficial to
Kingdom Tower. Kingdom Tower and City themselves are intended to set an example of green development,
using modern technology and having a low carbon footprint relative to the number of people they will
support. However, there is also an increasing problem of poor education levels in Arab countries due to a lack
of spending in research and education, which it is argued should be invested in rather than building
skyscrapers, and that the tower is nothing more than a symbol of hubris. It has even been likened to the Tower
of Babel.
Furthermore, economists have found large new skyscrapers to be a negative economic indicator, with several
incidences of new tallest buildings being finished and opening into a bad economy, as they generally start
during a financial boom when money is easy and investment is strong, but do not finish until the bubble has

burst. Examples include the Singer Building and Metropolitan Life Insurance Building after the Panic of
1907, 40 Wall Street, the Chrysler Building and the Empire State Building built during theGreat Depression,
the World Trade Center and Sears Tower built during the 1970s economic downturn, the Petronas Towers built
during the Asian Crisis of the late 1990s, and the Burj Khalifa built during the late-2000s recession. Much of
the study on this phenomenon was done in 1999 by Andrew Lawrence, a research director at Deutsche Bank
who created the "skyscraper index," originally as a joke, however illustrated the observation that many of the
world's tallest buildings have been built on the eve of financial collapse.
RECEPTION
The developers' theory is that the international attention gained through large developments and having the
world's tallest building will incur gentrification of the country and even be a financial success in the long run.
Rory Olcayto, deputy editor of The Architects’ Journal, said “The race to build the highest skyscraper is quite
futile – where do you stop? These buildings are a symbol of an old-fashioned way of thinking,” while architect
Adrian Smith states, "...this tower symbolizes the Kingdom as an important global business and cultural leader,
and demonstrates the strength and creative vision of its people. It represents new growth and high-performance
technology fused into one powerful iconic form”. However, Bob Sinn, principal engineer at Thornton
Tomasetti, stated that the practical challenges of building super tall buildings are greater than the structural
challenges.
“We intend Kingdom Tower to become both an economic engine and a proud symbol of the Kingdom’s
economic and cultural stature in the world community,” said Talal Al Maiman, a board member of both
Kingdom Holding Company and Jeddah Economic Company. He continued, "We envision Kingdom Tower as
a new iconic marker of Jeddah’s historic importance as the traditional gateway to the holy city of Mecca." The
project's primary proponent, Prince Al-Waleed said, "Building this tower in Jeddah sends a financial and
economic message that should not be ignored. It has a political depth to it to tell the world that we Saudis invest
in our country."
When Alain Robert, also known as the French Spiderman, was expressing his willingness to climb Kingdom
Tower after it is complete if he is given official approval, despite the fact that he will be well into his fifties, and
heard that it may be up to 1,600 meters, he said, "That doesn’t make much sense,” but that if the height is 1,000
meters then it will be achievable.
CONSTRUCTION
While the official construction estimate is five years and three months (63 months), others calculate that it will
take significantly longer, over seven years, based on the duration of Burj Khalifa's construction, which was over
six years (with the help of CQC Department).
Geotechnical investigation (soil testing) took place in 2008. Work on the foundation was scheduled to begin
towards the end of 2012. However, statements that construction will begin soon have been made since 2008,
but have been postponed each time. In August 2011, the start of construction was slated as "no later than
December," with some saying "immediately," and that construction is imminent. This meant the tower was
expected to be completed in 2017, though at that time it was also possible that it could still have been
completed by the date the media continued to publish, which was the prior estimate of late 2016. Only if
construction had begun promptly and went smoothly could a late 2016 completion be achieved.
Designs for the foundation were in place by early August 2011 and the contract for the piling was being
tendered. On 16 August 2011, Langan International officially announced their involvement and that the
foundation and piling had to be uniquely designed to overcome subsurface issues such as
soft bedrock and porous coral rock, which normally could not support a skyscraper without settling. The

foundation will be similar to that of the Burj Khalifa, but larger. It is expected to be around 60 metres (197 ft)
deep with a concrete pad of around 7,500 m2
(80,729 sq ft). The concrete will have to have low permeability to
keep out corrosive salt water from the Red Sea. Its depth and size is also considered to be an indicator of what
the tower's final height will be. The piles will be up to 200 metres (656 ft) deep and the pad over 90 metres
(295 ft) across, yet even still the building, which will weigh over 900,000 tons, is expected to settle. The idea is
that it settles evenly enough so that the building doesn't tip or put undue stress on the superstructure. Computer
modeling programs performed tests at the site to confirm that the foundation design would work. A later design
for the foundation, to be constructed by Bauer in 2013, calls for 270 bored piles up to 110 metres (361 ft) deep
which have to be installed into the difficult ground conditions. Some materials needed for the structure are
500,000 cubic meters of concrete and 80,000 tons of steel.
Construction of the building will rely on cutting-edge technology, including the high-strength reinforced
concrete and the pumps used to elevate it to record heights, similar to what was used during Burj Khalifa's
construction. Bob Sinn, principal of Thornton Tomasetti states, “Concrete quality is getting better and better, as
is pumping technology. There have been very strong advances in reinforced concrete over the last 20 years." He
continued, “Kingdom Tower is certainly feasible. It’s not a structural challenge.”

10 FACTS ABOUT THE KINGDOM TOWER, THE SOON-TO-BE TALLEST
BUILDING IN THE WORLD
Construction is set to begin on the soon-to-be-tallest building in the world: The Kingdom Tower in Jeddah,
Saudia Arabia, will stand 3,280 feet, and was designed by Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture of
Chicago. It is part of the larger development, Kingdom City, and will be the first structure in the world to reach
the one-kilometer-high mark (the original design was to be one-mile-high (1.6 km), but the geology of the area
was not suitable for that height).
The project comes with a (literally) high-minded
pedigree: Adrian Smith designed Burj Khalifa
while at Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill. And like
the Burj Khalifa, the final height of the project is
undisclosed. This recalls the height wars in New
York City in the last century, when the top of the
Chrysler Building was kept hidden until its final
debut, in order to beat out the Manhattan Trust
Building. Height wars aside, we've gathered some
top pieces of trivia that illustrate why the
Kingdom Tower is truly awe-inspiring, and more
than just a big building:

1. The tower will be home to the world’s highest observatory. It will also have a separate, 98-foot-diameter
outdoor balcony, which was originally intended to be a helipad.
2. The building is so big they are unable to show it realistically in one rendering. Only elevations and birds-eye
views can contain the entire project.
3. The foundation piles are about as large as a small room at 10 feet in diameter, and can reach up to 360 feet in
length.
4. Its shape is functional. The narrowing silhouette has to fight wind as well as gravity, so the three-sided shard
is designed to be aerodynamic. The taper also helps maximize usable/rentable area. It offsets the large core size
on the lower floors by widening the base, while the shape also narrows the core overall, making it less space-
consuming at the top.
5. Its form is interesting for a tower of its size. The "three petal" plan allows separate extrusions to nudge
against one another, while the profile is inspired by folded fronds of young desert plant growth. Gill-like
indentations add another scale of visual intrigue.
6. It's on a plinth! But joking aside, the building does meet the ground in a nuanced, thoughtful way.
Transportation routes crisscross around it, and the plinth melds it with its urban surroundings.
7. It has 59 elevators and 12 escalators, and five of these elevators will be double decker. The lifts will not
reach the speeds of normal elevators, as the change in air pressure at those altitudes would cause nausea. Three
sky lobbies will prevent any one elevator from having to go all the way to the top, eliminating the need for
excessively huge cables.
8. It has high-tech features. A high-performance exterior wall system, including low-conductivity glass, will
minimize energy consumption by reducing thermal loads.

9. There are super-cool patios all along its three sides. Each side features a series of shaded notches where
outdoor terraces offer extreme views of Jeddah and the Red Sea.
10. The massive structure will contain 80,000 tons of steel. Parts of the core will contain concrete that is several
meters thick.

Kingdom tower

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