Dubai to Build the World's Tallest Tower...Again

Jordi Lippe-McGraw
Updated
The city goes after its next world record.

A new world record is about to be set as developers announced plans to build a new tower in Dubai that will overtake the world’s current tallest building, the Burj Khalifa. Emaar Properties has not revealed the height of the new tower, but said it will be "a notch" taller than 2,717 feet (the current record).

The new building, which is expected to cost $1 billion, is scheduled to open in 2020—in time for the Dubai Expo trade fair. Its plans include residential units, shops, restaurants, a rooftop garden, and a hotel. It will be designed by Spanish-Swiss futuristic architect Santiago Calatrava Valls, and will feature a series of cables to help support it.

Though the impressive project has yet to start, it’s already facing tough competition. The 3,280–foot Jeddah Tower in Saudi Arabia is also slated to be completed in 2020, and earlier this year two New York-based architecture firms proposed a 5,577-foot high Sky Mile Tower in Tokyo.