59 elevators and over 157 floors: 1 kilometer skyscraper in Saudi Arabia aims to break world record
**Jeddah Tower: 1 Kilometer Skyscraper Set to Break World Record**
The Jeddah Tower, rising in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, is aiming to become the world’s tallest building. Currently at 430 meters tall, the massive structure is in full swing and is expected to reach a final height of 1 kilometer. That would make it nearly twice as tall as the tallest building in the United States, the 541-meter 1 World Trade Center.
**Project Details and Architectural Wonder**
The Jeddah Tower project was designed by the renowned architectural firm Adrian Smith+Gordon Gill. Architect Adrian Smith previously led the design of the current world’s tallest building, the 828-meter Burj Khalifa. The new skyscraper is planned to have a total of 59 elevators and an interior area of 530,000 square meters. When completed, the tower will have at least 157 floors.
**Engineering Achievements and Construction Technologies**
The Jeddah Tower uses a system of solid walls that are interconnected, eliminating the traditional columns and supporting beams. These walls serve to withstand both wind loads and the building's own weight. The building's foundation is placed 105 meters deep and is reinforced with a 5-meter-thick monolithic concrete slab and 270 drilled foundation piles.
Representatives of the engineering company Thornton Tomasetti say that the Jeddah Tower project is a revolutionary breakthrough in engineering. They managed to solve complex problems such as accurately calculating the wind force at an extremely high altitude, controlling the building's settlement over time, and creating an economical and practical construction system.
**Construction Progress and Future Plans**
The construction of the tower has already reached the 107th floor, according to Saudi Arabia's Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Al Saud, CEO of Kingdom Holding Company. This makes it one of the few buildings in the world to surpass the 100-story mark. According to current plans, the lower floors of the building will house offices, and the upper floors will house a 200-room luxury hotel, serviced apartments, a "sky lobby" and residential apartments. The building will also have several observation decks and helipads.
After work was suspended in 2018, after a seven-year hiatus, construction officially resumed with a new contract worth about $1.9 billion with the Saudi Binladin Group. Currently, about 6,000 workers are working day and night at the construction site. The company reported that no injuries or deaths were recorded in more than 10 million working hours.
As of April, more than 274,000 cubic meters of concrete had been poured into the tower, which is about 61 percent of the total volume. Work is also underway to install the facade and install engineering systems. Construction of Jeddah Tower is expected to be completed around 2028. The main challenge is to not slow down the current pace while bringing the building to a height of 1 kilometer, while maintaining strong winds and a huge height that will make it increasingly difficult to transport materials to the top.