The world's tallest building, the Burj Dubai, is set to open on Monday, as part of an effort by the sheikdom to get past a recent corporate crisis and strengthen its reputation and attraction as a regional and worldwide hub for business. DUBAI: Burj Dubai, anchoring a $20 billion development, is set to open amid a gala of fireworks and a curtain of tight security, The Wall Street Journal reported. The opening coincides with the fourth anniversary of Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, 60, coming to power in Dubai.
The building, with more than 160 floors, is said to stand more than 2,625 feet (800 meters) high but the developer, Emaar Properties, has not yet said how tall the final structure is, media reports say.
The No. 2 office building in the world: Taipei 101 in Taiwan, which is more than 500 meters high. Burj Dubai is also the world's tallest structure, exceeding the height of a TV tower in North Dakota, and tallest free-standing structure, taller than the CN Tower in Toronto.
The Website says the building will have 900 residences on floors 19 through 108. The observation deck is on Floor 124. Sky lobbies on Floors 43, 76 and 123 will have fitness facilities, swimming pools and Jacuzzis. It has a hotel designed by Giorgio Armani.
Media reports say the Burj Dubai -- burj is Arabic for tower -- will have the world's highest mosque, on the 158th floor.
In November, the country, one of seven members of the United Arab Emirates, roiled financial markets with the disclosure that Dubai World, a government-owned conglomerate, was seeking a delay in paying billions of dollars of debt. Dubai turned to neighboring Abu Dhabi for a bailout.
