Dubai mega-tower `last hurrah' to age of excess

[marmar]

via Yahoo!:




Dubai mega-tower `last hurrah' to age of excess
By BRIAN MURPHY, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 22 mins ago


DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – When work began in 2004 to build the world's tallest tower, Dubai's confidence also was sky high with a host of mega-projects on the drawing board or rising from the sands.

That swagger seems positively old school these days. It's been tripped up by a debt crunch that has humbled Dubai's leaders and exposed the shaky foundations of the city-state's boom years — leaving the planned Jan. 4 opening of the iconic Burj Dubai with a double significance of hello and goodbye.

It will be both a debutante bash for a new architectural landmark and a farewell toast to Dubai's age of excess.

The Burj Dubai — a steel-and-glass needle rising more than a half-mile (800 meters) — may be the last completed work from Dubai's time of the giants. Most other of the unfinished super-projects announced in recent years, such as a second palm-shaped island or a tower to surpass the Burj Dubai, are either recession roadkill or being considered on a far smaller scale.

If they are still considered at all. ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=post&forum=389

[AndyA]

1. I guess they figure they can't count on $200/barrel oil now.

Oops.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

2. Dubai wants to be the next Singapore

However, they wanted to do in a decade what took Singapore fifty years.

[Snazzy]

3. The binLadin Tower

Saudi bin Ladin Group Construction (etc. etc. and yadda yadda, plc.). Briefly tried to find out earlier if their firm or linked firms ran through the whole project. Looked like circa 2004 their name stopped appearing, but this was their gig. Which was some mighty hubris or chutzpah or something equivalent in Arabic. It seems the family came to their senses and also purchased a lower profile with their giant building.

[Snazzy]

4. oh--bad OP link btw (nt)