Khalifa Tower Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Khalifa Tower - Essay Example Its construction kicked off in 2004 and took around 7 years to complete. It is without a doubt earth’s tallest freestanding structure, overtaking the Great Pyramid of Giza. The basic ideology of building the Khalifa Tower is to make it the basic centerpiece structure of the world. Its grandeur is such that people want to throng it for all the right reasons. Its majesty attracts people from around the world and they want to have a snap with it to show off to their friends and family members (Author Unknown, 2011). The Khalifa Tower is a phenomenon in its own right. The government of the United Arab Emirates wanted to make the Khalifa Tower one of the best known names in the world and hence the reason that Khalifa Tower came into being. The vision is to diversify from an oil based economy to more of a service and tourism based one. International recognition and that too in a positive vein is one of the most basic ideologies why Khalifa Tower is in place at the present. The polit ical impact for Dubai was such that before Khalifa Tower came into being, the city still enjoyed recognition for all the positive elements that comprised within it. The rulers played their role at telling the world how well Dubai can serve them, and thus trade and investment came in huge numbers. The responsibility lied on the shoulders of the ruler of United Arab Emirates who wanted to make Dubai one of the finest and most elegant destinations within the Middle East. The economic impact before the launching of Khalifa Tower was that the country was receiving economic upheaval; however, with the advent of the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, Dubai was hit badly. With help and facilitation from the relevant quarters, and most specifically from the Government of the land, Dubai was able to sustain itself. This made the task even easier for Khalifa Tower to follow within the midst of Dubai (Author Unknown, 2010). The social impact before the foundation stone of Khalifa Tower was put into place, in 2004, was such that the people enjoyed places like Burj Dubai, Dubai Mall, Ibn-e-Batuta and others. Hence, the Khalifa Tower was a totally new marvel for them since they could see it with their own eyes as the tallest free standing structure in the world. People were still proud of the city that resided within and with the institution of the Khalifa Tower, their pride became even higher. The technological impact before was such that Dubai was considered as one of the most wired cities around the globe. Also its technological prowess was something to write home about (Knight, 2010). This increased with the Khalifa Tower coming into full effect, and it became a serious reality after investors opened their arms in unison with the launch of the project, was back in 2004. The importance of Khalifa Tower to Dubai is that it has become a symbol of excellence. This is because it is a huge engineering and architectural marvel. The building closely resembles the bundled tube form of the Willis Tower (Albert, 2011). However, it is not a bundle tube structure in entirety. In the early planning phases of the Khalifa Tower, it was supposed to be entirely residential but with the passage of time, its commercial role was also projected more and more. Emaar Properties chose Hyder Consulting as the supervising engineer and NORR Group Consultants International Limited was chosen as the ones who