Formerly known as Burj Dubai (translated into "The Tower of Dubai"), the world's tallest building in Dubai was re-named as Burj Khalifa in the wake of the new year in January 2010. This name change came just days before the grand opening of the world's tallest skyscraper which sits in the heart of the "New Dubai Downtown".
This name change just before the opening of the building on January 4th 2010, comes amidst a deep economic swamp in the State of Dubai. In fact, things got so bad for the indebted sovereign fund of Dubai that it nearly went bankrupt in December 2009 but neighboring Abu Dhabi stepped in bailed out the city. Some say that this led to the change in the building's name from Burj Dubai to Burj Khalifa. The new name honors Abu Dhabi's ruler Khalifa bin Zayed.
Burj Khalifa itself is made up of high-class residential apartments (residences), the luxurious Armani Hotel, four magnificent pools, high-tech office space, an exclusive residents' lounge and an elite cigar club, not to mention state-of-the-art fitness amenities for its residents and an observatory.
Some remarkable facts about Burj Khalia, the world's tallest building:
The highest residential floor is on the 109th floor with the observation deck at the 124th floor.
The world's tallest skyscraper uses double-decker elevators to present a futuristic look
Artistically designed to withstand Dubai's towering temperatures in the hot summers, the exterior fascia contains 22,000 cladding panels made of a reflective glazing, engrained with numerous stainless steel tubular upright fins and aluminum and textured stainless steel spandrel panels
At 828m, the building is taller than the Sugar Loaf Mountain in Rio de Janerio (396m) and the Victoria Peak Mountain in Hong Kong (552m)
The antenna height of Burj Khaliafa is 828m (2717ft) and it cost $1.5 billion to build
Interestingly, the next tallest building is the world, the Taipei 101, with an antenna height of just 509.2m (1670.6ft) cost $1.76 billion.
Burj Khalifa has 160 habitable floors versus the Taipei 101 which has 101 habitable floors.
It has a floor area of 334,000 m2 (3,595,100 sq ft) while the Taipei 101 has a floor area of 412,500 m2 (4,440,100 sq ft)
Burj Khalifa can only hold the title of "the world's tallest building" for so long. In 2014, China is expected to complete the construction of the Shanghai Tower. The final and official height for the Shanghai Tower has not yet been released though it is predicted to be at least 2,000 feet and the builders are looking to increase it to get the title of the world's tallest building.
Burj Khalifa is often mistaken for Burj Al Arab, which is actually a hotel with 202 suites and is rated as a 7-star hotel. Nightly rates range from $2,000 a night to over $30,000 a night making Burj Al Arab one of the most expensive hotels in the world.
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