Burj Khalifa, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, is the tallest building in the world. The building has 163 stories and measures 2,716 feet (828 meters) tall. Burj Khalifa was completed in 2010 at a cost of $1.5 billion. At peak activity, its construction involved more than 12,000 workers. The Arabic word burj means tower. Before construction was completed, the building was known as Burj Dubai. It was later renamed after the president of the United Arab Emirates, Khalifa bin Zayid al-Nahyan.
A company called Emaar Properties owns the building. The United States architectural firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill designed it. The skyscraper is clad in panels made of aluminum, stainless steel, and reflective glass. Its design makes use of a series of _setbacks—_that is, staggered, steplike levels. The setbacks give the building the appearance of bundled towers, rather than a single shaft. Burj Khalifa’s overall design is similar to an idea proposed by the famous American architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Wright’s idea, a 1-mile (1.6-kilometer) tall skyscraper called the Illinois, was never built.
Unlike many skyscrapers, Burj Khalifa does not have a steel frame. The building is supported by a core of reinforced concrete that was cast on the site. The concrete structure gives the building an impressive appearance.
Burj Khalifa is a multi-use building. It contains a hotel, apartments, and corporate suites. It also holds a restaurant, communications and broadcasting equipment, and multiple sky lobbies, auxiliary lobbies on upper floors.
