Jeddah Tower is back in the race to become the tallest skyscraper in the world, with construction work to resume very soon on the 1km high building.
Developed by the Jeddah Economic Company (JEC), Jeddah Tower was planned as the centrepiece of the US$20 billion Kingdom City development in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. At over 1000 metres in height, the majestic building will tower over the iconic Burj Khalifa by at least 173 metres, and will have a total built-up area of 530,000 square metres.
Image: https://thejeddahtower.org/
Designed by American architects Adrian Smith and Gordon Gill, the mixed-use building with a unique three-petal footprint will house a luxury hotel, office spaces, serviced apartments, luxury condominiums and the world’s highest observatory. Incidentally, Burj Khalifa was also designed by Adrian Smith while working at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill.
Though construction on the tower began in 2013 with Saudi Binladin Group (SBG) appointed as the contractor, the project ran into problems in 2017 when SBG’s president was arrested during the 2017-19 Saudi Arabian purge. With 50 storeys of the planned 252 storeys constructed, work was paused on the prestigious project.
More than five years later, JEC has announced resumption of work, with the developer inviting 14 companies including China State Construction Engineering Corporation, Hyundai Engineering Construction, Samsung C+T, and Skanska among others, to bid for the contract by the end of the year. The bidding companies have been given three months to submit their bids.
SBG will no longer be part of the project, while the architects, Adrian Smith and Gordon Gill, and the engineering consultant, Lebanon’s Dar al-Handasah (Shair & Partners) have been retained.
Image: Jeddah Economic Company
