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The Burj Al Arab, A Glass And Steel Skyscraper

Decent Essays

The Burj Al Arab, a glass and steel skyscraper (Ingersoll 2013, 935), was developed during a time period of rapid expansion in the United Arab Emirates, and in Dubai (Bagaeen 2007, 173-197), and was completed in 1999 (Welch 2014) by the Jumeirah International Group, Architect Tom Wright (McBride 2000, 118), and the Atkins Company (Ingersoll 2013, 935). The Burj Khalifa is 160 stories or 630 meters tall (Ingersoll 2013, 937). The Burj Khalifa is the tallest artificial structure in the world. It is a mixed-use tower that primarily houses office and residential space (Baker 2010, 46), the tip reaches 828 meters (Alfred 2010, 66), and the Burj Khalifa was inaugurated January 4, 2010 (Baker 2010, 46). Like the Burj Al Arab, the Burj Khalifa was designed by a western architect, Adrian Smith, and the architecture firm, Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill (Ingersoll 2013, 937). In this industrial age of mega development, in the nondemocratic United Arab Emirates, mega projects are hastily and irresponsibly built with little consideration of their regional negative impacts or sustainability. In the United Arab Emirates, and in lesser developed countries around the world, their primitive political structures have many holes which are exploited by the few with power.
Before finding oil, the United Arab Emirates was a poor nation and their economy relied heavily on fishing and a declining pearl industry (BBC, 2015). After offshore petroleum was discovered in 1966, the oil industry’s

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