Burj (برج): A tower. The word is Arabic in origin.
The amazing 7-star hotel, The Burj Al Arab, celebrates 10 years this month! As usual, The National has an excellent article about it. Please have a read here:
http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091201/NATIONAL/711309906/1182/enewsletter
It's really worth reading it! Good work from Leah Oatway.
The architects and engineers for this iconic building that needs no introduction were Atkins. Before Burj Al Arab, I never heard of Atkins, but after seeing their masterpiece being built (I used to drive by the building site everyday), I was very impressed with the company that is one of the world leaders in the engineering field.
Although I've only been inside the Burj Al Arab a few times, I believe that it perfectly manifests Dubai's and the UAE's ambitions to be a world class city and a world class country respectively.
The Burj Al Arab (Hotel) is 321 m high, and the new Burj Dubai (tower) is 818 m high. Even though the newer, taller Burj is much more impressive in terms of numbers, I doubt it will do to Dubai what the Burj Al Arab did and continues to do.
Having said that, I can't wait for the grand opening of Burj Dubai... have they set a date yet? I'm betting on 4 Jan 2010!
2 comments:
Happy Birthday to the Burj!
The first question that came to mind when I heard about the anniversary today was why didn't they make it at the 2ed to coincide with the National Day?
Thanks DJ.. kullak thoq!
I dunno the exact date of opening the Burj Al Arab, but as professionals in the building field we know that there is not one single "finishing" day for a building project.
there are handover days, completion certificate days, soft openings, and official openings (e.g. by a sheikh).
most of these will never happen on the same day!
actually, I was at the university of oxford in the middle of my degree in Dec 1999 when the building was opened!
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