Tuesday 1 December 2009

Burj Al Arab - Happy 10th Brithday!



The implosion of the Chicago Beach Hotel in 1997.
(credit: The National)

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:

Dubai Jazz said...

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?

BuJ said...

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!