From the father-in-law comes a story from the New Yorker about Dubai's Burj Khalifa: "Castle in the Air".

Labels: Burj Khalifa, Dubai, New Yorker

Waaay back in 2007 (remember the Aughts, kiddos?) I talked about Frenchman Alain Robert (known, much to Marvel Comics' chagrin, as "Spiderman") when he climbed the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority tower with his bare hands (see Spiderman in Abu Dhabi).

Well now it looks like to climb Dubai's Burj Khalifa: "French 'spiderman' eyes Dubai's Burj Khalifa tower: report".

Oh, I'm sure they'll love that.

Labels: Alain Robert, Burj Khalifa, Dubai, Marvel Comics

Hmm, so does this mean they'll rename the "Burj Khalifa" back to the "Burj Dubai"?

"Abu Dhabi's Dubai Aid Shrinks to $5 Bln".

Labels: Abu Dhabi, Burj Khalifa, Dubai

Oh. My. God.

"14 visitors trapped in Burj Khalifa elevator".

Labels: Burj Khalifa, Dubai, elevator, fail

Yesterday the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, opened in Dubai. If you paid any attention to any media in the last twenty-four hours you saw something about it.

Back in my time in Dubai (Dubai photo gallery) I took a few photos of the mid-construction Burj. Here's one of my favorites:


Here's a rendering of what it would look like complete (obviously I've been home for a year and a half and don't have a good shot of the final tower):


When I returned home to Maine, I always wondered how the Burj would look in a city I'm familiar with. Drop the world's tallest building in Portland, you know?

Somewhere around then my father reminded me that the WGME Tower in Raymond was the world's tallest architectural structure back when he was a kid. How my grandfather used to eat lunch and watch the Navajo construction workers on the tip top (1,624 feet in the air) and how he was amazed and a little scared - heights are not the friend of the Edwards men.

So I got thinking - what if the world's tallest building was in Raymond, how would it stack up?

The Burj is 2,717 feet, so a thousand feet taller than the WGME tower. I didn't have any good photos of the tower (how does one get a good shot of an antenna?) but I did have a few shots of Portland and Boston, Mass.

So this is what it'd look like to plunk the Burj Khalifa in the middle of New England:

A good sight taller than the Pru

Towering over Portland's Back Bay

Labels: Boston, Burj Khalifa, Dubai, Portland

Wha?!

Breaking news from the AP: "Dubai renames world's tallest tower Burj Khalifa".

That's as in Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan the ruler of Abu Dhabi and President of the United Arab Emirates.

Huh.

After the bailout I guess moving it the 75 miles down the street was just too difficult ....

Labels: Burj Khalifa, Dubai