Envisioned as the tallest structure in the world and the
flagship building for the Downtown Dubai development,
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill was selected to carry out the
architecture and engineering of the Burj Khalifa project,
and gave Adrian D. Smith the role of the chief architect.
In 2003 Adrian said “Burj Khalifa is an interesting project
because there is very little context for a building of this
height to draw from in Dubai. The city has a heritage similar
to Bahrain – it’s a historic Middle Eastern trading port with
lots of desert and the same water conditions, but here I am
trying to connect on a more organic level.”.
The structure is all reinforced concrete below the spire.
The spire above the observation floors are steel. Architecturally,
the building is transition from a solid base expression to
a vertically expressed middle section of polished stainless
steel projected metal fins and glass. Adrian wanted to use only
vertical elements here because the fine dust in Dubai’s air
would build up on any horizontal projecting elements.
They have sandstorms quite frequently so in order to reduce
maintenance costs the tower has virtually no horizontal ledges.