Jeddah Tower (Arabic: برج جدة), previously known as Kingdom Tower (برج المملكة) and Mile-High Tower (برج الميل), is a skyscraperunder construction in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, at a preliminary cost of SR4.6 billion (US$1.23 billion).If completed in 2020 as planned, the Jeddah Tower will reach an unprecedented height, becoming the tallest building in the world as well as the first structure to reach the one-kilometre-high mark.The triangular footprint and sloped exterior of Jeddah Tower is designed to reduce wind loads; its high surface area also makes it ideal for residential use. The overall design of the tower, which will be located near both the Red Sea and the mouth of the Obhur Creek (Sharm Ob'hur) where it widens as it meets the Red Sea, as well as having frontage on a man-made waterway and harbor that will be built around it, is intended to look like a desert plant shooting upwards as a symbol of Saudi Arabia's growth and future, as well as to add prominence to Jeddah's status as the gateway into the holy city of Mecca.The designer's vision was "one that represents the new spirit in Saudi Arabia" (Smith).The 23 hectare (57 acre) area around Jeddah Tower will contain public space and a shopping mall, as well as other residential and commercial developments, and be known as the Jeddah Tower Water Front District of which, the tower's site alone will take up 500,000 m2 (5,381,955 sq ft). As with many other very tall skyscrapers, including the Kingdom Centre in Riyadh, which is generally considered to have sparked the recent significant commercial developments around it in the district of Olaya, much of the intention of Jeddah Tower is to be symbolic as well as to raise the surrounding land value rather than its own profitability. To that effect, the tower's architect, Adrian Smith, said that the tower "evokes a bundle of leaves shooting up from the ground–a burst of new life that heralds more growth all around it". Smith states that the tower will create a landmark in which it and the surrounding Jeddah Economic City are interdependent.Talal Al Maiman, a board member of Jeddah Economic Company, said, "Jeddah Tower will be a landmark structure that will greatly increase the value of the hundreds of other properties around it in Jeddah Economic City and indeed throughout North Jeddah." The concept of profitability derived from building high density developments and malls around such a landmark was taken from the Burj Khalifa, where it has proven successful, as its surrounding malls, hotels and condominiums in the area known as Downtown Dubai have generated the most considerable revenue out of that project as a whole, while the Burj Khalifa itself made little or no profit.
It is the centerpiece and the first phase of an SR75 billion (US$20 billion) proposed development known as Jeddah Economic Citythat will be located along the Red Sea on the north side of Jeddah. The development of Jeddah Tower seeks to bring great changes in terms of development and tourism to the city of Jeddah,which is considered the most liberal city in Saudi Arabia.
Initially planned to be 1.6 km (1 mile) high, the geology of the area proved unsuitable for a tower of that height. The design, created by American architect Adrian Smith, who also designed Burj Khalifa, incorporates many unique structural and aesthetic features. The creator and leader of the project is Saudi Arabian prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, the wealthiest man in the Middle East, a grandson of Ibn Saud, and nephew of the Kings of Saudi Arabia before him. Al-Waleed is the chairman of Kingdom Holding Company (KHC),which is a partner in the Jeddah Economic Company (JEC), which was formed in 2009 for the development of Jeddah Tower and City.
Reception of the proposal has been highly polarized; it has received high praise from some as a culturally significant icon that will symbolize the nation's wealth and power, while others question its socioeconomic motives, and forecast that it will have negative financial consequences.
As of 25 January 2018, 60 floors have been completed, and the central core containing elevator shafts and stairwells has reached level 66.
Construction started on 1 April 2013. Piling was completed in December 2013. Above-ground construction commenced in September 2014. As of May 2017, the building has reached the 58th floor and is expected to be completed in 2019.
