4/9/2005: Your tax dollars are at work in Dubai, part 2
There's much more going on in Dubai than the incredible Burj Al Arab, Palms, and World projects. Just across from the Burj is the unique wave-shaped Jumeirah Beach Hotel, which boasts 20 international restaurants, 618 extra-large deluxe rooms, suites, and villas (each with a Gulf view), banquet/conference centers, spa, driving range, tennis, kids' club, and a state-of-the-art water park. hotel website - virtual tour
Go inland a bit and you find Dubai's business center, the skyscraper-lined Sheikh Zayed Road. For now, the tallest buildings are the Emirates Towers, completed in 2000.
Tower One is 56 stories tall and primarily office space. Tower Two is 54 stories and houses the Emirates Towers Hotel. The upper atriums are 364 feet tall. The hotel features 400 luxury rooms and suites, adjoining shopping center, and 15 bars & restaurants - with award-winning chefs, of course. The hotel's web site says don't drink the water. hotel website - virtual tour
The Emirates Towers are currently the 12th and 23rd tallest buildings in the world; the Burj Al Arab is 18th. But plans have been drawn up and the foundation already laid for the Burj Dubai, a tower for homes, offices, shopping centers, and at least one hotel (think SimTower.) The Burj Dubai will take over the #1 spot on the tallest buildings list, topping even those still being built and planned in the Far East. Its state-controlled developer won't say precisely how tall it will be.
If you're still not convinced that Dubai has cornered the world market for catering to the lifestyles of the very rich and even richer, consider that these are just the highlights of the building boom going on there. A new shopping mall, pictured below under construction in March 2005, is being built with a ski slope. And for 2006, the first underwater hotel in the world: a 220-suite, bubble-like luxury hotel that will float just below the waters off the coast of Jumeirah Beach.
Skyscrapers on Sheikh Zayed Road, and more construction sites nearby:
The swanky Emirates Golf Club, and Za'abeel Palace:
More high-rises going up on the marina, and the mall being built with a ski slope:
All of this just begins to scratch the surface, but it gives us something to think about next time we buy a lotto ticket.. or fill up the gas tank.
Download the Keyhole overlay tour to fly over Dubai and check out some of these projects via satellite images, aerial photos, and plan drawings
Aerial photos by Brian McMorrow
