Inspiration

Iraq and Saudi Arabia Race to Build World's Tallest Building

Watch out, Dubai: The race for world’s tallest building is on.
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Courtesy AMBS Architects

Dubai may be everyone’s first thought when it comes to the world’s biggest and most extravagant in just about every category, but competition is cropping up left and right. In fact, it’s cropping up directly to the left, in Saudi Arabia, where developers have secured funding for a new mega-skyscraper dubbed the Jeddah Tower. Projected to tower 500 feet over the famed Burj Khalifa skyscraper in Dubai, the building will stand at 200 stories, two and a half times the size of New York’s Empire State Building.

Construction is already underway for the Jeddah Tower, which is currently just 26 stories tall, and the building is expected to be complete by 2020. Plans for a Four Seasons hotel, Four Seasons apartments, condos, office space, and the world’s highest observatory are already underway.

Hours before the Jeddah Tower developers announced their 2.2 billion real estate deal, news circulated of an even taller tower, this time in Iraq, a relatively new entrant to the over-the-top design world. Architecture firm AMBS unveiled its latest proposal, a vertical city (as opposed to Dubai’s supertowers) in southern Iraq’s Basra province. If built, the "Bride of the Gulf" would soar to 241 stories and 3,780 feet tall, 500 feet taller than the Jeddah Towers. Set in the country’s main port and growing business center, the Bride of the Gulf would include four interconnected towers, with sky gardens, hotels, schools, and clinics. For competition’s sake, the Jeddah Tower may want to consider a taller antenna.