Posted by Leonard Steinberg on April 20th, 2014

And you thought the Freedom Tower or those buildings on the 57th Street corridor of New York were tall?  Hah! Work to build the world’s first 1km-high building…..yes, 3,280ft tall, or almost TRIPLE the height of 432 Park Avenue….. the Kingdom Tower in Saudi Arabia, is set to begin on April 27th this year. 160 of the 200 floor will be habitable: will the top 40 floors house space aliens?

The $1.2billion project has been plagued by setbacks since it was first proposed in 2011, but above-ground work on the Jeddah super skyscraper will commence next month. The centerpiece and first construction phase of the Kingdom City development, located along the Red Sea on the north side of Jeddah, Kingdom Tower is designed to encompass a total construction area of 530,000m2 (5.7 million square feet).

This building will be even taller than the Burj Khalifa in DUBAI:  Designed by Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture, the tower is expected to be completed in about 5 years. Foundation work began in December 2013. The complex will contain 59 elevators, including five double-deck elevators. Oh jeez…..