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The Burj Khalifa (Khalifa Tower) in Dubai officially opened on January 4, 2010. It currently holds the record as the tallest man-made structure.
Among the records established by this building are:
- Tallest existing structure: 829.8 m (2,722 ft) (previously KVLY-TV mast – 628.8 m or 2,063 ft)
- Tallest structure ever built: 829.8 m (2,722 ft) (previously Warsaw radio mast – 646.38 m or 2,121 ft)
- Tallest freestanding structure: 829.8 m (2,722 ft) (previously CN Tower – 553.3 m or 1,815 ft)
- Tallest skyscraper (to top of spire): 829.8 m (2,722 ft) (previously Taipei 101 – 509.2 m or 1,671 ft)
- Tallest skyscraper to top of antenna: 829.8 m (2,722 ft) (previously the Willis (formerly Sears) Tower – 527.3 m or 1,730 ft)
- Building with most floors: 163 (previously World Trade Center – 110)
- Building with world’s highest occupied floor: 584.5 m (1,918 ft)
- World’s highest elevator installation (situated inside a rod at the very top of the building) — traveling at 40 mph, it can reach the top in 2 minutes.
- World’s longest travel distance elevators: 504 m (1,654 ft)
- Highest vertical concrete pumping (for a building): 606 m (1,988 ft)
- World’s tallest structure that includes residential space
- World’s highest observation deck: 148th floor at 555 m (1,821 ft)
- World’s highest outdoor observation deck: 124th floor at 452 m (1,483 ft)
- World’s highest installation of an aluminium and glass façade: 512 m (1,680 ft)
- World’s highest nightclub: 144th floor
- World’s highest restaurant (At.mosphere): 122nd floor at 442 m (1,450 ft) (previously 360, at a height of 350 m (1,148 ft) in CN Tower)
- World’s highest New Year display of fireworks.
- World’s second highest swimming pool: 76th floor (world’s highest swimming pool is located on 118th floor of Ritz-Carlton Hotel at International Commerce Centre, Hong Kong).
A few other notable facts:
- The exterior of the building has an impressive 24,348 windows. It takes 36 workers between 3 and 4 months to clean them, leaving an automated system to clean the top 27 tiers and spire.
- Office space rents at the rate of $4,000/square foot, while residential space runs $3,500/square foot.
- The spire can be seen from 95 miles away.
- The building’s 62 km (100 miles) of pipes supply 250,000 gallons of water each day to the occupants.
- The total cost of construction is estimated at $1.5 billion.
- If you fell from the top floor, depending on whether you spread yourself out or curled up in a ball, it would take you between 29 and 44 seconds to hit the ground.
- On May 10, 2011 a man committed suicide by jumping from the 147th floor. He fell 39 floors before landing on a deck on the 108th floor.
- The Kingdom Tower, under construction in Saudi Arabi and scheduled for completion in 2020, is slated to eclipse the Burj Khalifa, with a planned height of 1 kilometer (3,307 ft.)
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