World's tallest building set to open

" DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - Dubai is set to
open the world's tallest building amid tight security on Monday,
celebrating the tower as a bold feat on the world stage despite the
city state's shaky financial footing.

But
the final height of the Burj Dubai — Arabic for Dubai Tower — remained
a closely guarded secret on the eve of its opening. At more than 2,625
feet, it long ago vanquished its nearest rival, the Taipei 101 in
Taiwan.

The Burj's record-seeking developers didn't stop there.

The building boasts the most stories and
highest occupied floor of any building in the world, and ranks as the
world's tallest structure, beating out a television mast in North
Dakota. Its observation deck — on floor 124 — also sets a record.

"We
weren't sure how high we could go," said Bill Baker, the building's
structural engineer, who is in Dubai for the inauguration. "It was kind
of an exploration. ... A learning experience."

Baker,
of Chicago-based architecture and engineering firm Skidmore, Owings
& Merrill, said early designs for the Burj had it edging out the
world's previous record-holder, the Taipei 101, by about 33 feet. The
Taiwan tower rises 1,667 feet.

The
Burj's developer, Emaar Properties, kept pushing the design higher even
after construction began, eventually putting it about 984 feet taller
than its nearest competitor, Baker said. He is keeping quiet about the
exact height.

Dubai's ruler will open the tapering metal-and-glass spire with a fireworks display Monday evening.

Security
is expected to be tight. Local newspapers quoted Maj. Gen. Mohammed Eid
al-Mansouri, head of the protective security and emergency unit for
Dubai Police, saying more than 1,000 security personnel, including
plainclothes police and sharpshooters, will be deployed to secure the
site for the opening.

Work
on the Burj Dubai began in 2004 and continued rapidly. At times, new
floors were being added almost every three days, reflecting Dubai's
raging push to reshape itself over a few years from a small-time desert
outpost into a cosmopolitan urban giant packed with skyscrapers.

50 stories more than tallest in U.S.
By January 2007, thousands of laborers, many of them brought in on temporary contracts from India, had completed 100 stories.

The
finished product contains more than 160 floors. That is over 50 stories
more than Chicago's Willis Tower, the tallest record-holder in the U.S.
formerly known as the Sears Tower.

At
their peak, some apartments in the Burj were selling for more than
$1,900 per square foot, though they now can go for less than half that,
said Heather Wipperman Amiji, chief executive of Dubai real estate
consultancy Investment Boutique.

Besides luxury apartments and offices, the Burj will be home to a hotel designed by Giorgio Armani.

It's
also the centerpiece of a 500-acre development that officials hope will
become a new central residential and commercial district in this
sprawling and often disconnected city. It is flanked by dozens of
smaller but brand-new skyscrapers and the Middle East's largest
shopping mall.

That
layout — as the core of a lower-rise skyline — lets the Burj stand out
prominently against the horizon. It is visible across dozens of miles
of rolling sand dunes outside Dubai. From the air, the spire appears as
an almost solitary, slender needle reaching high into the sky.

Sign of wealthier times
The
Burj's opening comes at a tough time for Dubai's economy. Property
prices in newer parts of the sheikdom have collapsed by nearly half
over the past year.

The
city-state turned to its richer neighbor Abu Dhabi for a series of
bailouts totaling $25 billion in 2009 to help cover debts amassed by a
network of state-linked companies. Burj developer Emaar is itself
partly owned by the government, but is not among the companies known to
have received emergency cash.

Emaar
has said the entire Downtown Burj Dubai development, which includes the
tower, will cost $20 billion to build. Sales of properties around the
Burj are meant to help pay for the tower itself, which analysts say is
unlikely to be profitable on its own.

Jan
Klerks, research and communications manager for the Council on Tall
Buildings and Urban Habitat, which tracks world's tallest claims, said
the building's real value might be that it is the "biggest city
marketing campaign" Dubai could have come up with.

"Put
your name and that of the Burj Dubai on an envelope, and no postal
service in the world will have problems delivering the mail," he said."