A tip: Don't go up if you don't want to look down.
A half-mile into the sky.
That's how far the Burj Dubai, which opens today, reaches.
It is the world's tallest skyscraper, grabbing that title from Taiwan's Taipei 101.
Reuters passes on a slew of facts about the new landmark — including its $1.5 billion cost, the 22 million man hours it took to complete and that it has 900 residences, a hotel and 300,000 square feet of office space.
Does it "work"? Los Angeles Times architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne told NPR's Mary Louise Kelly that he thinks it does.
"You know, typically, the buildings that are trying to set the mark for tallest structure in the world are not particularly notable for their architecture," Hawthorne said. "This building actually, I think, is rather elegant. It is very massive at the base and then it gets more slender as it goes up. And so, the impression that it gives when you're standing some distance away is that it's remarkably slender and almost delicate, which is surprising, given that it's about a half mile tall."
As Dale Gavlak reported this morning, Dubai hopes the tower will "rekindle optimism after its (recent) economic crisis":
Update at 12:15 p.m. ET. The Associated Press reports that:
Dubai has renamed its new skyscraper, the tallest in the world, the Burj Khalifa, state news agency WAM reported, in a surprise move apparently intended to honor the United Arab Emirates' president. ... Sheik Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan is the ruler of Abu Dhabi and
serves as the UAE federation's president.
The wire service also says the skyscraper's official height was announced as 2,717 feet.
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