Facts

• Burj Dubai became the world's tallest high-rise building on July 24, 2007, and the world's tallest self-supporting structure on September 12, 2007.

• Burj Dubai is the tallest man-made structure in the world, surpassing the KVLY-TV Tower in North Dakota as well as Warszawa Radio Mast, the previous tallest structure ever built.

• This is the first world's tallest building since prehistoric times to include residential space.

• The Burj Dubai had its name officially changed to Burj Khalifa during its grand opening in honor of the president of the U.A.E. H.H. Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al Nahyan.

• "Burj" is Arabic for "Tower."

• Although the building's shape resembles the bundled tube concept of the Willis Tower, it is structurally very different and is technically not a tube structure.

• The building was rotated 120 degrees to so that it would be least likely to be buffetted by desert windstorms. The tower's setbacks were also reoriented from counterclockwise to clockwise.

• The building sits on a concrete and steel podium with 192 piles descending to a depth of more than 50 metres (164 feet).

• A total of 45,000 cubic meters of concrete are used in the foundations with a weight in excess of 110,000 tonnes.

• Over 330,000 cubic meters of concrete and 31,400 metric tons of steel rebar was used at the completion of the tower.

• The exterior cladding is of reflective glazing with aluminium and textured stainless steel spandrel panels with vertical tubular fins of stainless steel.

• The cladding system is designed to withstand Dubai's extreme summer temperatures.

• The condensation water collected from the air conditioning system equals to 20 Olympic-sized swimming pools per year and in turn, used for landscaping.

• Burj Dubai features sky lobbies on levels 43, 76 and 123. These spaces offer fitness and spa facilities. The lobbies on levels 43 and 76 each have a swimming pool and a recreational room for receptions and other gatherings.

• The highest residential floor will be level 109.

• An observation deck will occupy the 124th floor. A private club is on the 125th floor.

• Engineers working on the design considered installing triple-decker elevators, which would have been the first in the world, but in the end chose to use double-decker elevators.

• The maximum elevator speed is 600 m/min.

• The design by Skidmore Owings & Merrill replaces a plan to reuse the design for Grollo Tower, which was proposed in Melbourne a few years earlier.

• Designed by Adrian D. Smith, FAIA, RIBA design partner at Skidmore Owings & Merrill LLP.

• The triple-lobed footprint of the building is based on an abstracted desert flower native to the region.

• A subtle reference to the onion domes of Islamic architecture can be found in the building's silhouette when looking up at the lobes from near the base.

• The tower is situated on a man-made lake which is designed to wrap around the tower and provide dramatic views of it.