Restoration of building processes for the globe's tallest skyscraper commences following a prolonged break.
At a gathering held on the site on Wednesday, the collective responsible for the project, Jeddah Economic Company (JEC), declared that the tower is now slated to be concluded in 2028.
The 1,000-meter-tall (3,280-foot) skyscraper was approximately one-third finished when, in 2017, various significant figures — including the heads of both the main contractor and a monetary conglomerate that jointly financed the project — were apprehended in Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s anti-graft crusade, which led to numerous individuals being interrogated on allegations of corrupt practices.
Construction continued following the detentions, but it temporarily halted in early 2018. In January of that year, due to mounting doubts about the purge’s financial consequences, JEC informed CNN that the project would carry on, but it encountered a years-long pause. Disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic supposedly postponed arrangements to resume work.
This week’s event was attended by one of the formerly arrested authorities, Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, who serves as the chairman of Kingdom Holding Company, one of the project’s primary financiers. Alwaleed, the Crown Prince’s cousin, was set free nearly three months after his arrest, although the reasons and conditions of his release remain unclear.
In reaction to yesterday’s event, Alwaleed uploaded a digital rendering of the gleaming tower on X with the caption: “We’re back.”
Another prominent figure involved in the anti-corruption drive was Bakr bin Laden, chairman of the skyscraper’s main contractor, Saudi Binladen Group. The construction magnate, who is the half-brother of Osama bin Laden, was reportedly discharged in 2021, three years after his imprisonment. His family’s firm, which also holds a stake in the Jeddah Tower project, has been rehired to conclude the construction work.
According to an announcement released through the Saudi stock exchange, Saudi Binladen Group’s new contract is worth 7.2 billion riyal ($1.9 billion), of which around 1.1 billion riyal ($290 million) has already been paid for completed work. At present, 63 of the tower’s 157 stories have been built.
Although Wednesday’s ceremony represented the first formal proclamation that construction is commencing once more, satellite images supplied to Newsweek by US firm Maxar Technologies two months ago suggested that work was already underway on the site. In September 2023, Dubai-based magazine MEED reported that JEC had invited contractors to bid for the project, though the developer declined to confirm plans to CNN at the time.
Engineered for extremes
Formerly known as Kingdom Tower, the skyscraper kicked off construction in 2013 and was initially meant to be completed by 2020. It will soar more than 500 feet above Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, currently the world’s tallest building.
Located overlooking the Red Sea in Saudi Arabia’s commercial hub, Jeddah, the skyscraper is anticipated to feature office, retail, and residential space. Initial plans, first introduced in 2011, included a hotel, shopping mall, and the world’s highest observation deck.
The Kingdom Holding Company did not respond to CNN’s request for confirmation that the design and constructive specifications had remained unchanged throughout the hiatus.
The tower was designed by US architect Adrian Smith, who employed the building’s “three-petal” footprint and tapered aerodynamic shape to conquer the monumental technical challenges of building at such heights. The architect’s Chicago-based firm, Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill, has remarked that the tower’s shape “symbolizes a bundle of leaves sprouting up from the ground.”
Plans also include 59 distinct elevators, as per the firm, which deemed it “one of the world’s most sophisticated elevator systems.”
Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill did not respond to CNN’s request for comment on the resumption of work.
Jeddah Tower will be the leading attraction of a wider 57-million-square-foot, $20-billion development dubbed Jeddah Economic City. As indicated to CNN in 2018, JEC’s then-chief development officer Hisham Jomah stated that the project was “altering the mentality” of Jeddah, which had traditionally served as a gateway to the sacred cities of Medina and Mecca.
“Before (the tower) was here, this was not regarded as a place that individuals would live,” said Jomah, who has since passed away. “We are constructing an independent city... so that you don’t have to leave here.”
The architectural style of the Jeddah Tower, set to surpass Dubai's Burj Khalifa, was conceptualized by Adrian Smith and his team at Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill. They designed the skyscraper with a distinctive three-petal footprint and a tapering aerodynamic shape, symbolizing a bundle of leaves sprouting up from the ground.
Despite the pause in construction due to various factors, the original design and construction specifications of the Jeddah Tower have remained unchanged, according to the Kingdom Holding Company, although they did not confirm this directly to CNN.
