Burj Khalifa

The Burj Khalifa (Arabic: برج خليفة‎, Arabic for "Khalifa Tower"), known as the Burj Dubai prior to its inauguration in 2010, is a skyscraper in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. With a total height of 829.8 m (2,722 ft) and a roof height (excluding antenna) of 828 m (2,717 ft), the Burj Khalifa has been the tallest building in the world since its topping out in late 2008.

History
With the building starting its construction in 2004, it finally completed 5 years later, in 2009. The building was opened in 2010 as part of a new development called Downtown Dubai and the centerpiece of the development project. The building was originally named Burj Dubai but was named in honor of Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the United Arab Emirates' (UAE) President after Abu Dhabi and the UAE government bailed out the building (the developer did not have enough money to pay for the building's development). The architect of this skyscraper is Adrian D. Smith, who also designed Jeddah Tower and One World Trade Center

Design
The irregular shape of the building, although it has a pattern, is part of the building's design to counter challenges such as wind, sandstorms and other possible disasters. The foundation of the building has a 'Y' shape, similar to that of Jeddah Tower, except that the sides are curved. The building has a hexagon-shaped core and the building rises from all 3 the sides. After rising for quite a bit of tens of meters (many tens of feet), one side will have a big balcony. The balcony is made by cutting up a column of of the tower. So, after the building rises up hundreds of meters (many hundreds of feet), the building would be quite thin. The reason why the building doesn't use the top levels is because the core uses too much space for humans to be able to find usable space.

Other Information

 * 1) The Burj Khalifa was preceded by Taipei 101.
 * 2) Burj Khalifa is taller than Shanghai Tower by 196 m (643.1 ft), which is currently the second tallest building in the world.
 * 3) The tower has about 24,500 glass panels; some are bigger and those at the higher parts of the buildings are smaller.