The Burj Khalifa officially opened, doubling the height of the world's previous tallest building and redefining the limits of engineering. Designed by architect Adrian Smith and built over six years by a workforce drawn largely from South Asia, the tower stands more than 160 stories, and was renamed shortly before opening to honor UAE President Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan after Abu Dhabi provided crucial financial support during the 2009 debt crisis.
The tower rose from Dubai's desert like a proof of concept for unrestrained ambition. At 828 meters, the Burj Khalifa did not merely edge past the previous record holder, Taipei 101, it obliterated it, standing nearly twice as tall. Its tapering, Y-shaped footprint, inspired by the geometry of a desert flower, allowed it to narrow gracefully as it climbed, a design solution as much aesthetic as structural.
The opening ceremony was pure spectacle: a synchronized display of fireworks, lasers, and water fountains that turned the tower itself into the world's tallest firework launch platform, broadcast to a global audience. Yet the celebration masked financial turmoil. Dubai's real estate market had cratered amid the global financial crisis, and the emirate's debt problems had grown so severe that neighboring Abu Dhabi had to step in with a bailout just before the opening. In gratitude, and perhaps political necessity, Dubai's ruler renamed the tower from Burj Dubai to Burj Khalifa on the spot, honoring the president of the UAE and ruler of Abu Dhabi.
The labor behind the tower drew scrutiny too. Tens of thousands of migrant workers, mostly from India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, built the tower often under grueling conditions and low pay, a human cost largely invisible amid the glittering unveiling.
Key people: Adrian Smith, Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum