Excavation work began on the tower originally called Burj Dubai, designed by architect Adrian Smith of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. The project would take nearly six years and employ over 12,000 workers at peak construction, eventually rising to 828 meters. Its 2010 opening, renamed in honor of the UAE president who helped bail out Dubai's finances during the global crisis, marked the culmination of the emirate's ambitions to become a global architectural showcase.
The tower's Y-shaped floor plan, inspired by the desert flower Hymenocallis, allowed it to taper as it rose, reducing wind forces that would otherwise threaten a building of such extreme height. Engineers used a buttressed core system, a central hexagonal core reinforced by three wings, to keep the structure stable while minimizing material.
Construction relied heavily on migrant laborers, mostly from South Asia, who worked in extreme desert heat for wages that drew international criticism from labor rights groups. At the peak of the project, more than 12,000 workers were on site simultaneously, pouring concrete at night when temperatures dropped and using a specially engineered pumping system to send concrete higher than had ever been achieved before.
When it finally opened in January 2010, the tower stood more than 170 meters taller than its nearest rival, the Taipei 101. Its renaming, from Burj Dubai to Burj Khalifa, came as a public thank-you to Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan of Abu Dhabi, whose government had extended billions in loans to keep debt-laden Dubai solvent during the 2009 financial crisis.
Key people: Adrian Smith