skyscraper

If the question is whether they forgot the elevator shaft in the tallest residential skyscraper in Spain, the answer is simple: it was much worse

by

For many years, the Mediterranean horizon was the canvas on which Spain projected its most audacious ambitions, including some extremely difficult to catalog. In times of prosperity, the sky seemed limitless. Then, each silhouette in height began to count a different story about risk, pride and collective memory. The vertical dream born of euphoria. He Intempo building started to get up in 2006at the exact moment when credit was flowing without brakes and Benidorm continued to feed its obsession with growing towards the sky as if there were no tomorrow. We are talking about two tower-shaped monsters of almost 200 meters joined by a golden diamond, a hyperbolic architecture that promised mark an era and become the new icon of the Mediterranean “Beniyork”. The project was born with generous financing from a Galician box and with a ridiculous social capital compared to the magnitude of the work, a disproportion (and a nonsense) that today sums up better than anything the climate of that Spain that believed that the cranes would never stop turning. From the symbol of the future to the monument to the bubble. But the crisis of 2008 changed the script suddenly. The loan skyrocketed above 100 million, the financial institution went bankrupt and the debt ended in hands of the Sarebthe bad bank. The works were paralyzed, the developer entered into internal conflict and the building was left with its structure practically finished but trapped in a legal and financial limbo. For years, his shadow threatened to add to that long list of phantom monsters, in fact, it was the golden skeleton that dominated the Poniente beach, a mass visible for kilometers that summarized the collapse of a model economical based on brick and easy financing. The reality was worse than the myth. Then came the stories and legends, one turned into a meme and repeated a hundred times even in media reference. It happens that, it is not that in the tallest residential skyscraper in Spain they forgot the elevator shaft, it is that the reality it was much worse. The work accumulated erratic decisions, changes in construction, salary delays, serious accidents and chaotic management in which floors were concreted without having definitive plans for the upper ones. The project was at 93% with 100% of the loan consumed, there was physical risk due to the deterioration of the structure and a bankruptcy of creditors that left the fate of the giant in the hands of judicial administrators and investment funds. The problem was not a cartoonish technical detail, but rather a chain of incompetence, financial strain and poor planning that jeopardized the building’s entire viability. The elevator hoax that went around the world. Impossible to ignore it. The story that the architects “forgot the elevator shaft” was born of an ambiguous phrase and it became the perfect headline summer 2013. The image was irresistible: a skyscraper of almost 200 meters incapable of climbing its own neighbors. However, elevators existed, of course, and They worked and were planned in the plans. The photographs and subsequent media visits clearly demonstrated. It didn’t matter, the hoax was amplified in international media that they added layers fiction, from cables that didn’t fit to impossible redesigns. That anecdote overshadowed what was truly relevant: the problem was never technical, it was structural in business and financial terms. Rescue, redesign and change of owners. Years passed, and the bad bank promoted the necessary competition to prevent the tower from deteriorating and facilitated liquidity to complete the work. Later, an investment fund acquired the assetremodeled interiors that had become obsolete and corrected questionable decisions, such as hideous finishes that obscured the homes or layouts that did not take advantage of the sea views. Finally, the top diamond was reconfigured to offer more attractive apartments and the complex was relaunched, now as a luxury residential with thousands of square meters of common areas, hotel services and international marketing. From ghost to icon. Thus, and after more than a decade of delays, the Intempo residential skyscraper finally opened its doors and began to hand out the keys to his first clients. In total, 256 homes, 11 elevatorscomplete technical plants and a structure that rested on piles designed to support both towers. From that moment on, the colossus stopped being a simple media skeleton and became a building with neighbors and real activity. Its golden silhouette left behind the stories to keep you awake, it no longer represented only the bubble and failure, but also the resilience of a city that had made verticality its hallmark. That is why it is worth saying it once again: Intempo was not the skyscraper that forgot the elevator, it was the skyscraper that survived its own time. Image | Enrique Domingo, Diego Delso, Tim Rawle In Xataka | Matalascañas is an example of a major architectural failure: thinking that the beach of your childhood was going to be how you remember it. In Xataka | Parking lots were the goose that laid the golden eggs for bricks in Spain. Until someone created the tomb of Las Teresitas

In 1976 Boston built its most amazing skyscraper. Until its windows became lethal guillotines

by

The John Hancock Tower It was conceived in the late 1960s as the great coup of authority of modern Boston: a minimalist, elegant and almost “invisible” skyscraper, designed to reflect the sky with enormous panels of lightly tinted blue glass, with reduced mullions to a minimum and without elements that would break its purity, topped by a plant that visually sharpened the corners and a vertical slit that further stylized the mass. But there was a mistake fat. The modernist dream of a glass needle. The skyscraper was the type of building I wanted seem inevitableas if it had always been there, and at the same time had to demonstrate that “corporate architecture” could be a piece of urban art. In other words, a clear aesthetic ambition was sought, but it implied an enormous risk: betting everything on glass and geometric precision, where any failure ceases to be a defect and becomes a dangerous spectacle. The first shock of reality. From the beginning, the project lived under the spotlight because it in the Back Bay neighborhood and very close of Trinity Churcha historical milestone that already had a symbolic and emotional weight in the city, and that threatened to be dominated by the shadow and presence of the new colossus. Was protests and design adjustmentsbut the real conflict soon arrived below ground: the excavation and temporary retaining walls were deformed and gave way before the mud and clay fills characteristic of the area, damaging sidewalks, services and even nearby buildings. Trinity Church ended up claiming and won a million-dollar compensationand the skyscraper, before it even existed, was already seen as a work that was too ambitious for the terrain that supported it. The glass scandal. The episode that turned the tower into a black legend of architecture occurred when it was still unfinished: with the Boston winds, the panels began to crack and fall awayand the glass fragments began to fall to the street like some kind of lethal rain. The authorities even cordoned off areas and closed streets when the wind rose, and the image of the “brilliant” building was replaced by another. much more humiliating: windows covered with plywood sheetsa partially bandaged tower in the center, which earned nicknames like “Plywood Palace” and jokes like “the tallest wooden building in the world.” In a skyscraper that was intended to represent absolute control, the failure was not only technical: it was a reputational blow direct, one where the symbol of its modernity (glass) had become a meme and a threat… Why it failed. At first you knowsuspected the wind as the main actor, of the suction and channeling effect around the building, and tests were reviewed in wind tunnels with models of the environment, but the core of the problem was in the window itself. Apparently the system it was too rigid: the reflective layer and its connection to the metal frame did not allow bending, and in a structure subjected to vibrations, oscillations and continuous thermal cycles, this lack of “play” became the breaking mechanism. The stresses were transmitted to the glass instead of being absorbed, the cracks propagated, and the result was inevitable: enormous and very heavy panels, weighing hundreds of kilos, failing repeatedly until the unthinkable was assumed in a newborn corporate icon: it was necessary to replace them all. The tower at the time the windows that had fallen out were replaced with plywood The expensive remedy. The solution It was shocking.: remove and replace the entire glazing with a more robust, tempered and heat-treated glass, in an operation that cost several million and that prolonged the ordeal for years. The project, announced with grandeur and reasonable budgets, ended up becoming a spiral of delays: the inauguration was postponed, the numbers skyrocketed and the tower went from promise to public embarrassment. Even so, mass glass replacement was the only way outbecause it was not about fixing a few defective pieces, but about correcting a façade idea that had been born with a structural fragility incompatible with the climate and real loads of Boston. The building today The final twist. And when it seemed like the worst had already happened, came the most disturbing blow: Later calculations suggested that, under certain wind patterns, the building could have a stability problem more serious than assumed, with unforeseen twists and dangerous behavior on its narrower sides. The tower also moved enough to cause dizziness to occupants in tall plants. The city discovered that the beauty of minimalism had a physical price. The answer it was double: on the one hand, install a huge damping system with tuned masses, two gigantic weights mounted with springs and shock absorbers to oppose the swaying and “return” the building to its center. On the other hand, reinforce with tons of bracing steel diagonal. It was, in essence, reengineer an icon already built so that it would continue standing with the dignity that had been promised from the first render. The paradox: from shame to object of desire. The most fascinating thing is that, after such a disastrous start, the tower ended up establishing itself as an admired piece and recognized, until receiving prestigious awards and becoming an inseparable element of the Boston skyline. As they counted then architectural experts, it was the kind of redemption that only happens when a building survives to his own crisis: the public ends up remembering its silhouette and its reflection, not the panic of the closed streets or the wooden planks covering the absent glass. The Hancock went from being a historical lesson for modern architecture (a reminder that aesthetics does not negotiate with physics) to be, precisely because it has overcome this technical hell, a work with a certain aura of resistance, almost a monument to the obsession with fixing the irreparable. One more thing. Over time, the tower maintained its place as the tallest skyscraper of New England, but its story continued to move in the practical terrain of money, tenants and identity: … Read more

In 2013 London announced its most impressive skyscraper. Back then, no one could imagine the danger that their crystals had.

by

There are many stories of skyscrapers with very different endings than those on the plans, some terriblebut in the city of London one is still remembered for its closeness and chaos generated. The history of the so-called like walkie talkie (20 Fenchurch Street) is that of a building that was born wrapped in promises of modernity and ended up exhibiting one of the most unusual and dangerous design flaws in contemporary architecture. An experiment turned into risk. In the summer of 2013, when its glass façade was almost finished, London discovered to its shock that the skyscraper it had so much promoted had a big problem: acted like a gigantic parabolic lens, concentrating sunlight on a narrow strip of Eastcheap capable of melting plastic, deform metal and produce temperatures higher than those of a domestic oven. It was no joke. Parked cars, like the story that went viral Martin Lindsay’s Jaguarsuffered palpable damage, everyday objects began to melt, passersby spoke of softened shoe soles or feeling burns on their skin. You have to give it a name. The phenomenon was such that it ended up being baptized like death rayand it was not an exaggeration: the reflections generated up to 72 degrees Celsius on the street, creating a real danger for anyone passing by. The press documented the episode with fascination and alarmimmediately turning it into a media attraction that placed the building at the center of unprecedented scrutiny. The Walkie-Talkie (20 Fenchurch Street) A failure announced. Far from being an unforeseeable accident, Walkie Talkie It had been conceived with a concave curvature that any student of elementary physics would have pointed out as capable of concentrating light. Its architect, Rafael Viñoly, recognized shortly after the building had initially been designed with horizontal slats to avoid precisely that effect, but they were removed for budgetary reasons. Viñoly admitted also that the team did not have the appropriate tools to model the phenomenon accurately, limiting itself to approximate calculations who predicted a lower risk. The reality was very different, aggravated by the increase in solar radiation in London in recent years. In fact, the problem It was not unprecedented for the architect: already in Las Vegas his Vdara hotel had been accused to concentrate light until they burn the bathers. The skyscraper under construction And more. But in London the error acquired a incomparable public dimensionbecause it affected not a private complex but one of the busiest streets in the City. The urgent installation of a temporary mesh and the subsequent placement of slats on the facade They solved the problem, but they did not avoid the perception that it was a systemic failure, the result of a design process that had privileged aesthetics and costs over urban safety. The Sky Garden Emblem of a city in transformation. Even before the death ray episode, the Walkie Talkie was subject of criticism. Its silhouette, disproportionate and widened upward to maximize profitable views, stood like a sort of “sore thumb” outside the financial cluster, generating a visual impact that the own urban report had described as “significant damage.” However, the real controversy came after its famous Sky Garden: presented as a public contribution comparable to a vertical park. open to all, it ended up being more of a panoramic restaurant complex with controlled access and mandatory reservations. For many Londoners, it represented a symbol of the privatization drift of urban spaces: a supposed “public garden” that responded more to the logic of corporate luxury than to that of the common good. The complaints were so intense that the City even raised a structural reform of space to bring it closer to what was initially promised. A razzie. In 2015, amidst the accumulation of controversies, the building received the Carbuncle Cup for ugliest building of the year in the United Kingdom, a satirical recognition that underlined the extent to which it had become object of rejection collective. Even Sky News tried to fry an egg under his facade and his name mutated into a meme: Scorchie walkie. Over time, its image became associated not only with an aesthetic problem, but with a chain of opaque decisions and urban planning concessions that many consider a paradigmatic example of how not to manage the integration of a skyscraper into the historical fabric of London. The work of the Imperial The rebirth. Despite its rugged origins, Walkie Talkie has undergone a surprising public rehabilitation. In 2025, twelve years after the incident, visitors are lining up to enjoy from the Sky Gardennow fully integrated into the city’s tourist circuit. But beneath that normalization lies a story that could have been tragic. Later studies from Imperial College showed that, in a different meteorological scenario, the death ray could have cause serious injuryfires in nearby homes and even permanent damage to the skin and eyes. Only the chance combination of clouds and the orientation of the beam (which did not fall at its maximum point at street level) prevented major consequences. A reminder. The architecture was a warning about the critical role of climate modeling, professional responsibility, and the need to subject bolder architectural forms to much more rigorous evaluations. If today the majority of tourists who sgo to the Sky Garden They ignore that the building was about to become an icon of the disaster, it is because the city acted quickly and because luck intervened at the right time. In any case, the technical memory persists: Walkie Talkie remains a reminder that, in a dense, vertical metropolis, a miscalculation can become a massive riskand that contemporary architecture (when its interaction with the environment is neglected) can produce both wonders and invisible dangers. An uncomfortable legacy. In retrospect, the Walkie Talkie has ended up occupying a peculiar place in London’s recent history: it is simultaneously a tourist success, a design failurea case study in urban security and an example of the tensions between public interest and the imperatives of the real estate market. Its trajectory shows that a … Read more

China has just completed the world’s tallest dam. And what stands out the least is that it is as tall as a skyscraper

by

China has a beastly capacity to create pharaonic structures. Impossible roadshighways with infernal ‘knots’, very complex tunnels and one ridiculous amount of bridges so functional and essential to connect areas like ostentatious. But among all his civil engineering works, the ones that are most striking to me are the dams. And, after the largest in the world, now They have one that is as tall as a skyscraper. It is the Zhenjiang pumping stationand is key to adding even more renewable energy to your accountant. Figures. The name is “Zhenjiang/Jurong Pumping Station” and, located in Jiangsu province, it has become the latest milestone in Chinese energy engineering. The project began in 2017 and, as is customary in almost all of these infrastructures in the Asian giant, both its dimensions and construction times are surprising. In these eight years, they have built the highest pumping dam in the world, 182 meters high, equivalent to a 60-story building. Apart from the height, its volcano shape is striking, with a reservoir at the top capable of storing up to 17.07 million cubic meters of water. Context? What 6,800 Olympic-sized swimming pools have (okay, it’s equally difficult to imagine the number). Bowels. It’s not just imposing on the outside. Its engine room is 800 meters deep and has dimensions of 250 meters long, 60 meters high and another 25 meters wide. In this room are the six mixed turbines and, in total, the project has established a dozen records in the sector. Its role in renewables. It is estimated that the investment has been about 9.6 billion yuan, about 1.3 billion euros, and all to feed more than 360,000 homes. Each of the turbines generates 225 MW for a total of 1.3 GW of installed power. Thanks to both the dimensions of the turbines and the difference in level and force of the water, it is estimated that it will consume 1,800 million kWh annually during pumping and will generate 1,350 million kWh during discharge. It is a consumption/generation difference of 25% and, although it is not a figure that attracts attention, it is a milestone, since current pumping (or reversible) installations require hydraulic jumps of about 400 meters to operate under the same conditions. The turbines at the Zhenjiang plant do so with a head of less than 200 meters. That is, it is optimized for low gradient conditions, but maintaining a high volumetric flow. In summary, It’s like a giant battery, but with water. During low demand hours, the plant moves water to the upper reservoir and, during peak consumption, releases it, passing it through the turbines at high speed and generating electricity in the process. According to estimates, it will save 140,000 tons of coal per year, which represents 349,000 tons of CO₂. One more in the Yangtze. Despite everything the plant represents in terms of civil engineering and its role in renewablesthe greatest achievement of this plant is that it has been shown that it is possible to build massive storage systems if artificial elevations are created. In flat areas with unfavorable orography, Zhenjiang demonstrates that pumping structures can be created to help achieve decarbonization objectives without depending so much on wind and solar power. Wang Chenhui, director of the Development Department of State Grid Zhenjiang Power Supply Company -responsible for the dam-, assures that “at full operation it will provide approximately 2.7 million kilowatts of bidirectional power regulation capacity, relieving pressure on the electrical grid during peak load periods.” It will be more help for Jiangsu province than this summer consumed 6% more electricity than in 2024, reaching 156 million kilowatts. And also in the Yangtze are the mammoth dam of the Three Gorges and the next largest dam in the world. The one in Zhenjiang is not so huge nor does it generate as much electricity, but it is the highest in the world and, as we said, a demonstration that, if the terrain is not good, you can always build a huge pool at 190 meters high. Image | Ministry of Water Resources of the People’s Republic of China In Xataka | China has built the highest bridge in the world and has done what it must: turn it into a show

For decades we rose to this skyscraper in New York without knowing that the screws that held it did not endure

by

The situation was more or less like that. For two decades, hundreds of thousands of people entered and went through the doors of one of the larger skyscrapers in New York City. These people, many of them workers, went up and down in the elevator of others totally to the critical failure that the building had, terrifying in an architectural key, and that No one took into account. Rarely in the history of urbanism of the great cities occurred A similar situation. The story dates back to the early twentieth centurywhen the Lutheran Church of San Pedro was in a field of 53 streetbetween Lexington Avenue and the third avenue, in Midtown Manhattan. By 1960, the Church community went through serious economic problems, which led the City Council to sell the land. The negotiations were not easy and lasted years. Mainly, because the Church demanded the creation of a new separate building from the block of floors in which it could continue with its activities. In the end Green light was given to the project. The promoter accepted the conditions, and Citi Bank commissioned Hugh Stubbins & Associates the design of the skyscraper. The engineering will be in charge of William Lemessurier. The final project consisted of a skyscraper, a church, a public space under the level of the street and landscaping. The most important element was, of course, skyscrapers. The plane marked 46 plants that were going to distinguish from the rest of the city by the polished and anodized aluminum of the facade. In addition, among the panels there were window rows. It did not seem really complicated, at least not like the roof and the base of the building. The happy roof Thus, in 1977 the skyscraper ends up lifting. By then it had become bigger, with 59 plants and A total height of 279 meters. An architectural work that dazzled the city’s Skyline, a colossal tower where its inclined top of 45 degrees highlighted. The top of the roof It resembles an isosceles triangle. The original plan was to build terraces and apartments, but over time the architects decided to install huge solar panels. Lemessurier, a professor and graduate of the Massachusetts Institute, conducted a series of tests to check their efficiency. It turned out that the energy converted by the installation was insufficient. Finally, the idea of a small solar plant was abandoned. However, nothing like the base on which the building was supported. Some “stunches”, as Lemessurier himself described, among which he seemed to float for then seventh larger skyscraper on the planet. We refer, of course, those four gigantic pillars (34 meters each) that are located in the center of each side (instead of the corners) of the base. It also had a single column in the center, in this narrower case, which housed the building’s elevator banks and that provided additional force to the racks. With this design it was made room for the church under the corner of the northwest of the building, and gave the giant structure A brutal effectalmost as if he were levitating. In fact, it was exceptionally “light”, of only 25,000 tons (As a reference, Empire State Building was 60,000). The famous pillars The base became an icon of architecture, since it caused the space in the corners to be empty. Lemessurier caused the scratch weight to be distributed to the outer skeleton. Specifically, in a grid of Marcos in a triangular way hidden under the facade. Interestingly, this structure was visible from the inside. The elements were not completely welded, but only set with screwed joints. Apparently, the steel frame designed in this way was destined to support perpendicular winds. According to engineers, Other types of wind should not suppose a threat. In addition, municipal standards did not force other air bursts in design. The truth is that architecture hid an important mechanism in the upper floors. Citigroup Center had One of the first tuned mass shock absorbers (TDM). It is a 360 -ton concrete sphere embedded in oil. When the vibrations of the soil or the wind moved the building, the mechanism oscillated in the opposite direction to the inclination of the building. The problems begin Said balancing was in turn balanced by hydraulic arms that support the sphere. With this solution, the skyscraper was able to “maintain balance.” As Lemessurier explained in his day, this piece was key, since its function was to cut the balancing of the building by half by converting the kinetic energy of friction balancing. Once finished, the building was praised, but also The first doubts arrived. New York is not a state of great hurricanes, but it occasionally has them, what would happen if, once every 50 years, the winds will blow more than 100 km/h? These winds can blow from different directions. The Citigroup Center was inaugurated in 1977, and only one year later it became evident that it could have A very serious defect structural. A year later, Lemessurier receives the call that no architect expects in life. It was Diane Hartleyan engineering student from the prestigious Princeton University who had studied the construction of the skyscraper for his thesis. The first call was to ask several technical questions about the design. Hartley’s professor had expressed his doubts regarding the strength of an inclined skyscraper where the support columns were not in the corners. Hartley made some calculations of the building’s wind load. He then compared them to Lemessurier’s calculations and discovered that the figures of construction engineers were incorrect. The student asked to be sent the exact load calculations for different types of wind. Only received data related to perpendicular winds and guarantees On the solidity of the structure. Moreover, Lemessurier told him that the teacher had not even the most remote idea and that everything was in order. The geometry of the building frame worked perfectly with the pillars in such positions, allowing him to resist very strong winds, even from a diagonal angle. … Read more

A skyscraper has been bought for 165 million dollars

by

During 2024, the southern US states, with Texas and Florida at the head, registered the largest number of millionaire migrations thanks to more lax fiscal policies. A clear example were Jeff Bezos, who A tax lot was saved for the sale of shares with Your move to Miami; or Elon Musk, what He changed the headquarters from his Delaware to Texas companies after the judicial dispute For its salary bonus. Good smell for Amancio Ortega businesshas led him to close the largest real estate operation in Pontegadea in 2025: a luxury building of 46 plants in one of the enclaves preferred by the Millionaires who move to Florida. 259 luxury apartments. Such and as they published The specialized real estate media, the founder of Inditex has carried out one of the most outstanding operations of the year by acquiring an emblematic skyscrapers in Fort Lauderdale. This acquisition not only reinforces Ortega’s presence in The American residential sectorbut also marks the return of Pontegadea to the High Standing housing market, after two years of investments oriented to the Logistic centers and office buildings. The new property of the Amancio Ortega portfolio consists of the Las Olas Veno building, a 46 -plants luxury apartment tower divided into 259 apartments in the center of Fort Lauderdale, for which it has paid 165 million dollars (about 145 million euros to change). Which leaves an average of 560,000 euros per housing. The building, finished in November 2024, has large common areas, swimming pools, gym, spa, leisure rooms and terraces. It is located about four kilometers from the beach of Las Olas, in a city known as the “Venice of America” ​​for its network of channels and its tourist attraction. A pico for rent. The success of the purchase is not so much to have achieved the property at a “reasonable price”, but the High profitability of the area. As detailed in The building websitethe rentals in the Veneto the waves range between $ 4,411 per month for an apartment of 88 square meters with a bedroom and a bathroom, and the $ 15,440 per month for a two -bedroom duplex, three bathrooms and 191 square meters. Fort Lauderdale is a consolidated tourist destination, which guarantees a High demand for luxury housing. The port of the city is one of the most active in the reception of cruise ships and bearing large luxury yachts, which makes this place an attractive destination for real estate investments of the great fortunes that seek a new home in Florida with less fiscal load. It is not the most expensive building in Ortega. Veneto Las Olas is not the largest investment that Pontegadea has made in luxury residential buildings in the US, although it is the most relevant residential operation in Florida. According The published by El Confidencial, In September 2022, the Ortega real estate group closed the acquisition of a apartments skyscraper at number 19 of Dutch Street, in full Manhattan for 487.5 million dollars, to which another 15.9 million would be added for transmission taxes. In addition, in August 2023, Pontegadea bought the West Loop tower in Chicago, with 492 residences distributed over 45 floors, for 232 million dollars. The millionaire already had a presence in Florida after the Buy in 2016 of the Southeast Financial Center offices of Miami for 500 million dollars. A year earlier I had bought A commercial complex in Lincoln Road for 370 million dollars. 525 million in two months. With the closing of the Fort Lauderdale operation, PontegadeaIt gives folder to its fourth operation in just under two months, with a joint cost of 525 million euros. In March 2025, the purchase of the headquarters of the Clifford Chance law firm in Luxembourg was announced for a price of 60 million euros, such and As I counted The confidential. In May, The purchase was closed of the emblematic headquarters of the Editorial Planeta in the Diagonal of Barcelona for a price of 250 million euros. The penultimate operation of Pontegadea was made public only one week, with the purchase of An office building In the old port area of ​​the Docklands, in Dublin, for a price of 70 million euros. All benefits, zero debt. It should be remembered that, unlike the rest of large real estate companies, Pontegadea does not need to issue debt to face these investments since Amancio Ortega’s real estate arm is the Main Dividend Receiver Obtained by the millionaire of his other empire: Inditex. In 2025, Pontegadea will receive a little less than 3,000 million euros for its 50,010% participation in the Inditex shareholders. All this capital has been allocated to real estate investments, which has resulted in one of the largest real estate in Spain, ahead of Colonial or Merlin, accumulating more than 120 properties in thirteen countries valued at 20,000 million euros, According to calculations of Europa Press. In Xataka | Amancio Ortega: the billionaire who lives as one more neighbor (except for private jets and superyates) Image | Gtres, Veneto Las Olas

The construction of the highest skyscraper in the world

by

China is synonymous with Megaconstructions. In addition, in record time, but there are two countries that have been in a particular battle in which the concrete is the absolute protagonist. In 2010 the imposing Burj Khalifa was inaugurated, dethroning Taipei 101 as the tallest building in the world and giving the departure gun to a war between Arab Emirates and Arabia to see who made the vast skyscraper. And, although we have seen numerous skyscrapers in recent years, there are two that have between eyebrow and eyebrow over Creek Tower and the Jeddah Tower. And perhaps it is that ambition that the two projects are being carried ahead. The Saudi Jeddah Tower. It is one of the most ambitious projects in the world and it is expected that, when it is complete, it will become the highest building in the world. Saudi Arabia is clear that it must dethrone the Burj Khalifa of 828 meters with this tower that will exceed 1,000 meters high. How many exactly? We do not know, since although the works began in 2013, they go quite slowly. It will be a tower that will house a luxury hotel, residential apartments, offices and the highest observatory in the world and will feature a whopping 59 elevators, four of them with a double floor. Your designer? The American Adrian Smith, the same one who designed the Burj Khalifa with which he will have a certain resemblance. Dubai’s Creek Tower. This is much more recent, since the works began in 2016 and the data are much more diffuse. As Burj Khalifa, Creek Tower will be in Dubai and will be a very different construction from the other two towers. It will be more a recreational tower with restaurants, places to spend time and ten observation platforms (with glass floor to see the entire city. You can also house some luxury residences, but a very scarce number to be considered the “highest building in the world”, at least technically. And how much are we talking about? Between 828 meters and 1,400 meters. It is a huge fan, but what were clear is that it should exceed 828 of the city’s iconic megonstruction. The design is also peculiar, and the leading architect of the project is the “Recognized” Santiago Calatrava. Shared difficulties. The two constructions share more elements than it might seem. Both have a peculiar design, both are very high and both … have been drawing problems for years. For different reasons, yes. The construction of the Jeddah Tower It was arrested in 2018 due to the fight of the Royal House against administrative, political and real corruption. In a process known as ‘La Purga’, the heir prince created a committee that arrested 281 people. It was a tremendously controversial process because in parallel, it seems that a group of death operated to kill dissidents silently. The works officially resumed In February this year. In the case of Creek Tower, its inauguration was planned For some time of 2020, but COVID-19 forced to paralyze the work and construction has not yet raised head. In 2024 some project updates were made, confirming that the final height would be far from what was expected and, with a total of 745 meters, will not meet the objective of overcoming Burj Khalifa. The craziest plan. Now, although these two towers are colossal, there is a Saudi Arabia project that wants to leave them up to a normal and current residential block. It has no name, but an objective height: 2,000 meters. We only know which is something that is on the horizon and that will be the responsibility of the architects of Foster +. Partners And yes, it is an idea of ​​the same country that is building The Mukaabhe Riad Airport and The Lineso it is sure they will try. Samsung, the silent winner. And although it is not very clear what the two countries intend with this particular battle of megaconstrucciones, the obvious thing is that there are companies that are filling the pockets with these projects. And beyond local construction companies and foreign architects, we must mention Samsung. Specifically, to the Samsung C&T Engineering and Construction Group division that is charge of the construction of Burj Khalifa and is in command of the Creek Tower. And they are not the only constructions of the South Korean division, since, within Vision 2030, the company advertisement In December of last year that the construction of the first Saudi Arabia subway system under Riyadh, a totally automated system without drivers and was ending 11 years with a total cost of more than 2.4 billion dollars. Images | Jeddah Tower, Emaar In Xataka | The tallest building never designed is a colossal (and theoretical) skyscraper of four kilometers: the X-Seed 4000

After a delay of seven years, Saudi Arabia takes up the works of the highest skyscraper in the world. Let’s see what lasts

by

Saudi Arabia has become the Madrid of the ‘galacticos’, the Barcelona of the ‘Tiki-Taka’. When we talk about megaconstructions, the country plays in another league, a capable of shadowing the Almighty Manhattan. And it is evident when we see all those projects that have as hands like the imposing MUKAABthe huge Abraj al Bait tower watch or the ‘Boss’ end of urbanism: The Line. Another project is Jeddah Tower that, like The Line, It has been choking More than once to builders. But, after two threats to return to the work, now the final one has arrived: they have restarted the works of what will be the highest building in the world. Kingdom Tower. The Jeddah Tower, or Kingdom Tower, has an objective between eyebrow and eyebrow: make the Burj Khalifa 828 meters high. To do this, the same team of architects that built the Dubai skyscrapers is being in charge of this tower, which will be the jewel of the crown of the crown of the Vision 2030 Project and the heart of a new city that will rise around it. The construction began more than a decade ago, but although they advanced at a good pace, the planning was too optimistic. It was said that it would have been completed in 2018, but by then, the tower was not even close to completing. The reason? Delays due to labor problems and COVID-19 Pandemiabut above all to the purge of corruption of 2017. The purge. In 2018, the heir prince Mohammed Bin Salman created an anti -corruption committee with an objective: centralize political power. He had tired that different elites of the country handled the threads, so he created a system that ended with more than 380 arrests of entrepreneurs, ministers, princes and even members of his family, as his own mother. HE speak of death groups to murder dissidents and, in this purge to stop political corruption, extortion to officials and money laundering, foundations and first floors of the Jeddah Tower suffered the consequences, being frozen. Initial plans with the intention of release the tower in 2018 and a height comparison To the third is the defeated. At the end of 2023, the promoter invited local contractors to see which candidacy conquered him for the end of the work and, in October last year, a video made it clear that They moved on. The problem is that everything was very in the air … until now, when the company Kingdom Holding Companythe one behind the project has announced that construction has restarted. In it release before the press, They affirmed that they had already poured cement on the 64th floor and that they are using a cement application technique with which they can complete a floor every four days. 1,000 meters, more or less. It will have about 160 floors and we cannot speak with ownership of the matter because, really, it is not clear. It is curious that it is not known from the beginning how many floors the tower will have or how much it will measure, and in the last releaseThey explain that it will measure more than 1,000 meters high, but that it is something that will take place in the future. To every train. What seems invariable is that it will be a luxurious tower that will act as an epicenter of a new city. The skyscraper will house shops, offices, recreational spaces and hotels, such as Four Seasons. He also aspires to have the highest viewpoint in the world and is expected to be a structure covered with glass, such as an extremely elongated pyramid and with a base of three edges. It will be in an area of ​​5.3 million m² in which there will be hospitals, schools, universities, shopping centers and housing, as well as other high towers and, from the government, it has been confessed that they are open to any type of investment to develop The ambitious project. Investment? Welcome. They affirm that the financing has almost been completed, with the builders -binladin Group- financing the first part, the banks putting their grain of sand and other sources of capital that has preferred not to reveal (stating that it is something that they will do step by step). What has made it clear is that Binladin Group is “strongly supported by the government” and that they are open to any type of investment because it is a tower that will make the land around you increase their value. And not only the immediate, like that land of 5.3 million m², but the entire region. This is what they want to ride around them They have work ahead It is estimated that the Jeddah tower is completed by 2028 as part of Vision 2030 to diversify the economy of the country, but as this does not stop, they are already thinking about its following tower: one that will humiliate Jeddah with a height of two kilometers in Riadnear the imposing Rey Khalid International Airport. Images | Omarnizar05, Google Earth, Jeddah Tower In Xataka | Saudi Arabia is waste so much money in The Line that has entered deficit

Log In

Forgot password?

Forgot password?

Enter your account data and we will send you a link to reset your password.

Your password reset link appears to be invalid or expired.

Log in

Privacy Policy

Add to Collection

No Collections

Here you'll find all collections you've created before.