Word: sang
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...Greg Sang, a 41-year-old civil engineer from New Zealand, is in a hurry. In the 110 degrees F (43 degrees C) heat outside his site office, he tosses me a white hard hat and, leaving me sweating and struggling to keep up, strides briskly toward the base of the Burj Dubai, the soaring skyscraper he's in charge of building. Riding together in a jangling construction elevator, it takes us 3 min. 50 sec. to ascend to the giddy heights of the 104th floor - and the building's reach for the sky won't stop there...
...Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai, would appreciate Sang's relentless sense of purpose. Under the leadership of the Sheik, who told developer Emaar Properties to go for 160 stories rather than the planned 90, this former backwater of Bedouin and Persian Gulf traders is rapidly being transformed into the Middle East's Hong Kong - a glitzy global hub for doing business, having fun and ... well, constructing a lot of tall buildings...
...sided height, while also paying homage to traditional Dubai culture through its elegant curvature inspired by Arabic writing. Above all, though, it is intended as a triumphant statement - to Arabia and beyond - of Dubai's towering ambitions. While the Burj Dubai's ultimate height is a closely guarded secret, Sang says it will go "at least" to 2,300 ft. (700 m) - and higher, apparently, if any competitor is crazy enough...
...several other symbols of Dubai, a city-state roughly the size of Mallorca, with only about 250,000 citizens and 1 million or so foreign workers. The most famous is the Burj al Arab, a splendid, sail-shaped luxury hotel as high as the Eiffel Tower. When Sang points toward the hazy waters of the Gulf and says, "That's the World out there," it takes me a second to realize he's not referring to our planet, but to yet another huge real estate development. The World will be a collection of luxury resorts and private estates built...
...These projects don't quite measure up for Sang, a skyscraper enthusiast whose last job was at Two International Finance Centre, Hong Kong's tallest building. "When a skyscraper gets to a certain height, it becomes an icon and the city becomes very proud of it," he says. "The Burj Dubai is a sign of the level of activity, imagination and efficiency, and of the can-do attitude here in Dubai...