Superlatives seem boring when you pit them against the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa.

At 828 meters tall (that’s a building almost a kilometer vertically upwards!), and twice the height of the renowned Eiffel Tower, the Burj Khalifa is undoubtedly an architectural miracle of the modern day. Just look at the facts…  164 stories within the tower (the most anywhere in the world), the fastest elevators across the globe (at 60km/h faster than even Usain Bolt), the highest mosque in the world (at Level 158) and the highest pool anywhere on the globe (on the 76^th floor), you can see just why there is so much of media attention focused on this single tower.

And did I mention that the total cost came close to 1 billion Euros?

But how many actually know that even since the days of the Great Depression, the completion of every major skyscraper out there was followed by massive economic and financial turmoil? Let’s go backwards in time and look at what history has shown us in the past:

1. The Great Depression was experienced shortly after the formerly great skyscraper, the Empire State Building was opened in 1931.
2. The Sears Tower, for so long the world’s tallest building before the Petronas Twin Towers was built, completed construction in 1973, just before stock markets fell 70% in the United States and the world experienced another catastrophic recession period.
3. The year is 1997, the world witnessed the unveiling of the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, but shortly after Malaysia’s stock market dropped by more than 50%, several other Asian countries felt the heat of the dwindling economy as well. Burj Dubai v Petronas Twin Towers: How do they Compare?
4. Now that Dubai has emerged with the Burj Khalifa, even before its official completion date (which was celebration grandly a few weeks ago), the ill-effects were already felt since late 2008 when the world experienced an economic meltdown led by the U.S. – not to mention that Dubai’s economy with it’s massive projects is now in total shambles.

And the future? If the world survives this economic crisis (like it always does), what does the future hold for us? Shanghai is proceeding with a skyscraper (second only to the Burj Khalifa), expected to be completed in 2014. Watch out Shanghai!

South Korea is planning its own twin skyscrapers, with the completion date currently set in 2015. Watch out Seoul!

The ancient proverb says that pride goes before a fall. Perhaps a warning that has come too late for Dubai!

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