The Jeddah Economic Company (JEC) has appointed an EC Harris/Mace joint venture team to project manage the iconic Kingdom Tower project in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Kingdom Tower will be the world’s tallest building, standing over 1km in height. This will be taller than the Burj Khalifa in Dubai and four times the size of The Shard in London.
JEC, which appointed EC Harris and Mace to provide project, commercial and design management, said the vision for the building belonged to Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal. The tower’s height will exceed a kilometer – precisely by how much is a secret – but the structure will take over from Dubai’s 828-metre tall Burj Khalifa as the world’s tallest skyscraper.
Plans were unveiled 18 months ago by Saudi billionaire Prince Al Waleed Bin Talal as the centerpiece to the Kingdom City development in Jeddah, a major Red Sea port. “One of the reasons we hired them is they are going to use the same team that was on The Shard,” Waleed Abdul Jaleel Batterjee, chief executive of developer Jeddah Economic Company, told British trade magazine Building.
Oil-rich Saudi Arabia is undertaking multi-billion dollar projects to improve its infrastructure and meet its massive housing needs, spending over $400 billion in the five years to 2013 in addition to more than $130 million in social spending. Jeddah, the country’s second largest city with around four million residents, has long complained of neglect. Firms will “start mobilizing” in April and construction work should start by the middle of the year, Batterjee said.
Construction will take just over five years and the tower, to include a hotel, serviced apartments and luxury condominiums, will be more than three times taller than the 308-metre tall Shard when complete in 2018.
About EC Harris: EC Harris is a leading global built asset consultancy. As an ARCADIS company, EC Harris has access to approximately 21,000 professionals worldwide operating in over 70 countries, 300 offices and generating in excess of €2.4billion in revenue. Working across a wide range of market sectors, EC Harris helps clients make the most from the money they spend on their built assets. For further information, contact http://www.echarris.com/
About Mace: Mace is an international consultancy and construction company employing over 3,700 people, across five continents with a turnover of £1bn. Mace’s business is programme and project management, cost consultancy, construction delivery and facilities management and is truly multi-disciplinary with services spanning the entire property and infrastructure lifecycle.