Measure this: The worlds tallest building completed and open

February 3, 2010

Men will be men and that means building things bigger than any other man has ever built. For architects, the biggest measuring stick is a sky scraper.

Now the men in Dubai have proved why they wear robes and not pants by creating the newest biggest building ever: The Burj Khalif, a building so tall that it is actually 11 degrees cooler at the top than it is at the bottom.

This building is not merely huge, it is the John Holmes of construction. It dwarfs everything else and juts obscenely out of the Dubai skyline. It is truly a man of buildings among boys.

The tower opened in January after four years of construction and spans a 2,716 feet 6-inches tall or 828 meters — 320 meters or more than 1,000 feet taller than the previous tallest building in the world, Taiwan’s Taipei 101, which was completed in 2004.

The fun facts, according to Wikipedia, include:

Tallest skyscraper to top of spire: 828 m (2,717 ft)
Tallest structure ever built: 828 m (2,717 ft) (previously Warsaw radio mast – 646.38 m/2,121 ft)
Tallest extant structure: 828 m (2,717 ft) (previously KVLY-TV mast – 628.8 m/2,063 ft)
Tallest freestanding structure: 828 m (2,717 ft) (previously CN Tower – 553.3 m/1,815 ft)
Building with most floors: 160 (previously Willis Tower – 108)
World’s highest elevator installation,situated inside a rod at the very top of the building
World’s fastest elevators at speed of 64 km/h (40 mph) or 18 m/s (59 ft/s) (previously Taipei 101 – 16.83 m/s)
The first world’s tallest structure in history to include residential space
Highest outdoor observation deck in the world (124th floor) at 442 m (1,450 ft)
World’s highest mosque (located on the 158th floor)
World’s highest installation of an aluminum and glass facade, at a height of 512 m (1,680 ft)

With a pool on the 76th Floor, people can still haven’t gone half way up the tower before they can grab a quick swim.

The building cost more than $1.5 billion to build and is part of the Dubai’s remaking of its downtown.

It just shows you what you can do with a few barrels of oil and the desire to bigger, taller and longer than any other man in the world.

According to tower officials, more than 90 percent of the offices and residents have already been sold.

The figures are simply staggering on the amount of materials used, setting records for everything from concrete pumped to the highest altitude to amount of glass used for a single building (with more than 24,000 windows).

Check out some of the pictures we got from the tower people in Dubai.