Dubai is aiming to break yet another property record with plans to build the world's highest observation deck at the top of what is planned to be the world's tallest commercial building.
Dubai Multi Commodities Centre, which is putting together plans to build Burj 2020 has said that the project will include an observation deck on the highest floor.
"There are plans to build a 360 degree observation deck at the top of Burj 2020," a DMCC spokeswoman told The National. "It is planned to be the highest in the world."
Plans for the mega-tall office tower in Jumeirah Lakes Towers were unveiled by Ahmed Bin Sulayem, the executive chairman of the DMCC, in July 2013.
DMCC declined to reveal how tall the observation deck or the building would be or precisely when construction would start and finish.
The height of record-breaking buildings, and the depth of their foundations, is usually kept secret until construction is as close to complete as possible.
Last April, international building data research company Emporis published its latest list of the world's 10 highest publicly accessible observation decks.
It found that although Dubai's Burj Khalifa remains the tallest building on earth, its viewing platform "At The Top" ranks only as the world's third highest, at 452 metres.
The gong for the highest viewing platform in the world was given to Canton Tower in Guangzhou in China which has a viewing platform at 488 metres.
Second on the list came the Shanghai World Financial Centre which contains a "Skywalk 100", a 55-metre long glass bridge 474 metres above the ground.
At the moment the Council for Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat ranks Taipei's 508-metre tall 101 tower in Taiwan as the world's tallest commercial tower.
However, two other office buildings are under construction at the moment aiming to win that crown. The Zhongguo Zun tower under construction in Beijing is expected to be 528 metres, while the Ping An tower in Shenzhen is expected to stretch to 660 metres.
This would mean the proposed JLT tower would have to be around 700 metres to break the record, bringing it within 100 metres or so of Dubai's 828-metre Burj Khalifa.
Berenson Mena, an investment bank with offices in Kuwait and New York, is advising on the tallest tower project, which is part of a wholesale expansion of the JLT complex.
lbarnard@thenational.ae
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