Burj Al Arab

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The Burj Al Arab (Template:Langx, Template:Lit) is a luxury hotel in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Developed and managed by Jumeirah, it is one of the tallest hotels in the world, although 39% of its total height is made up of non-occupiable space.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Burj Al Arab stands on an artificial island that is Template:Convert from Jumeirah Beach and is connected to the mainland by a private curving bridge. The shape of the structure is designed to resemble the sail of a dhow.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> It has a helipad near the roof, at a height of Template:Convert above ground.

SiteEdit

The beachfront area where Burj Al Arab and Jumeirah Beach Hotel are located was previously called Chicago Beach.<ref name="Krane, Jim page 103">Krane, Jim City of Mud: Dubai and the Dream of Capitalism, page 103, St. Martin's Press (15 September 2009)</ref> The hotel is located on an island of reclaimed land, Template:Convert offshore of the beach of the former Chicago Beach Hotel. The former hotel was demolished during the construction of the Burj Al Arab.<ref name="Chicago Beach">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The locale's name had its origins in the Chicago Bridge & Iron Company, which at one time welded giant floating oil storage tanks, known locally as Kazzans, on the site.<ref name="Krane, Jim page 103"/>

HistoryEdit

Design and constructionEdit

The Burj Al Arab was designed by the British multidisciplinary consultancy Atkins, led by architect Tom Wright of WKA. He came up with the iconic design and signature translucent fiberglass facade that serves as a shield from the desert sun during the day and as a screen for illumination at night.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The design was managed by Canadian engineer Rick Gregory, and construction managed by David Kirby also of WS Atkins. The Burj Al Arab's interior is by British-Chinese designer Khuan Chew. Construction of the island began in 1994 and involved up to 2,000 construction workers during peak construction. Two "wings" spread in a V to form a vast "mast", while the space between them is enclosed in a massive atrium. The setting of a high rise building on saturated soil and the novelty of the project required groundbreaking dynamic analysis and design to take into consideration soil-structure interaction, effect of water, high winds, and helipad among other loads, to help finalize the design and take the project into construction.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>Template:Failed verification

The hotel was built by South African construction contractor Murray & Roberts, now renamed Concor and Al Habtoor Engineering. The interior designs were led and created by Khuan Chew and John Coralan of KCA international and delivered by UAE based Depa Group.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The building opened on 1 December 1999.<ref name="factsheet">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The hotel's helipad was designed by Irish architect Rebecca Gernon.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The helipad is at the building's 28th floor, and the helipad been used as a car race track, a boxing ring, has hosted a tennis match, and the jumping off point for the highest kite surfing jump in history.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

FeaturesEdit

Several features of the hotel required complex engineering feats to achieve. The hotel rests on an artificial island constructed Template:Convert offshore. To secure a foundation, the builders drove 230 Template:Convert concrete piles into the sand by drilling method.<ref name="egypteng1">Template:Cite news</ref>

Engineers created a ground surface layer of large rocks, which is circled with a concrete honeycomb pattern, which serves to protect the foundation from erosion. It took three years to reclaim the land from the sea, while it took less than three years to construct the building itself. The building contains over Template:Convert of concrete and 9,000 tons of steel.<ref name="egypteng1"/>

Inside the building, the atrium is Template:Convert tall.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Given the height of the building, the Burj Al Arab is the world's fifth tallest hotel after Gevora Hotel, JW Marriott Marquis Dubai, Four Seasons Place Kuala Lumpur and Rose and Rayhaan by Rotana. But if buildings with mixed use were stripped off the list, the Burj Al Arab would be the world's third tallest hotel. The structure of the Rose Rayhaan, also in Dubai, is Template:Convert tall,<ref name=":0">Template:Cite news Template:Cbignore</ref> Template:Convert taller than the Burj Al Arab, which is Template:Convert tall.<ref name=":0" />The Burj Al Arab’s helipad, located 210 meters above ground, has been the site of several high-profile events, including a tennis match between Roger Federer and Andre Agassi, and stunts by Red Bull athletes.

Rooms and suitesEdit

The hotel is managed by the Jumeirah Group. The hotel has 199 exclusive suites each allocated eight dedicated staff members and a 24-hour butler service.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The smallest suite occupies an area of Template:Convert, the largest covers Template:Convert.<ref name="arcUAE">Damluji, Salma Samar, The Architecture of the U.A.E.. Reading, UK: 2006.</ref>

The Royal Suite, billed at Template:US$ per night, is listed at number 12 on World's 15 most expensive hotel suites compiled by CNN Go in 2012.<ref>Arnold, Helen "World's 15 most expensive hotel suites" Template:Webarchive CNN Go. 25 March 2012. Retrieved 11 April 2012</ref>

The Burj Al Arab is very popular with the Chinese market, which made up 25 percent of all bookings at the hotel in 2011 and 2012.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

RestaurantsEdit

File:Al Muntaha restaurant - Burj Al Arab.jpg

Al Muntaha

File:Al Mahara Burj al Araba Dubai March 2008c.JPG

Al Mahara

There are six restaurants in the hotel, including:

Al Muntaha ("The Ultimate"), is located Template:Convert above the Persian Gulf, offering a view of Dubai. It is supported by a full cantilever that extends Template:Convert from either side of the mast, and is accessed by a panoramic elevator.Template:Citation needed

Al Mahara ("Oyster"), which is accessed via a simulated submarine voyage, features a large seawater aquarium, holding roughly Template:Convert of water. The wall of the tank, made of acrylic glass in order to withstand the water pressure, is about Template:Convert thick.Template:Citation needed

RatingEdit

While the hotel has sometimes been described as "the world's only 'seven-star' hotel", the hotel management claims never to have done so themselves. The term appeared due to a British journalist who had visited the hotel on a tour before it was officially opened. The journalist described Burj al Arab as "more than anything she has ever seen" and therefore referred to it as a seven-star hotel.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> A Jumeirah Group spokesperson said "There's not a lot we can do to stop it. We're not encouraging the use of the term. We've never used it in our advertising."<ref name="The National">Template:Cite news</ref>

ReceptionEdit

Reviews by architecture criticsEdit

Burj Al Arab has attracted criticism as "a contradiction of sorts, considering how well-designed and impressive the construction ultimately proves to be."<ref name="arcUAE"/> The contradiction here seems to be related to the hotel's decor. "This extraordinary investment in state-of-the-art construction technology stretches the limits of the ambitious urban imagination in an exercise that is largely due to the power of excessive wealth." Another critic includes negative critiques for the city of Dubai as well: "both the hotel and the city, after all, are monuments to the triumph of money over practicality. Both elevate style over substance."<ref name="arcUAE"/> Yet another: "Emulating the quality of palatial interiors, in an expression of wealth for the mainstream, a theater of opulence is created in Burj Al Arab ... The result is a baroque effect".<ref name="arcUAE"/>

In popular cultureEdit

The last chapter of the espionage novel Performance Anomalies<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> takes place at the top of the Burj Al Arab,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> where the spy protagonist Cono 7Q discovers that through deadly betrayal his spy nemesis Katerina has maneuvered herself into the top echelon of the government of Kazakhstan. The hotel can also be seen in Syriana and also some Bollywood movies.Template:Which

Richard Hammond included the building in his television series Richard Hammond's Engineering Connections.

The Burj Al Arab serves as the cover image for the 2009 album Ocean Eyes by Owl City.

The Burj Al Arab was the site of the last task of the fifth episode of the first season of the Chinese edition of The Amazing Race, where teams had to clean up a room to the hotel's standards.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The building is featured in Matthew Reilly's novel The Six Sacred Stones, where a kamikaze pilot crashes a plane into the hotel, destroying it in an attempt to kill the protagonist, Jack West Jr.

The building was the location of the main challenge of the ninth episode of the Canadian-American animated television series Total Drama Presents: The Ridonculous Race,<ref name="race">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> where contestants were tasked to either return a serve from a tennis robot on the hotel's helipad, or squeegee an entire column of the hotel's windows.