Spinning Skyscraper Planned For Dubai

"World's First Building In Motion" Set To Be Built By Architect With Questionable Credentials

(AP)  An Italian architect said he is poised to start construction on a new skyscraper in Dubai that will be "the world's first building in motion," an 80-story tower with revolving floors that give it an ever-shifting shape.

The spinning floors, hung like rings around an immobile cement core, would offer residents a constantly changing view of the Persian Gulf and the city's futuristic skyline.

A few penthouse villas would spin on command using a voice-activated computer. The motion of the rest of the building would be choreographed in patterns that could be altered over time.

Speaking at a news conference in New York on Tuesday, the building's designer, David Fisher, declared that his tower will revolutionize the way skyscrapers are made - a claim that might strike some as excessively bold.

Fisher acknowledges that he is not well known, has never built a skyscraper before and hasn't practiced architecture regularly in decades.

But he insisted his lack of experience wouldn't stop him from completing the project, which has attracted top design talent, including Leslie E. Robertson, the structural engineer for the World Trade Center and the Shanghai World Financial Center.

"I did not design skyscrapers, but I feel ready to do so," Fisher said.

Twisting floors are just one of several futuristic features in the building, the first of several Fisher hopes to build with a similar design.

Giant wind turbines installed between every floor, he said, will generate enough electricity to power the entire building, and lifts will allow penthouse residents to park their cars right at their apartments.

A second version of the tower, to be built in Moscow, would have a retractable helicopter pad. Both structures, at over 1,300 feet, would be taller than the Empire State Building.

Even the method of construction would be unorthodox.

Fisher said each floor will be prefabricated in an Italian factory, then shipped to the site to be attached to the core. Assembling a building in this fashion, he said, will require only 80 technicians and take only 20 months, saving tens of millions of dollars, for a total cost of $700 million to build.

On its face, the project seems to pose a number of complicated engineering puzzles.

How would the plumbing hookups work in an apartment that is constantly moving? Fisher said the pipes will connect to the core via attachments similar to the ones used by military aircraft for in-flight refueling.

Wouldn't people get dizzy? No, says Fisher. The rotations will be slow enough that no one will notice.

With so many moving parts, wouldn't the building be a maintenance nightmare? Fisher said the building's modular construction will allow easy access to parts that need to be replaced.

Robertson, who attended Tuesday's news conference, said that the skyscraper might be unusual, but is "absolutely" buildable.

"You can build anything," he said, smiling.

Fisher declined to say exactly where in Dubai the tower will be built or when site work might begin. He insisted, however, that factory production is set to start within weeks and that the tower, which will contain office space, a luxury hotel and apartments, will be complete by 2010.

Sales of individual apartments will begin in September, with asking prices of around $3,000 per square foot. The smallest, at 1,330 square feet, would cost about $4 million and the largest, a 12,900-square-foot villa, $38.7 million.

Skeptics might question Fisher's credentials to pull off the job.

In a biography he had been distributing for months, he said he graduated from the University of Florence in 1976, came to New York in the mid-1980s and later developed hotels and ran a company that specialized in stone and prefabricated construction materials.

The biography also said he received an honorary doctorate from "The Prodeo Institute at Columbia University in New York." No such institution exists, however, and Columbia said it had never awarded Fisher an honorary degree.

Asked to explain the discrepancy, Fisher said, through his New York publicists, that he had been awarded the degree by the Catholic University of Rome during a ceremony in 1994 held at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, which is near Columbia's campus.

Asked again to clarify the name of the school that conferred the degree, Fisher's publicists said in an e-mail that the information has been removed from his bio "because he wants to be entirely accurate and cannot be with this information."

[acolton1]

I think they are ugly.

[extremophil]

It looks kinda like a giant middle finger pointing at the West.

[xxunknown]

haha Extremophil.

[inventagod2]

The perfect neocon target...

[displeased]

"Fisher acknowledges that he is not well known, has never built a skyscraper before and hasn''t practiced architecture regularly in decades."

Perfect! Keep us posted with how things go.

[cbsguest6]

I think they are going to have issues that they haven''t thought of yet and it will be longer than they expect by the time it is finished. I also think it will cost more than they expect.

[Gary Kempf]

Sales of individual apartments will begin in September, with asking prices of around $3,000 per square foot. The smallest, at 1,330 square feet, would cost about $4 million and the largest, a 12,900-square-foot villa, $38.7 million.

So do you think Cheney has already put money down on his?

[rf35]

When it''s finished, someone should fly a plane into it just out of spite.

I hear Cheney is planning on buying the $38.7 million villa penthouse.

[enlightenu]

This is a case of an architect who has officially gone insane.

[hawksprings]

"I hear Cheney is planning on buying the $38.7 million villa penthouse."
Posted by rf35

You''re wrong.
Algore is going to buy it with the Carbon Credit money you send him.

[lewiston14]

If you got the money Dubai is a very IN place to be. I dont even have the money to go visit. I would have liked to see it.

[venkata4--2008]

" -- .. I hear Cheney is planning on buying the $38.7 million villa penthouse.

Posted by rf35 at 01:21 PM : Jun 25, 2008"

Probably Halliburton new headquarters will also be there and of course VP''s retirement home.

[neobrian-2009]

Spinning Like KING W Spins LIES!!
Always Moving,Always Telling LIES
The SHRUB SHAKER !

[lewiston14]

%u201CAll these OPEC nations that have gotten fat off of feeding like a tick from the west%u201D

No they have something you want and if you dont want it dont buy it. I would not say that was being a tick. Very easily they double or triple the price of oil knowing full well in the end you will buy it and it wont loose any value if it sits in the ground. Your brand new bike is going to need some oil at some point or the bearings are going to stop turning. What you going to do then batman.

[jackie0428]

What a coincidence. I have just designed a jet that only flies backwards, upside down, only 7 feet above the ground, it%u2019s wings are made of red bricks, and it uses Gatorade for fuel. It also has a continuously running machine gun that cannot be turned off. Yes, admittedly I have never designed an airplane before, and haven''t even practiced aeronautical design since 1965. But, I feel confident I can do this.

[ddaryl1]

glad to see capitalism is serving the people of this world well.

America has no one but themsleves ot blame... We showed them how to do it.

Now if us working class Americans can just reach that knife stuck in our back that was put there by the Wall Street capitalist and corporations we might actually move forward as a country.

not going to happen though. We''re nothing more then a sacrificial lamb, and a way to the means for the elite.

[jetlizhan]

you''ve got to be kidding. why??? no thanks to living or working in one of these dizzy domes.

[ubrew12]

If you''re in construction, Dubai is a great place to find a job and work for some of the richest folks on the planet. (Halliburton, etc).

[jackie0428]

U2, if you read the article, and had more than 5 brain cells, you''d have gotten my point. You obviously didnt read the whole article. Jacka*ss.

[jackie0428]

U2PlayNice, you are so full of sh*t your eyes are brown. You have never been in the service in your life. No US miltary person would spew that much cr*ap and lies from their mouth, unless they were insane.

[ciitzenusa]

U2PlayNice , that''s a lot of demented and misplaced anger you have there. Dubai is an incredible sight. I''ve never seen anyone who has seen it either in person or on TV who wasn''t amazed and delighted. They have taken hard-earned money, and converted a mere desert into some of the most extraordinary architecture and engineering marvel in world history. Why your pea-brain sees fit to denigrate it is beyond me and the rest of the free world.

[minnick8-2009]

If I had the money to go to Dubai, I wouldn''t go there. They already have enough of our money; why give them more?

[talkingham]

Glad my highway robbery gas dollars are going to such great use. W will probably have a permanent penthouse in one of these.

[duffyn]

If this doesn''t make people not want to buy gas, I don''t know what will. My heart goes out to those who have no choice. The price of fuel is bringing out nation (America) to a halt. Food, utility bills, anything made of plastic, all going up up up until no one can afford anything. There is a great transfer of our wealth going to the oil producing countries....

[feelfree4u]

Now Cheney can sit and spin.

[lewiston14]

"Dubai is a great place to find a job and work for some of the richest folks on the planet"

Good point cause it isn%u2019t very easy here anymore. Why not go work where the money is. Actually being an electrical engineer Ret I would love a job in a black truck delivering parts to companies with a black lab dog and a laptop with GPS at my side. Speaking English I would be a dream to a customer service unit can you picture and American getting to a person that speaks English but I like to travel from place to place even if its only 50 miles apart. Make lots of new friends that way. Always tell the truth and always be honest and I would do fine.

[bobnjersey]

[Fisher acknowledges that he is not well known, has never built a skyscraper before and hasn''t practiced architecture regularly in decades. ]

who needs credentials when you''re building big stuff ... they''re way overrated anyhow. just get some good insurance and you''re good to go.

[bobnjersey]

[What''''s your stupid point?]
[Posted by U2PlayNice at 03:08 PM : Jun 25, 2008]

that would be sarcasm. to show how ''stupid'' this non-architect''s confidence and claims are.

this guy was probably inspired by the ''art vandeley'' character from seinfeld. ''i just dont see architecture coming from you''.

[questionnews]

Now Cheney can sit and spin.

Posted by FeelFree4U at 03:52 PM : Jun 25, 2008

I noticed that there is a new poster running under "Mr. Totten" Is that your nemesis or is someone playing him. Either way he posts some odd stuff.

[hungry1968]

"This looks expensive Akhmed!!"

"No problem Abdul!! We''ll just charge those filthy, rotten, capitalist, American pigs $300 a barrel for oil!!"

(As we cut to the scene where they both break out in spontaneous laughter and climb into their solid gold stretch limosines.....)

[chatarpatar]

"No problem Abdul!! We''''ll just charge those filthy, rotten, capitalist, American pigs $300 a barrel for oil!!"

(As we cut to the scene where they both break out in spontaneous laughter and climb into their solid gold stretch limosines.....)
------------------------------------------------------
Posted by hungry1968 at 04:56 PM : Jun 25, 2008


hungry1968

YOU ARE NOT MAKING IT UP. THIS EXACTLY IS HAPPENING NOW A DAYS !!!!

[rf35]

You''re wrong.
Algore is going to buy it with the Carbon Credit money you send him.

Posted by HawkSprings at 01:34 PM : Jun 25, 2008

Al Gore can suck my Cheney! I%u2019m not sending him shiit! And he should give back the Nobel Prize now that his man-made global warming theory has been thoroughly trounced.

[vietnam21]

Al Gore can suck my Cheney! I%u2019m not sending him shiit! And he should give back the Nobel Prize now that his man-made global warming theory has been thoroughly trounced.


Posted by rf35

you are killing me...

[hungry1968]

Al Gore can suck my Cheney! I%u2019m not sending him shiit! And he should give back the Nobel Prize now that his man-made global warming theory has been thoroughly trounced.

Posted by rf35 at 05:49 PM : Jun 25, 2008





Thoroughly trounced? Nearly every climate interred scientist in the world agrees with him, and you say he was "thoroughly trounced"?


I''m dying to know - "trounced" by who?

[vietnam21]

This looks expensive Akhmed!!"

"No problem Abdul!! We''''ll just charge those filthy, rotten, capitalist, American pigs $300 a barrel for oil!!"

(As we cut to the scene where they both break out in spontaneous laughter and climb into their solid gold stretch limosines.....)


Posted by hungry1968

OH YEH, WE''LL NAME YOUR COUNTRY AXIS OF EVIL AND WE''LL TAKE IT, JUST LIKE IRAQ.

[rf35]

I''m dying to know - "trounced" by who?


Posted by hungry1968 at 05:53 PM : Jun 25, 2008

A bit over 31,000 folks with science degrees. Google it yourself if you think you need a source.

[ubrew12]

For some reason, they''ve decided to nickname this spinning tower ''the O''Reilly''

[truthislife1]

Where''s the stirred sewer line gonna go!

[ubrew12]

truthislife1 said: "Where''s the stirred sewer line gonna go! "

As a water sprinkler works, they were just planning on letting centrifugal force cast it outward, onto the heads of the little people below.

[cyberdjs4]

This Fisher guy sounds like the LAST person you''d want to build something this ambitious.

If he were a political candidate, he would have been roasted and toasted over his lack of experience and ambiguous educational background.

[truthful291]

Wake up America! Is everyone aware that the citizens of the USA by buying oil has allowed Dubai to exsist? Trillionaire oil sheiks can''t lower oil costs- but they can build 350 million dollar spinning buildings? Wake up America! Dubai is quite rapidly becoming very powerful (money = power), so much so it is scary! So next time you fill your tank for $5 a gallon just imagine what frivolous extravagance will be built for the oil sheiks of Dubai to enjoy.

[pineaplegrly]

Hmmm....when everyone in the thing dies in a fire can I have the money? Seriously, they could only build something like that in a country with few building restrictions, how could it possibly be fire safe? There would be no quick means of esacpe, especially for people on the top floor. Good concept, but I think unrealistic especially from someone who seems like they may be a "wanna-be" architect. Have fun with that one Dubai.

[masc78]

Although his credentials are in question, I think he can pull this off. But he really should talk to the architects who built the World Trade Center in Mexico City. They accomplished the rotating top. I''ve been up there and the view is phenomenal, the toilets flush and the food is fantastic. This is a possibility. Let''s see what happens.

[tryhonesty]

Dubai can build all it wants, but can not change one very important fact of real estate...location, location, location...it is still in the Middle East, where history will condem it to rubble...

[inventagod2]

Saudi Bling...

[midland666]

One more Example of how far behind the U.S. is falling, even in creativity, there seems to be a brain drain.

[hypnotoad72]

One more Example of how far behind the U.S. is falling, even in creativity, there seems to be a brain drain.

Posted by midland666
-----------------------

It''s not profitable enough. Instant gratification is all that matters.

[ciitzenusa]

What a coincidence. I have just designed a jet that only flies backwards, upside down, only 7 feet above the ground, it%u2019s wings are made of red bricks, and it uses Gatorade for fuel. It also has a continuously running machine gun that cannot be turned off. Yes, admittedly I have never designed an airplane before, and haven''''t even practiced aeronautical design since 1965. But, I feel confident I can do this.

[bequialife]

citizenUSA - that is hilarious!!!!!! I love you for that!!

[arpad77]

It is easy to have negative comments; anything can be criticized, it does not take a deep intellect. New ideas were always ridiculed or put down throughout history. I, as a practicing Architect welcome Mr. Fisher''s revolutionary (no pun intended) idea, enormous amount of time and money invested to work out a new concept rather than follow the trend: "who can build taller". I don''t really care if he built any skyscrapers before.If he did he could not break free of convention as he seems to have. Nor does he need to know every engineering trick that goes into even a "simple" high rise building: he can hire (and he hopefully does)the best creative consultants anywhere. Remember: Calatrava designed dynamic moving structures! Our profession should be forward looking, supportive and bring dreams to reality. Cheers to you Mr Fisher! I would be glad to brainstorm with you to make this the most unique innovation to date a reality even with some compromises which will be inevitable.
Arpad Chabafy, AIA