Jeddah Tower

Jeddah Tower is a megatall skyscraper that is currently being built in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. It is not the same as the Jeddah TV Tower.

The tower is in the north of the city. It is the main building of the Jeddah Economic City project. It is planned to be the first building that is 1 kilometre (3,300 feet) tall. When it is finished, it will be the tallest building or structure in the world. It will be at least 180 metres (590 feet) taller than the Burj Khalifa.

As of 9 October 2026, construction has passed the 118th floor. The tower is more than 470 metres (1,540 feet) tall.

Overview

Jeddah Tower was designed by Adrian Smith and Gordon Gill of AS+GG Architecture. It has many unique structural and design features. The project's creator and leader is Saudi Arabian prince Al-Waleed bin Talal. He is the chairman of Kingdom Holding Company (KHC). KHC is a partner in the Jeddah Economic Company (JEC). JEC was formed in 2009 to develop Jeddah Tower and City.

Construction stopped in January 2018, when JEC halted the concrete work on the building's structure. About one third of the tower was finished by then. The stop was caused by labor problems with a contractor. This happened after the 2017–2019 Saudi Arabian purge and the COVID-19 pandemic. In September 2023, a new request for proposals was issued to finish the delayed project. The project had sat without work for nearly five years, and development started again in 2023. Construction restarted in January 2025. The building is expected to be finished around mid-2028.

Site

Jeddah Tower's plot is 50 hectares (120 acres). It sits with nearby buildings and will be the first part of a three-phase project called Jeddah Economic City. The project will be built on a large area of empty land by the sea, about 5.2 square kilometres (2.0 sq mi). This land is about 20 kilometres (12 mi) north of the port city of Jeddah. HOK Architects designed Jeddah Economic City. It is estimated to cost at least SR75 billion (US$20 billion) and to take around ten years to build.

The development is expected to grow into a new district of Jeddah. The second phase will build the infrastructure needed to support the city. The third phase has not yet been announced. The main purpose of the development and the tower is to include a Four Seasons hotel, Four Seasons short-rental apartments, Class A office space, and luxury condominiums. The tower will also have the world's highest observation deck. The site is almost cut off from the current centre of Jeddah, but no land of this size was available closer to the city. Most people expect the city to grow toward the north in the future.

Construction history

Building the tower has had a long and bumpy history. In May 2008, soil testing raised doubts about whether the ground could hold the planned skyscraper. MEED reported that the project had been made smaller, by "up to 500 metres (1,640 ft)." In 2009, reports said the project had been put on hold because of the 2008 financial crisis. They also said Bechtel, the first engineering firm, was leaving the project. Kingdom Holding Company said the project had not been stopped.

In March 2010, Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture was picked as the early architect. Later, it won a design contest against eight leading firms, including Kohn Pedersen Fox, Foster + Partners, and Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. Adrian Smith had also designed the Zifeng Tower in Nanjing, China, the Trump International Hotel & Tower in Chicago, the Jin Mao Tower in Shanghai, and the Pearl River Tower in Guangzhou, China. In October 2010, the owners signed a development agreement with Emaar Properties PJSC.

The ground was hard to build on. It includes soft bedrock and porous coral rock, so engineers had to design a special foundation. The piling and foundation were planned so the building would sink evenly. The concrete also had to keep out salt water from the Red Sea, which can damage it, so it needed low permeability. In August 2011, the Saudi Binladin Group was chosen as the main builder. The landscaping contract went to a company based in the United States. In early 2013, the Jeddah Economic Company hired a team made of EC Harris and Mace to manage the project. Construction started on 1 April 2013, and the pilings were finished that December.

In late 2017, some leaders were arrested as part of the 2017 Saudi Arabian purge, and work later stopped because of the COVID-19 pandemic. In September 2023, Jeddah Economic City restarted the project. Construction officially began again in January 2025. Work slowed during Ramadan and then sped up. In October 2026, the tower reached 113 floors. This passed the height of Central Park Tower, which had been the highest building in the western hemisphere by roof height.

Development team

The main designer of Jeddah Tower is Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture, a firm from Chicago. Adrian Smith also designed the Burj Khalifa while working at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), where he worked for almost 40 years. Emaar Properties PJSC is managing the tower's development. Thornton Tomasetti is the structural engineering firm. Environmental Systems Design, Inc. (ESD) is also on the design team as the building services engineering consultant. The main construction company is Saudi Binladin Group (SBG). Part of this company is owned by the family of Osama bin Laden. Adrian Smith said the company's size and experience make it a good fit for large projects.

Besix Group, which built the Burj Khalifa, was considered for the contract earlier but did not win. One reason was that SBG invested SR1.5 billion (US$400 million) in Jeddah Economic Company (JEC). JEC is a closed joint stock company (PJSC) formed in 2009. It manages the money for Jeddah Tower and Jeddah Economic City. Its main owners are Kingdom Holding Company, Abrar Holding Company, and SBG. JEC owns a land bank, which will be used as collateral to get bank loans. Kingdom Holding is an investment company founded in 1980. 95% of it is owned by Al-Waleed bin Talal. It has interests in companies such as Walt Disney, PepsiCo, Kodak, Apple, Hewlett-Packard, Motorola, Time Warner, News Corporation, Pinnacle Infotech Solutions, and Citigroup.

Architecture

The tower has been designed to be at least 1,008.2 metres (3,308 ft) tall. Its exact height is being kept private while it is built, similar to the Burj Khalifa. At about one kilometre, Jeddah Tower would be the tallest building or structure in the world. It would stand 180 m (591 ft) taller than the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

The tower is made of reinforced concrete. It uses a buttressed core, which means three wings support the central core against wind. Its design was inspired by earlier tall towers, such as the CN Tower in Toronto. The tower sits on a piled raft foundation near the Red Sea. Engineers control how much the building sinks, and a cathodic protection system helps stop the metal from rusting. A tuned mass damping system in the spire helps reduce movement caused by wind. Lessons from the Burj Khalifa shaped the design. The design also follows local rules and international building codes. Orange Group runs the building's information and communications systems. Geotechnical engineering and transportation engineering are handled by Langan International.

The tower will have 57 elevators. Seven of them are double-deck units, made by the Finnish company Kone. Three sky lobbies let people change elevators, so no single elevator has to carry everyone. The building will also have shops and other places to use, so it can work somewhat like a "vertical city." The estimated construction cost is US$1.23 billion, which is less than the Burj Khalifa's US$1.5 billion. Like the Burj Khalifa, the tower is meant to raise the value of the land around it, rather than to make a large profit itself. The Burj Khalifa's malls, hotels, and homes in Downtown Dubai earned most of that project's money. The tower's location near King Abdulaziz International Airport may affect airspace. Experts noted that buildings over one kilometre are possible, but they bring practical and sustainability challenges.

Impact

Saudi Arabia's property market has seen high demand and rising home prices. Some analysts say this could be a real estate bubble. These changes are linked to fast population growth and a shortage of homes. To help, the Saudi government plans to spend US$67 billion (SR251 billion) on about 500,000 homes across the country. Officials say about 900 new homes a day are needed, because the population has nearly quadrupled over the past forty years. The Jeddah Tower is a central part of the larger Jeddah Economic City project. The US$7.2 billion (SR27.1 billion) expansion of King Abdulaziz International Airport is also meant to help the region grow.

A representative from Standard Chartered, which invested US$75 million in the Saudi Binladin Group, said Saudi Arabia expects to spend more than US$400 billion on infrastructure over several years. An analysis by Citigroup found that about US$220 billion in spending could affect the Jeddah Tower project. Planners present the tower as an example of environmentally friendly building, with modern technology meant to reduce its carbon footprint. Developers have suggested that landmark projects like this could bring gentrification and more interest from other countries. The tower's designer, Adrian Smith, called it a symbol of Saudi Arabia's economic goals and technical skills. Bob Sinn, an engineer at Thornton Tomasetti, noted that the main challenges of very tall buildings are often practical rather than structural. Al-Waleed bin Talal described the project as a political and economic statement about investment at home.

Floor plan

It is estimated that Jeddah Tower will have 167 floors, and about 252 levels in total. Many of these levels will not be full floors with solid slabs between them. They will be practical divisions of the building's height.