Glass-clad Burj tower opens in Dubai

The basics: The 160-story Burj Dubai, renamed Burj Khalifa at its Jan. 4 opening celebration, surpassed the 101-story Taipei 101 in Taiwan as the world’s tallest building, according to a Jan. 4 article from the New York Times. Burj Khalifa rises 2,717 feet and offers views that can reach 60 miles, according to the article. The tower is about twice the height of New York’s Empire State Building and is clad in more than 28,000 glass panels, according to a same-day BBC article. The name change honors the president of Abu Dhabi, Sheik Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahyan. Abu Dhabi provided billions of dollars to help rescue Dubai’s crashing real estate market, according to the New York Times article.

The players: Architect, Skidmore, Owings, Merrill (SOM), Chicago; engineering firm, Hyder Consulting, London; project manager, Turner International, New York City; general contractor, Samsung C&T Engineering and Construction Group, Seoul, South Korea; cladding contractor, joint venture between Arabian Aluminum, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Far East Aluminum, Hong Kong; Guardian Select Fabricator, White Aluminum Glass Division, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates; glass manufacturer, Guardian Industries, Auburn Hills, Mich.

The glass: More than 2 million square feet of Guardian SunGuard Solar Silver 20 and Guardian ClimaGuard NLT Low-E. The two products offer solar and thermal performance to cope with the desert environment, according to a Dec. 30 Guardian release. The glass provides an anti-glare shield for the strong desert sun, and a high light-reflectance to keep the interior from overheating. The glass is designed to withstand extreme desert temperature swings and strong winds, according to the release.