September 21, 2004: South Korea's Samsung Corp. begins construction begins on Dubai's Burj Dubai (in the United Arab Emirates), a $1 billion glass, aluminum, concrete and steel skyscraper that becomes, at least for a while, the world's tallest man-made building.
The building is the centerpiece of Dubai's $20 billion downtown redevelopment plan, which is eventually to provide 30,000 housing units and the Dubai Mall, to be the world's largest (exceeding Edmonton Mall).
The skyscraper's topmost floors are to be occupied by 175 rooms of the Armani Hotel. Eight hundred apartments will fill floors 17 to 108. The highest observatory in the world will be located at 442 meters above ground level.
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