The change in the tall buildings criteria will not affect Burj Dubai, according to a senior official at the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat.
CTBUH is an international body that decides on tall building height and determines the title of 'The World's Tallest Building'. While the body respects the developer keeping the height confidential at the current stage of its construction in Dubai, it will measure the building to check the actual height if the developer does not release the height post completion, he added.
"Throughout the process, we have been talking to them to define where the entrance is [the new criteria]. I do not think that it will have an impact on the current status of Burj Dubai," David Scott, ex-chairman at CTBUH and Principal at Arup told Emirates Business yesterday.
With immediate effect, the body announced yesterday a change to its height criteria, where "height is measured from the level of the lowest, significant, open-air, pedestrian entrance" This will allow for the recognition of the increasing numbers of multi-use tall buildings with often several different entrances at different levels, while also accommodating buildings constructed in non-traditional urban or suburban locations, it added in a statement.
The CTBUH Height Committee has now determined that the previous description of where to measure tall building's height from is now no longer sufficient.Height is measured from the sidewalk outside the main entrance to the top.
Burj Dubai, set to open as the world's tallest building in January 2010, will now be measured from the lowest of its three main entrances, which opens into the lobby for the tower's corporate suite office. "There is awareness within the Burj team of what we are talking about," said Scott.
"The developer Emaar is still confidential about the height of the building and we don't mind it being confidential. But if they open the Burj and don't release the height, then we will measure the height of the building. During construction it is fine, but after construction we want to know and our people want to know its final height.
"This new criteria is to solve instances where a tall building had no sidewalk and the connection to the building is through an open air shopping centre. We did not want to change the heights of all the buildings in the world, of course. But this decision has been taken to really clarify how to measure the heights for different buildings," said Scott, who was chairman of the body until October this year.
"The current CTBUH chairman, Professor Sang Dae Kim, has been part of this discussion committee, which started while I was the chairman. "
In a statement, Peter Weismantle, Chair of the CTBUH Height Committee and Director of Supertall Building Technology at Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture in Chicago said: "Learning that Burj Dubai would be significantly taller than any structure ever built, the CTBUH Height Committee met to review the criteria by which we recognise and rank the height of buildings. As one might guess, with the committee being made up of architects, engineers, contractors, developers, building owners and academics, a variety of opinions and views were expressed."
The resulting revisions almost two years later reflect a general consensus of the committee in recognising the most recent trends in tall building development around the world, he said in the statement.
The Trump International Hotel and Towers in Chicago will be measured from the lower, publicly accessible Chicago Riverwalk. In the case of Trump, this additional 27 feet means that it will surpass the Jin Mao Tower in Shanghai to occupy the rank of sixth tallest on the current list of completed buildings, said the CTBUH.
The Height Committee has also elected to discard its previous "Height to Roof" category. "The roof category doesn't make sense anymore," said CTBUH Executive Director Antony Wood. "In the era of the flat-topped modernist tower, a clearly defined roof could usually be identified, but in today's tall building world, which is increasingly adopting elaborate forms, spires, parapets and other features at the top of the building, it is becoming difficult to determine a 'roof' at all, even less so to measure to it."
Emaar, the Burj Dubai developer, was unavailable for comment yesterday despite being contacted by phone and email several times.
