Continuing my search for cities in the world were undergoing construction booms, I found Dubai as another obvious world leader. They are undergoing several world record braking projects at the moment, including the Burj Dubai, which will be the tallest man made structure of any kind in the world.
I am unable to post photos at the moment, but a photo gallery of the construction is available here http://www.pbase.com/bmcmorrow/dxbburjdubai&page=all
Its top floor will be 624 windows high, nearly 70 metres taller than the next tallest building, and a spire which reaches 818 metres high. The Footings alone required some 45000 cubic metres of concrete, and weighed 110000 tonnes. The first 88 floors are to be built of reinforced concrete, with the remaining floors being structural steel framing. The exterior cladding will consist of 'reflective glazing with aluminum and textured stainless steel spandrel panels with vertical tubular fins of stainless steel.'
The original plan was taken from the propsed Grollo tower in Melbourne, but was replaced with the current plan, which better suits its Islamic context.
The building will brake all records, at least until the finalization of the design of Freedom tower in the USA, which is likely to become the next record braker.