Burj Khalifa vs Scotia Plaza

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The Burj Khalifa (Arabic: ??? ?????, Arabic pronunciation: [b?rd?? xa?li?fa]; pronounced English: ), known as the Burj Dubai prior to its inauguration in 2010, is a skyscraper in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. With a total height of 829.8 m (2,722 feet, just over half a mile) and a roof height (excluding antenna, but such as a 244 m spire) of 828 m (2,717 feet ), the Burj Khalifa has been the tallest structure and building in the world since its topping out in 2009 (preceded by Taipei 101).Construction of the Burj Khalifa began in 2004, with the exterior finished five decades later in 2009. The principal structure is reinforced concrete. The building was opened in 2010 as part of a new development called Downtown Dubai. It is designed to be the centrepiece of large-scale, mixed-use development. The decision to construct the building relies on the government's decision to diversify from an oil-based economy, and for Dubai to obtain international recognition. The building was originally named Burj Dubai but was renamed in honour of the ruler of Abu Dhabi and president of the United Arab Emirates, Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan; Abu Dhabi and the UAE government lent Dubai money to pay its debts. The building broke numerous height records, including its designation as the tallest building in the world. Burj Khalifa was designed by Adrian Smith, of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, whose firm designed the Willis Tower and One World Trade Center. Hyder Consulting was selected to be the supervising engineer with NORR Group Consultants International Limited selected to supervise the architecture of this project. The design is derived from the Islamic architecture of the region, such as in the Great Mosque of Samarra.

The Y-shaped tripartite floor geometry is designed to optimize residential and hotel room. A buttressed central core and wings are utilised to support the elevation of the building. Although this design was derived from Tower Palace III, the Burj Khalifa's central center homes all vertical transport with the exception of egress stairs within each of the wings. The structure also offers a cladding system which is designed to withstand Dubai's hot summer temperatures. It comprises a total of 57 elevators and 8 escalators. At a particular stage in the architectural and engineering process, the original Emaar programmers experienced financial problems, and required more money and financial funding. Sheikh Khalifa, the ruler of the United Arab Emirates, granted monetary aid and financing, hence resulting in the changing of the name to'Burj Khalifa'. The concept of profitability derived from creating high density developments and malls around the landmark have proven effective. Its surrounding malls, hotels and condos in Downtown Dubai have generated the most revenue from the project as a whole, while the Burj Khalifa itself made little or no profit.Critical reception to Burj Khalifa has been generally positive, and the building has received many awards. However, there were numerous complaints regarding migrant workers from South Asia who were the key building labor force. These centered on low wages and the practice of confiscating passports until duties were complete. Several suicides were reported.

Source: Wikipedia

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Scotia Plaza is a commercial office complex in the city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is in the financial district of the downtown core bordered by Yonge Street on the east, King Street West on the south, Bay Street on the west, and Adelaide Street West on the northwest. At 275 m (902 ft), Scotia Plaza is Canada's third tallest skyscraper and the 22nd tallest building in North America. It is on the PATH network, also contains 190,000 m2 (2,045,143 sq feet ) of office space on 68 flooring and 40 retail stores. Olympia and York developed the complex as an expansion of the adjoining headquarters of Scotiabank and the bank continues to occupy approximately 24 floors of the structure. Olympia and York owned the complex from its completion until the business was liquidated due to overwhelming debt in 1993. Scotiabank led a consortium of banks to buy the mortgage for Scotia Plaza and within the next five years, it bought additional shares from its partners before it was the property's majority owner.On January 19, 2012, Scotiabank announced it would sell the iconic building and on May 22, announced a final agreement with Dundee Real Estate Investment Trust (now Dream Office REIT) and H&R Real Estate Investment Trust for $1.27 billion, making it the last of Canada's leading banks to divest ownership of its Toronto headquarters land. In 2016, H&R and Dream sold 50% of the construction to KingSett Capital and AIMCo; in 2017, Dream sold its remaining 50% stake in 2017 to the same two companies.

Source: Wikipedia