24,000 Windows - Clean by Tonight!

Reach for the sky, how to clean all that glass: It is the world's tallest skyscraper but who is going to clean its 24,000 windows? The answer - an Australian company that has designed and built an $8 million window-washing system to burnish the reflective glass of the Burj Dubai tower that rises almost a kilometre above the Arabian desert. The rulers of Dubai last night tried to convince the world that their financial troubles had been overstated by holding a lavish launch of the 818-metre ''superscraper''. It dwarfs the world's previous tallest buildings, the 508-metre tower 101 in Taipei, and the 629-metre KVLY-TV mast in North Dakota. Among the 6000 guests were representatives from Melbourne company Cox Gomyl, which designed and built the machinery to take window cleaners, harnessed to metal cages, to the 160 storeys. Unmanned machines will clean the 27 extra tiers and the spire.



The general manager, Dale Harding, said the company had also tendered to provide the 36 cleaners needed to battle the hot desert sun, high winds and routine sand storms. ''It takes about three months to clean the entire building so the machines will be operating in cycles the vast majority of the year,'' he said. The machines cover about 40 storeys each and travel along tracks fixed to the facade. When not in use, they are hidden at various heights behind glass panels. While the technology is cutting edge, the window washers - most likely migrant workers - will use the traditional squeegee and soapy water. ''It's a challenging environment to work in. You're out on your own, the wind is howling by, the heat is bouncing off the glass and on the lower levels there is sand as well,'' Mr Harding said. The cleaners will carry electrolyte packs and wear specialised clothing resembling moon suits, while working only on parts of the building that are in shade.
Cox Gomyl is one of several Australian connections to the Burj Dubai. Melbourne and Sydney experts from Hyder Consulting reviewed and approved the tower's design on behalf of the Government of Dubai. The company also supervised construction. ''We are in fact responsible for the building,'' said property director Jim Forbes. ''To be involved with the tallest building in the world was a real thrill.'' Mr Forbes said Dubai's wind and frequent sand blasts presented a design challenge combated by changing the tower's shape as it ascended to ''confuse the wind and resist any vibrations.'' Setting aside fears that the emirate is on the brink of defaulting on its debt, last night Dubai's ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, was expected to make a triumphal ascent of the $1 billion tower which has swimming pools on floors 43 and 76 and plans for the world's highest mosque on the 158th floor.

Burj Dubai set to open as world's tallest building: Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum expected to ascend the 800m Burj Dubai during lavish opening party. Crews of cleaners today rushed to finalise preparations for the grand inauguration of the Burj Dubai, the tallest building in the world. With batteries of fireworks and an invited crowd of 6,000 guests, the rulers of the Gulf emirate will tonight attempt to convince the world that their financial troubles have been overstated with a lavish celebration of a glass and steel building that tapers almost a kilometre into the sky. Dubai's ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum (pictured), is expected to make a triumphal ascent of the spire-shaped tower which rises over 800m from the Arabian desert. He will announce the exact height this evening in a move intended to draw a line under the country's financial crisis, which has left a trail of outstanding creditors. "Crises come and go, and cities move on," said Mohamed Alabbar, chairman of Emaar Properties, the state-owned developer of the building. "You have to move on. Because if you stop taking decisions, you stop growing."

With swimming pools on floors 43 and 76 and plans for the world's highest mosque on the 158th floor, the $1bn "superscraper" dwarfs both the world's previous tallest building, the 508m tall tower 101 in Taipei, and the 629m KVLY-TV mast in North Dakota, the tallest man-made structure. It is so high, the temperature is said to be 10C cooler at the zenith than at the base. But with many investors in the building's 1,044 apartments already facing losses after property prices in Dubai slumped, the Burj's owners are struggling to present their architectural achievement as anything but a pyrrhic victory. The offices and most of the flats are still an estimated two months from completion and the emirate's neighbours in Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi, which provided Dubai with a £15bn bailout last year, are also understood to be unimpressed at the ostentation of the building.

The fountain outside cost a reported £133m and the 160 room hotel was designed by fashion designer Georgio Armani and boasts a nightclub, two restaurants and a spa. Meanwhile, labourers on the project, including many immigrants from Pakistan, India and Bangladesh, earned low wages. Skilled carpenters took home just £4.34 a day and labourers, £2.84. Security is expected to be tight. Local newspapers quoted Major General Mohammed Eid al-Mansouri, head of the protective security and emergency unit for Dubai police, saying more than 1,000 security personnel, including plainclothes police and sharpshooters, will be deployed to secure the site for the opening.

But even by the standards of an emirate which has created miles more beach front by building vast islands from millions of tonnes of sand in the shapes of palms, the tower stands out as Dubai's most remarkable achievement. Around 12,000 people are expected to live and work in the tower which is part of a 500-acre development known as "downtown" Burj Dubai. Alabbar said Burj Dubai was "another demonstration of Dubai's ability to achieve what few people thought possible". "The tower is a global icon," he said. "It represents the determination and optimism of Dubai as a truly world city. It is a powerful symbol for the entire Arab world."

Burj Dubai is the ultimate vantage point: After all the hype, we find out what it’s actually like to see the city from the ultimate vantage point. “They could have at least washed the windows!” moaned one journalist stood on the 124th-storey observation deck of the Burj Dubai. Apparently it can get dusty when you’re half a kilometre in the air. Only very slightly though – and you’d have to be an epic grinch to let this taint your experience of the world’s tallest building.
Ignoring this glass-half-empty simpleton, the rest of us took advantage of today’s press preview to get a sterling view of –and from – the Dhs 5.5 billion ($1.5 billion) superstructure. Even at 8.30 on a murky Monday morning, floor 124 offers a cornucopia of sights. The circular gallery offers a 360-degree panoramic view of the city, allowing visitors to take in landmarks such as the Burj Al Arab, Wafi and The World archipelago in under a minute if they so desire.
Tours depart from Dubai Mall at 30-minute intervals. Guests enter a ground floor lobby situated between More Café and a Burj souvenir store (so if you want to buy T-shirts, photo frames or a Dhs299 commemorative crystal bottle of water afterwards, you know where to go). “Get ready to enter the record books,” pronounces a sign at the entrance. The lobby itself contains a softly-lit replica of the tower, along with “a story in numbers” (12,000 people worked on the Burj at one time or another, and it’s visible from up to 95 kilometres away apparently).
The tour itself nudges into sci-fi territory at times, especially with the elevators (TV screens and the nightclub-esque décor aside).
The lifts are a speedy proposition indeed – racing up and down the tower at an astonishing 10 metres per second, although you may not even realise you’re moving until your ears begin to pop. Now if only I could get some installed in my Al Barsha tower block… For those of you wishing to be educated as well as wowed, moving diagrams and interactive displays explain the story of how the Burj was built, before you enter the iconic edifice itself. Upon reaching the viewing deck, visitors are free to wander around the floor, which comes equipped with high-tech digital telescopes. There is even an outside platform, which was unfortunately shut yesterday for the fireworks display but will be open to the public as of today. Going back to the view, I found the sheer scale of the Burj forced home by its monstrous shadow – slicing through Dubai and almost touching the coast.