A Santa Monica architect known for his high-rise designs is working on what may be the ultimate "spec" building -- a 224-story skyscraper with green ambitions that would be the tallest structure in the world.
The tower is envisioned for a man-made island in Abu Dhabi, if leaders of the oil-rich emirate decide they want to make a statement to rest of the world and perhaps one-up neighboring Dubai.
A conceptual design for the $3.5-billion project in the United Arab Emirates is under consideration by an Abu Dhabi planning committee, said Tommy Landau, the architect who created the design and is part of an unusual team of U.S. real estate players trying to get the ambitious project launched.
Landau knows it might be several years before construction starts -- if it starts at all. But he's not in a rush.
"This would be my swan song, my goodbye thing," the 72-year-old architect said.
Such a building could hold more than 11 million square feet for such uses as offices, shops, hotels or condominiums. That raises the question: Is there actually a need in the Middle East for a building so gargantuan that it would be more than three times as tall as U.S. Bank Tower in downtown Los Angeles, the tallest building in the West?
Probably not any time soon, because many real estate developments already underway in the Emirates have been stalled by the international economic crisis. But the builders' calculations wouldn't necessarily be based on demand. The point is to be big enough to make the world take notice.
"It's almost like what successful animators do, building super-scale stuff to draw attention," Landau said.
The architect and his partners have some ideas about how to make people talk about their tower, starting with the massive clock mounted at the same height as the top of New York's Empire State Building -- but less than halfway up their proposed tower. At the wide base of the tower would be a restaurant, where diners could rotate inside as if they were on a Ferris wheel.
Other elements might include entire floors given over to shopping centers or gardens, and a vast museum of Middle Eastern antiquities.
But the building's defining statement would be its ability to create more energy than it uses, said Newport Beach developer David Kubit, a consultant to the project. The necessary solar power equipment doesn't exist yet but may not be far away, he said.
