Dubai Creek Tower – Soon to Be the Tallest Tower in the World?
The Dubai Creek Tower continues to rise and is on its way to becoming the tallest tower in the world. All the details about the race among the building giants and the current status (Q1 2025) of the plans can be found in this article.
The Facts about the (Possibly Soon to Be) Tallest Tower in the World at a Glance
In the following paragraph, we have summarized all the current facts (as of Q1 2025) for you. In the article, you will learn all the background information. Stay informed about developments through our free newsletter.
- Name: Dubai Creek Tower, The Tower Dubai
- Start of Construction: October 2016
- Completion: Uncertain
- Architect: Santiago Calatrava; a revised design is being realized
- Cost: Approximately 1 billion US dollars
- Height:
Initial plan: Height announced as “over 928 meters” – 100 meters taller than the Burj Khalifa (828 meters).
Recent plans: The height will definitely be less than that of the Burj Khalifa. Possible target height: Over 634 meters (Tokyo Skytree), to be considered the “tallest tower in the world.” - Location: New district Dubai Creek
- Special Features: Spectacular design, observation decks, the best view of the Burj Khalifa about 8 kilometers away, 360-degree view over the Emirate of Dubai
Dubai – The City of Superlatives Continues to Grow with the Creek Tower
Dubai is known for its lavish buildings and skyscrapers. The incredible skyline with turquoise seas and always-warm temperatures has been attracting countless visitors to the famous emirate for years. Alongside a relaxing beach holiday, adventurers can also enjoy activities like a safari through the desert.
But the "City of Superlatives" has so much more to offer. Dubai is home to the Burj Al Arab, one of the most expensive hotels in the world. Since 2018, it also houses the world's largest picture frame, the Dubai Frame. And since 2020, it’s even home to the world’s largest Ferris wheel, Ain Dubai.
The Battle for the Title of “Tallest Building in the World"
The current tallest building and skyscraper in the world, the 828-meter-high Burj Khalifa in Dubai, was supposed to be surpassed by a new tower, the Dubai Creek Tower. The original plan called for the opening of the Dubai Creek Tower during the World Expo in 2020.
There are very different reports about the planned height at the time, ranging from 1200, 1300, or even 1350 meters. In reality, the exact height seems to be a relatively easy-to-adjust figure, thanks to the designs by Spanish-Swiss star architect Santiago Calatrava. The central structure, inspired by a lily, consists of an elevator and stairwell shaft that expands in the top third into a bud-like thickening with about 30 usable floors, before tapering into a thinner tower tip that reaches for the sky. This concept was meant to harmonize all the architectural and economic constraints of the Dubai Creek Tower in an aesthetically pleasing way at almost any height.
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The Battle of the Giants
Publicly, Mohamed Alabbar, the founder of Emaar, the company leading the development of the "The Tower" or "Dubai Creek Tower" project, always spoke diplomatically of "over 928 meters." With this, the new project would definitely surpass the Burj Khalifa by at least 100 meters.
He likely wanted to keep the flexibility to respond to plans from Saudi Arabia’s neighboring project. In 2013, the construction of a tower near the port city of Jeddah was started, aiming to be the first building in the world to reach and exceed the 1-kilometer mark — with talk of being 200 meters higher than the Burj Khalifa, completed in 2010, thus targeting a height of at least 1008 meters. The architect for the new skyscraper is Adrian Smith, who also designed the Burj Khalifa. In any case, the Dubai Creek Tower, based on the original plans, would have been able to clearly surpass the Jeddah Tower — perhaps by around 200 meters — regardless of the exact height targeted for the Jeddah Tower, which was briefly referred to as the JEC Tower, a needle-like structure in Saudi Arabia.
Dubai and Saudi Arabia seemed to be in a fierce race for the new world record for the tallest building in the world. Both projects — the Dubai Creek Tower and the Jeddah Tower — started construction. However, both rivals encountered difficulties during the construction phase, leading to interruptions, albeit for very different reasons.
Construction Halts Cause Delays
In Dubai, it was officially the Covid pandemic that halted the construction of the Creek Tower in April 2020 (see the video below). Not only that: The project disappeared from the developer Emaar's website, even though construction continued on the harbor, which is to be the heart of the tower.
Did this mean the Tower project, which had already started its foundation works in October 2016, was in jeopardy? Around 170,000 cubic meters of earth were excavated at that time to make room for the tower's foundation. After 145 piles were driven 75 meters deep into the ground, 210,000 tons of concrete were poured to form the foundation.
The foundation work was completed in 2018, but the construction did not continue immediately. This was because a revised design for the structure, then called "Lagoon Tower," had been introduced in early 2017. The revision was likely due to the real estate market in Dubai slowing down as a late consequence of the 2008 global financial crisis, with an oversupply of apartments and offices, alongside a falling oil price — economic factors that probably suggested reducing the scope of the ambitious project.
As a pure tower with little usable space, the construction, estimated at around 1 billion US dollars, was envisioned as a prestige project that would play an important role in the tourism industry of the emirate, but it would not directly yield profits. Then, with the onset of the Covid pandemic and lockdowns, the project was paused in 2020.
At the Jeddah Tower (originally also known as Kingdom Tower and estimated to cost around 1.4 billion US dollars), work had to be halted in 2018 after five years of construction, with 256 meters completed, or about a quarter of the total height. The reason for the stoppage was serious corruption charges against the construction company. During the investigations, Bakr bin Laden, president of the Binladin Group and half-brother of the infamous terrorist, was arrested (Source: Megabauten Video). Originally, construction was to resume in 2020; however, due to the Covid pandemic, this did not happen.
In early October 2024, the information service Engineering News-Record (ENR) reported that a contract to complete the project had been signed between Kingdom Holding and the Binladin Group, and the construction time would still take 42 months. Of the contract sum of 1.9 billion dollars, approximately 300 million dollars had already been paid for the previous construction works, and in January 2025, construction work was actually resumed, according to Future Zone. The over 1-kilometer-high Jeddah Tower, located in the Mecca province, could thus become a reality by 2028 and potentially claim the title of the world's tallest building.
New Plans for the Dubai Creek Tower
In August 2023, after four years of silence, there was new movement in the development of the Creek Tower project. Mohamed Alabbar, founder of Emaar Properties, announced that after a redesign, construction was expected to restart soon. However, it was now stated that the tower would be significantly shorter than originally planned. The focus was no longer solely on breaking records but on creating a more "elegant" version of the Calatrava design. The tower, which will be stabilized by cables and built at the Dubai Creek Harbour, will be smaller than initially envisioned.
In his speech at the Sharjah Entrepreneurship Festival in early February 2024 at the Sharjah Research Technology and Innovation Park, Mohamed Alabbar confirmed, according to the Abu Dhabi-based "The National," that the new design had already been approved and construction had begun. He cited economic considerations as the reason for the new design. He explained that such towers were built "because we make money from the apartments that overlook these towers." However, the Dubai Creek Tower itself would not generate direct income, Alabbar clarified in a conversation on stage.
The Burj Khalifa Remains Dubai's Tallest Building
During his appearance, Alabbar also made it clear that the new tower "will not be as tall as the Burj Khalifa." He did not reveal the exact height, but hinted at the "elegant" version now under construction: "I believe we have designed something like male and female towers," he said, according to "The National." "So, the Burj Khalifa will be the male one, and the Creek Tower will be the female one."
What exactly he meant by this remains open to interpretation for now, but it seems certain that the Dubai Creek Tower will be less massive than the Burj Khalifa, and it can be assumed that it will be more graceful.
Work on the Tallest Tower in the World
How quickly construction will progress and when it will be completed is still uncertain. When construction was suspended in 2018, only about two years remained until the planned inauguration in 2020. However, a first revised design had already been mentioned in 2017, without any clear explanation.
It is possible that there were fundamental difficulties in realizing Santiago Calatrava's original design, or that it proved more expensive to implement than planned — examples of this have occurred with the architect's spectacular designs in recent years (see next section).
As for the exact height, we will have to wait and see: On one hand, it’s clear:
- if the Dubai Creek Tower is looking up at the Burj Khalifa just a few kilometers away, it will clearly not reach the height required for the title of "World's Tallest Building."
- On the other hand, it would certainly be tempting to claim the title of "World's Tallest Tower" — a title currently held by Tokyo's Skytree, which stands at 634 meters. This is something the Dubai Creek Tower could easily achieve, even if its originally proposed height of around 1300 meters is reduced to about 650 meters. With just 30 more meters, it would even surpass the 679-meter Merdeka 118 in Kuala Lumpur. In that case, the Dubai Creek Tower would not only be the tallest tower in the world, but also the second tallest building, at least until Saudi Arabia completes the planned 1008-meter Jeddah Tower.
A Masterpiece by a Master Architect: Another Work by Santiago Calatrava
The original design for the Dubai Creek Tower comes from Spanish-Swiss architect Santiago Calatrava. Born in 1951 in Valencia and holding a PhD in civil engineering from ETH Zurich, Calatrava is known for his curved stations, bridges, and buildings in Spain and Switzerland, as well as for spectacular structures worldwide. Among many contenders, Calatrava won with his design for the futuristic building in Dubai Creek Harbour. His design was inspired by Islamic tradition: "These architectural wonders combine elegance and beauty with mathematics and geometry."
Calatrava's most recently completed work was the Path Train Station Oculus at One World Trade Center in New York, which opened in 2016. However, in recent years, the highly decorated architect has had some issues with his clients: In New York, he was blamed for doubling the Oculus construction costs from $2 billion to $4 billion, and during the construction of an exhibition and convention center in the city of Oviedo in northern Spain, parts of the Palacio de Congresos collapsed in 2006 allegedly due to a design flaw. This resulted in judicial compensation payments in the millions. Moreover, the project's costs have now quintupled to 360 million euros.
The Surroundings: The Dubai Creek Harbour
The observation tower Dubai Creek Tower, or simply "The Tower," is being built in a completely new district: the Dubai Creek Harbour. The new district is being developed by the real estate company Emaar Properties. Around 470,000 people will live in the area.
Once completed, the Dubai Creek Tower will be the centerpiece of Dubai Creek Harbour, just as the Burj Khalifa is the centerpiece of Downtown Dubai. A new district is already under construction around the tower, which could become the modern heart of Dubai. The Dubai Creek Harbour is expected to have a yacht club, a marina, and a port, as well as numerous hotels, residential buildings, and a lifestyle district filled with shops.
Additionally, the Dubai Square will be developed, a futuristic retail metropolis and a mall where electric cars will be allowed to drive in.
The new district will be larger than Downtown Dubai, covering about six square kilometers. In addition to colorful exotic plants, such as Japanese cherry blossoms, you can watch flamingos roam freely and enjoy breathtaking water shows. We are excited to see what else will be developed in the new Dubai Creek Harbour district!
FAQs about the Project
The tower is located in the Dubai Creek district, also known as Khor Dubai. There, it will form the centerpiece of the area. Khor Dubai is a natural inlet of the Persian Gulf, dividing Dubai into the districts of Bur Dubai and Deira. The Dubai Creek Harbour district is a massive urban development project.
The Dubai Creek Tower primarily consists of a slender stem that serves as the "backbone" of the tower. Near the top of the tower, there is an elongated oval structure resembling the bud of a lily. The diameter of the bud is larger than the stem, which creates usable space and gives the tower a majestic appearance — more like a building than a tower. Additionally, a beacon will be another highlight of the Dubai Creek Tower, projected from the top of the building at night.
The tower will feature luxury residences, offices, restaurants, apartments, and sky gardens. Up to ten observation decks are planned, designed like gardens and inspired by the ancient Hanging Gardens of Babylon. In addition to the inner decks, there will be many smaller rotating platforms resembling balconies at the edge of the deck. Half of these platforms will extend outside the tower's facade. These rotating platforms will lead visitors to an open-air space to enjoy the stunning views. Thus, a breathtaking panoramic view of the entire Emirate of Dubai is guaranteed!
When the time comes: Right here, with us! You can find all the ticket options and news about the completion of the Dubai Creek Tower here. To stay up to date and never miss an update, you can also follow us on Facebook and subscribe to our free newsletter. However, tickets cannot be purchased yet. On Dubai-Experience.de, you can find current offers and tickets for the currently tallest skyscraper, the Burj Khalifa.
A visit is worth it not only for the view. On the planned observation decks, you will be able to see the breathtaking skyline and all of Dubai from a 360-degree perspective. The photos taken here will be incomparable! Regardless of how tall the skyscraper eventually becomes, there is likely no more stunning view of the Burj Khalifa than from the open-air platform of the Creek Tower. A visit to the tower can be combined with other attractions. You can find out more about the available ticket options here, in our free newsletter, or on our Facebook page as soon as they are published.
1st Place in All Disciplines:
Burj Khalifa The current tallest building in the world is the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. With its height of 828 meters, it holds the current world record. How the rankings look depends on what is considered: added structures or antennas can lead to differently ordered lists, and skyscrapers and towers (such as television or observation towers) can be considered separately.
2nd Place – Not a Pure Skyscraper:
Merdeka 118 The second tallest building in the world is Merdeka 118 in Kuala Lumpur, which, since 2023, stands at a height of 679 meters. However, the actual building includes a 160-meter tower peak, which makes up almost a quarter of the total height, meaning the skyscraper has "only" 118 usable floors.
3rd Place for Buildings – and Tallest Tower:
Tokyo Skytree The Tokyo Skytree, which opened in 2012 in Japan, stands at 634 meters and is the third tallest building in the world and the tallest tower – not a skyscraper, but a television tower that has observation decks and restaurants at around 350 meters in height.
3rd Place for Skyscrapers:
Shanghai Tower With 128 usable floors, this Chinese skyscraper – despite its name, it’s not a pure tower – is ahead of the building in Malaysia, but at 632 meters, it ranks only third on the list of the tallest skyscrapers.
Other Giants Have Surpassed the 600-Meter Mark:
Also exceeding 600 meters in height is the fourth tallest skyscraper in the world, the Mecca Royal Clock Tower, standing at 601 meters. The central skyscraper in the Abraj Al-Bait complex next to the Holy Mosque with the Kaaba not only houses a hotel for around 30,000 people but is easily recognizable by its world’s largest clock, inspired by Big Ben in London, located beneath a long spire crowned by a golden crescent moon.
Planned Tower Giants Worldwide Currently, other towering giants are under construction or in planning, all of which have a chance of claiming the title "tallest building in the world": A planned one-kilometer-tall structure, the Oblisco Capitale in Egypt's new capital, is still in the planning stage. The announcement was made in 2018, and the $3.2 billion in construction costs were supposed to be financed with loans from China, although the construction sector in China has faced economic turbulence in recent years. The projected completion date was set for 2030, but the project has not yet gained momentum. The most advanced project at the moment is the Jeddah Tower, which is expected to surpass the 1000-meter mark on the west coast of Saudi Arabia by around 2028. Lastly, a bold idea from Saudi Arabia is the 2000-meter project "The Rise" in a "largely solar-powered" megacity in northern Riyadh. The architectural competition for this project was won by the UK firm Forster & Partners in 2023. However, no plans have been released so far. Speculation suggests the building will have 678 floors, with estimated costs of 4.5 billion euros.
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