# This HUGE skyline did not exist 5 years ago



## Dubai_Boy (May 21, 2003)




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## spyguy (Apr 16, 2005)

It would be cool to have a Before/After photo from the same angle.


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## Citygazer83 (Oct 21, 2005)

I think Dubai is on its way to becoming the biggest financial center between Frankfurt and Singapore.


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## Jue (Mar 28, 2003)

... as well as the largest aviation hub in the world. It is the natural stopover point between Europe, Africa, India, and China.

Becoming the biggest financial center between Frankfurt and Singapore is not hard: none exist at the moment! A world-class one, at least. Dubai can give Tel Aviv, Cairo or Mumbai an easy one-two soon enough. Now, if it can actually rival either Frankfurt or Singapore, no matter how far in the future, that is real accomplishment.



> It would be cool to have a Before/After photo from the same angle.


You don't need one. Just imagine there not being any buildings. :lol:


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

Emirates is trying to make Dubai a stopover for European, Australian, and Asian passengers with their lower fares. But advances in technology will soon make a nonstop flight between London and Sydney a very possible journey. In that case, the notion of a necessary stopover will become obsolete, regardless of where that may be (Dubai, Hong Kong, Bangkok, or Singapore).


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## juan_en_el_valle (May 10, 2005)

It's not huge.


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## Skyscrapercitizen (Sep 11, 2002)

^^

:lol:

sounds frustrated...


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## DarkFenX (Jan 8, 2005)

juan_en_el_valle said:


> It's not huge.


Bigger than any skyline in Texas.


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## Childish King (Apr 23, 2004)

It's not huge at all from this angle.


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## EtherealMist (Jul 26, 2005)

DarkFenX said:


> Bigger than any skyline in Texas.


Isnt Houston really big?


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## Rene Nunez (Mar 14, 2005)

it's so sad how our most modern and futuristic city is so backwards and oppresive comparatively.


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## 909 (Oct 22, 2003)

Great to see. And this is just the beginning!


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## Jue (Mar 28, 2003)

hkskyline said:


> Emirates is trying to make Dubai a stopover for European, Australian, and Asian passengers with their lower fares. But advances in technology will soon make a nonstop flight between London and Sydney a very possible journey. In that case, the notion of a necessary stopover will become obsolete, regardless of where that may be (Dubai, Hong Kong, Bangkok, or Singapore).


Many flights that theoretically could be direct are flown through hubs. It is not a technological, but rather economic or logistical, limitation in most cases. A route from London to Sydney is certainly practical, but what about, say, Manchester to Auckland? In that case somebody may choose a one-transfer flight from Manchester to Dubai to Auckland rather than a two-transfer one from Manchester to London to Sydney to Auckland.


> Isnt Houston really big?


In sheer magnitude of sprawl, yes. The city is over 100km wide in any direction. :lol: As far as high-rises go, the joke is, four storeys is considered high-rise. :rofl:


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

There is enough traffic between London and Australia to sustain a nonstop flight. Routes that are not economical will have a stopover so airlines can sell 2 legs of tickets and fill up as much capacity as possible. In the past, a direct flight from London to Sydney was not possible. The technology was not there to fly a plane full of passengers so far. Now the new airplanes can make it that far, so flight times can be reduced through a sustainable nonstop flight.

Many airlines are chasing after customers on the London - Sydney route, so the implications of these new long-range planes are quite severe on the existing hub-and-connect airlines. Can they successfully change their strategy to service secondary cities via their hubs? That's quite a gamble, and unlikely to draw enough traffic to replace the passengers lost to the direct kangaroo route.


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## elliot (Dec 19, 2003)

It's one building deep.... see Manhattan.


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## Guest (Nov 19, 2005)

maybe not huge, but speed of progress is really impressive!


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## Nick in Atlanta (Nov 5, 2003)

Dubai will remain a major hub because all the cities in Europe, South Asia and the eastern Africa don't have enough population to support direct nonstop flights between them. There will be no need for a flight from Frankfurt to Sydney to stop in Dubai, but there won't be enough passengers traveling between Hannover in Germany to Amritsar in India to support a nonstop flight. It is putting together these smaller city pairs that hubs like Dubai and Abu Dhabi and Qatar will allow. Dubai will receive much competition from other airlines in the region that have the financial backing to grow, but its definitely has a very good start in the race.

Regarding Dubai becoming the largest financial capital between Frankfurt and Singapore, there could be a lot of competition from cities like Mumbai if India ever opens itself up to the outside world as much as Dubai has.


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## Lucky 24 (Aug 10, 2003)

It's got the skyscrapers, but does it have the soul? I have never seen good streetscape shots of Dubai, and I doubt I ever will with the way the city is planned out.


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## sakor1 (Aug 5, 2004)

The most impressive *2d skyline* on the planet. Perth comes 2nd on that one 

Stu


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## Giorgio (Oct 9, 2004)

Its so not dense. Melbourne is better.


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## kevinb (Jan 30, 2006)

I think Dubai at the moment needs denser business districts. The photos shown are all in one line. Not so pretty to look at. I hope they have plans for a denser business district.



redstone said:


> Dubai's construction is so surreal and scary...


Not really scary. I find some renderrings of the planned buildings or towers weird. Don't get me wrong, but I think it's almost out-of-this-world.


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## Maltaboy (Apr 15, 2006)

Dubai is truly God's gift to Middle Eastern engineering !


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## Marek.kvackaj (Jun 24, 2006)

Dubai 
"fantasy city" is building in midlle of nowhere...one dream of rich people become true, city for relaxing for amusement of superrich people 
somewhere I have read that this is purpose of building this city


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## titeness (Jul 3, 2004)

Maltaboy said:


> Dubai is truly God's gift to Middle Eastern engineering !


hno: 

How many of these buildings are actually designed or planned by persons from UAE? Moreover, how many of the construction workers and engineers are from UAE? The fact is this construction is mainly due to foreign investment, europeans see Dubai as a place to make money and pay low taxes and they will all haul ass and leave at any sign of economic downturn. Enjoy it while it lasts, I doubt the economy of the UAE can be self sustaining, Oil is the breadwinner, I hope they can develop education and thier own population into a viable workforce and can offer something to humanity other than oil in the future. UAE is one of the few countries where foreigners do all the work and I mean almost ALL of the professionals are foreign nations - that means there basically going to be taking money out of the economy - especially when they retire.


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## Gary B (Jan 14, 2005)

Jue said:


> In sheer magnitude of sprawl, yes. The city is over 100km wide in any direction. :lol: As far as high-rises go, the joke is, four storeys is considered high-rise. :rofl:


This post reflects a comment about Houston being big.

Where actually is this joke known? 

Houston is the 3rd tallest city in the states with towers over 300', thus we are easily regarded as a very tall city. Secondly, Houston boasts over 115 million square feet of office towers in an area that's litterally 7 miles apart (DT, Uptown, Greenway plaza, and the Med Center.) Of course that doesn't consider Westchase, Energy corridor, Greenspoint, Southwest Houston, etc.

Here is a pic of Uptown Houston, it will some of you an idea of what I'm talking about. By the way, it's almost half the size of Downtown Houston.


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## samba_man (Dec 26, 2004)

Dubai Miracle !


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## Jayskyline (Dec 1, 2006)

DUBAI is like a white boy trying to rap. its just not natural


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## leestat_d_vamp (Aug 24, 2006)

Who will use the buildings anyways? The demand should push for its foundation and not the other way around.


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## muzammil (Dec 24, 2006)

Maltaboy said:


> Dubai is truly God's gift to Middle Eastern engineering !


*Middle Eastern engineering*:lol: 

its a joke right !!!!!!

engineering and middle eastern are like oil and water they dont mix .

most of the engineers and architects are from asia( south asia and east asia) and western world.


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## InTheBeach (Apr 20, 2006)

muzammil said:


> *Middle Eastern engineering*:lol:
> 
> its a joke right !!!!!!
> 
> ...


????

As an engineer, I can tell you that I work with many great engineers that are from the Middle East.


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## raymond_tung88 (Mar 26, 2004)

The most amazing skyline built within a short period of time is SHENZHEN!


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## Kenwen (May 1, 2005)

samba_man said:


> Dubai Miracle !


is not a miracle, is all becuse oil, otherwise how they pay for those buildings at the beginning, but the skyline indeed is impressive for just 5 years of development


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## Kenwen (May 1, 2005)

raymond_tung88 said:


> The most amazing skyline built within a short period of time is SHENZHEN!


i agree, dubai is like a smaller version of shenzhen


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## Tom_Green (Sep 4, 2004)

raymond_tung88 said:


> The most amazing skyline built within a short period of time is SHENZHEN!


I was in both cities and i like DUbai`s skyline more.


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## bedista (Aug 12, 2006)

what have you done to my Desert!!!!

it's so beautiful!!!!

do you have bars and night clubs in Dubai? is it allowed there?


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## SA BOY (Mar 29, 2003)

muzammil said:


> *Middle Eastern engineering*:lol:
> 
> its a joke right !!!!!!
> 
> ...


Oh good another dumbass with is uninformed comments


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## FastFerrari (Feb 7, 2007)

*Its ok*

Dubai's skyline is ok. You cant take away the amount and rate in which they have been building. As far as a stopover, yeah thats all it may be. A beautiful downtown has more than just a wall of building on one street. It has DENSE skyline, parks and greenery, attractions(zoo,family theme parks, history,ect.) things that tourists will want to VACTION for. Vacation cities have these things. New York, well that speaks for its self along with London,Paris,Sydney,Hong Kong,LA,Singapore ect. The list goes on.

Granted they do have some up and coming unique things in the works. As well as landing a F1 event at the start of the season. Well done on whoever scored that.Until Dubai gets some of these unique this as some of these cities have it will be a nice stopover but never a DESTINATION. 

O yeah will they are having a building frenze think about a major airport with say 4 or 5 of the worlds top airlines making frequent stops.


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## AltinD (Jul 15, 2004)

^^ 6 millions visitors last year, or 4 times the city's population. 

Stop overs are 1-2 days and few people stay that short, Dubai is a VACATION city, NYC for example isn't. :tongue2:


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## Sirgarbagemann (Apr 5, 2006)

Dude dubai is awesome!, just think of it as a human accomplishment! its wut we as humans can do and should be proud of


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## Karakuri (Dec 5, 2006)

Jayskyline said:


> DUBAI is like a white boy trying to rap. its just not natural


:applause: Wow, nice job genious! We always need some scholar comments like this one (Eminem is the best selling rapper though).

Anyway, I think Dubai can't achieve its goal of being a top notch rich resort, simply because the rich want historic cities (marriage in Rome, villa in the Alpes...).


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## malec (Apr 17, 2005)

kevinb said:


> I think Dubai at the moment needs denser business districts. The photos shown are all in one line. Not so pretty to look at. I hope they have plans for a denser business district.
> 
> 
> 
> Not really scary. I find some renderrings of the planned buildings or towers weird. Don't get me wrong, but I think it's almost out-of-this-world.


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## SYDNEYAHOLIC (Nov 3, 2006)

Is this Business Bay???


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## SYDNEYAHOLIC (Nov 3, 2006)

Because that is bloody AWESOME!!!

Only thing is there is not an inner city district surrounding this. Maybe it's just the picture only including Business Bay and the Burj Dubai.


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## OshHisham (Nov 14, 2005)

muzammil said:


> *Middle Eastern engineering*:lol:
> 
> its a joke right !!!!!!
> 
> ...


malaysian mega builders have many projects there too..


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## OshHisham (Nov 14, 2005)

if were a tourist...what i wanna see is, an ARAB city with ARAB peoples and ARAB/MUSLIM culture. so, what happen right now is...today's Dubai made up by mostly foreigners. they are the MAJORITY!!!.....what im thinking about Dubai is...not more than a skyscrapercity.....hno:


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## erbse (Nov 8, 2006)

Just let me repeat my question, I'm still interested:



erbsenzaehler said:


> What's going on with *Hydropolis*, the proposed underwater-hotel?


Come on, it's Christmas time, let this present become reality


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## Backstrom (Apr 26, 2006)

^^
I'm sorry, I haven't heard of Hydropolis. But while this thread is back, I'd like to give my share of insight as well as keep this thread alive so the chances of getting your question answered will be increased. 

I have mixed feelings about Dubai. The infrastructure is there. The market isn't. It's more that the development itself is impressive, but not the reason behind the development. Many of the new towers seem to hold because of the promise of tenants and the burgeoning real estate market itself, but in the future these developments are threatened by impending vacancies as well as a constrained market dominated by foreign investment and limited economic diversity. 

I think what they're doing is bold, but they may be biting off more than they can chew.


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## Audiomuse (Dec 20, 2005)

AMAZING!!

Although I have mixed feeling about it. 
UAE is saturated with development. Is there a slowdown on the horizon?


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## cello1974 (May 20, 2003)

Why do they build a 10-million-megacity-skyline for not even 2 mn people?


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## mbuildings (May 6, 2007)

stunning!


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## ale26 (Sep 9, 2005)

Gary B said:


> This post reflects a comment about Houston being big.
> 
> Where actually is this joke known?
> 
> ...



Seriously what are you trying to prove? That Houston is better than Dubai?

This thread is dedicated to Dubai, not Houston. And let me give you some more facts while were at it.
Toronto is the second tallest city in North America after New York City and is the 5th largest city in North America...Omg! What did I prove? Nothing...

Let Dubai have the light for now b.c it is MUCH more impressive than Houston..


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## Alexriga (Nov 25, 2007)

Dubai has awful traffic jams. Maybe it is time to build some metro lines. Okey, superrich- undersand-fastest-mostbeautiful-golddecorated-goodsmelling metro lines.


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## fettekatz (Oct 17, 2007)

^^ no doubt


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## Phthalm (Jun 27, 2007)

hkskyline said:


> just as I notice many northern cities have abysmal streetlife, too. All the people are just elsewhere.


If you think the streetlife in any of the Nordic cities and towns are any different to any other European country you´d better think again because it´s not. The climate isn´t that much different either.


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## Universal Soulja (Mar 16, 2007)

elliot said:


> It's one building deep.... see Manhattan.


^^


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## StevenW (Sep 12, 2002)

When all the proposed, approved and under construction 1,000+ ft. towers are built, how many will there be? :? 20? 30? More? :?


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## Sielbeck (Jul 10, 2006)

What I don't get is that Dubai has a skyline to match the best in the world, but the city itself is relatively diminutive. Why is that? Are they compensating for something? :lol:


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## oliver999 (Aug 4, 2006)

dubai has had more 200m+ than shanghai now. but i feel very strange about dubai's surrounding--------desert.


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## fettekatz (Oct 17, 2007)

Sielbeck said:


> What I don't get is that Dubai has a skyline to match the best in the world, but the city itself is relatively diminutive. Why is that? Are they compensating for something? :lol:


I think so 

but more important is, that the king/sheik believes that you can make a shortcut in developing a metropolis. Usually big cities evolve over a long time around a certain business. Dubai is build first in hope to attract business which dosn't exist yet.


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## oliver999 (Aug 4, 2006)

the difference is ,other cities booming causes huge skyline, but dubai is tring to build huge skyline to cause booming.
finally, we will see if dubai success or not in next 10years.


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