We use all sorts of criteria to catalog all the impressive buildings and projects worldwide. This time we’ve decided that a top with 10 Of The Most Expensive Buildings In The World would be an exciting topic, so we’ve gathered information, and this is what we came up with.
01. The Marina Bay Sands Resort In Singapore.
The Marina Bay Sands is a resort located in Singapore. Las Vegas Sands developed it, the world’s most expensive standalone casino property. The resort includes, besides the casino, a hotel with 2,561 rooms, a 1,300,000-square-foot convention and exhibition center, an 800,000-square-foot mall, a museum, two theatres, seven celebrity chef restaurants, an ice-skating ring, and, of course, the world’s largest atrium casino that has 500 tables and 1,600 slot machines. The cost of the whole project was $8 billion.
Moshe Safdie Architects designed this spectacular resort. Initially, the plan was for the resort to open in 2009, but it all had to be delayed. It officially opened in June 2010, and there was a two-day celebration. The casino had already opened on April 17th of the same year. The theatres became functional on November 30th, while the other facilities opened later that year.
The total cost of the project is estimated at $8.0 billion. It was a challenging project, but the casino is expected to generate at least $1 billion in annual profit. It attracts around 25,000 visitors daily. But the resort doesn’t impress with numbers only; its design is also spectacular. As the designer has declared, the resort was initially inspired by card decks. Besides the casino, it integrates three hotel towers connected by the Skypark, which is built at a height of 200 meters. The resort’s gardens are also impressive. The 250 trees and 650 plants cover an area big enough to fit three football fields.
02. The Emirates Palace In Abu Dhabi.
The Emirates Palace is a luxury hotel in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates. The hotel was designed by architect John Elliott RIBA. The cost to build it was 3.9 billion GBP. This fantastic hotel opened its doors in November 2005. However, some of the restaurants and spas that are part of the complex only opened in 2006.
The hotel occupies a total area of 850,000 square meters of floor space. In addition, it has underground parking for 2,500 vehicles and its marina and helipad. It occupies second place in the top most expensive hotels in the world. The Emirates Palace has 302 rooms and 92 suites. There are also 16 Palace Suites and 22 three-bedroom suites.
The top floor contains six Ruler’s Suites reserved for Emirati royalty and dignitaries. Some of the suites and rooms are furnished in gold and marble. The hotel also features the world’s most expensive Christmas tree, valued at 11 million dollars.
The hotel was built in 3 years, costing approximately USD 3 billion with the help of 20,000 workers. Sitting on over 100 hectares of land, the hotel has spectacular gardens and 1.3 km of exclusive beach. It also offers two swimming pools for adventure and relaxation, several tennis courts and cricket courts, a rugby pitch and soccer facilities, fitness suites, and a luxury spa.
03. The Cosmopolitan Of Las Vegas On The Las Vegas Strip.
Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas is a luxury resort casino and hotel complex built on the west side of the Las Vegas Strip. It opened its doors on December 15th, 2010. It was a $3.9 billion project. It offers 2,995 hotel rooms, a 75,000-square-foot casino, 300,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space, and a 40,000-square-foot spa and fitness facility. In addition, the resort also features a 1,800-seat theater and 150,000 square feet of meeting space. The resort has three pools: one for relaxation, a day club pool, and a nightclub pool.
Friedmutter Group led the project’s design team. It was a collaboration with Arquitectonica, DeSimone Consulting Engineers, and a design team formed by Prophet, the Friedmutter Group, The Rockwell Group, Jeffrey Beers, Adam Tihany, and Bentel & Bentel. The resort was built on a parking lot that belonged to the Jockey Club.
The Cosmopolitan is the second Las Vegas hotel to feature an underground parking garage. This is why the garage had to be built first. The parking structure was completed in 2007. The casino was then built on the ground level. Due to trademark disputes, in March 2010, the resort was renamed Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas. Several celebrity restaurants also announced their opening, and little by little, the resort became the impressive structure it is today.
04. The Wynn On The Las Vegas Strip, Nevada.
The Wynn or Wynn Las Vegas is a resort and casino located on the Las Vegas Strip in Nevada. It’s a $2.7 billion resort, and it was named after casino developer Steve Wynn. The entire resort covers an area of 215 acres, and the hotel alone sits on 614 feet of space. The hotel has 45 floors and houses 2,716 rooms.
The resort also includes the 111,000-square-foot casino and a 223,000-square-foot convention center, and 76,000 square feet of retail space. If we add the adjacent Encore hotel, the Wynn resort complex offers 4,750 rooms. The resort opened its doors on April 28th, 2005. It was the first resort to include a luxury car dealership for cars such as Ferrari and Maserati. The dealership is located near the valet parking, where guests can admire the model cars while waiting for their own to arrive.
But cars aren’t the only attraction. A Ferrari Store also offers apparel, racing merchandise, and electronics, as well as a home gym branded with the Ferrari logo. Besides their appeals, the resort also includes the Wynn Golf Course, the only one on the Las Vegas Strip. The hotel’s Tower Suites have 296 rooms, a private driveway, Rolls-Royce house cars, and a private entrance. In 2006, the resort celebrated its first anniversary. It was then that a second hotel tower also began its construction. The building was called Encore, a $2.3 billion project.
05. The Venetian Macao On The Cotai Strip In Macau.
The Venetian Macao is also a hotel and casino resort that, as its name might suggest, is located on the Cotai Strip in Macau. The Las Vegas Sands corporation owns the resort. It’s a fantastic 40-story high structure that occupies 10,500,000 square feet of space. The project cost was $2.4 billion, resulting in Asia’s largest single-structure hotel building. It’s the 6th most prominent building and houses the world’s largest casino.
The resort was designed to resemble The Venetian from Las Vegas. The main hotel tower was constructed in July 2007, but the resort officially opened on August 18th of the same year. The resort incorporates 3000 suites along with 1,200,000 square feet of convention space and 1,600,000 square feet of retail space. Five hundred fifty thousand square feet of casino space has 3400 slot machines and 800 gambling tables, and a 15,000-seat arena for entertainment and sports events.
The casino comprises four themed gaming areas: the Golden Fish, the Imperial House, the Red Dragon, and the Phoenix. The resort’s hotel also has a club (the Paiza Club) with a gaming area divided into several private rooms named after Asian cities and regions such as Yunnan, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Kuala Lumpur. The Venetian Arena hosts sports events such as basketball, tennis, and boxing, but it’s also used for concerts and televised awards shows.
06. The Antilia In Mumbai, India.
We now go from resorts to family homes. Of course, we’re going to start with the Antilia, the world’s most extensive and expensive family home ever built. It’s located in Mumbai, India. This $1 billion family home was built for Mukesh Ambani and his family. It has 27 stories, and it’s 568 feet high. In total, the Antilia has over 398,000 square feet of living space.
The project was a partnership between architecture firms Perkins+Will and Hirsch Bedner Associates. It took them three years to complete it. The result was this large family home that could easily be confounded with a hotel. Inside, the structure contains a health club, a gym, a dance studio, a swimming pool, a ballroom, and several guestrooms. There is also a parking garage on the ground floor that can hold 160 vehicles. To take care of this place, the owners employed a staff of 600 people.
Even though initially, the project described the building as the greenest structure in the world, covered in foliage and with all sorts of similar features, the final result was very different. The building features a steel structure with no apparent green elements. Nevertheless, it remains the world’s biggest and most expensive private home. Named after the mythical Atlantic island of Antilia, the building has nine elevators in the lobby, three helipads, and an air traffic control facility. Moreover, it houses the world’s most extensive collection of antique sewing machines.
07. The Bellagio In Las Vegas Strip, Nevada.
The Bellagio is a luxury hotel and casino found on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada. Very popular for its fountains, MGM Resorts International owns the complex. It was built on a site where the Dunes hotel and casino used to be. It was named and inspired after the Lake Como town of Bellagio, Italy.
The element it’s most famous for is the 8-acre lake positioned between the building and the Strip. Here you can admire the famous Fountains of Bellagio, most notably the one synchronized to music. Inside the hotel and casino building, visitors are welcomed into a lobby where 2,000 hand-blown glass flowers cover 2,000 square feet of the ceiling. The main tower houses 3,015 rooms. It has a total of 46 levels and is 508 square feet high. To the south of the main building, you can find the Spa Tower. This one has 33 floors and 392 square feet, totaling 935 rooms.
The Bellagio complex opened its doors on October 15th, 1998, with a $88 million ceremony. In 2000 Mirage Resorts merged with MGM Grand Inc. and became MGM Mirage. In 2010 the company was renamed MGM Resorts International. In 2006, the casino was remodeled, and in 2011 all of the main tower’s 2,500 rooms were also upgraded and remodeled. The Fountains of Bellagio, a great attraction, can be seen from numerous points on the Strip. The show takes place every 30 minutes in the day and every 15 minutes from 8 pm till midnight.
08. The Palazzo In Nevada.
The Palazzo is a luxury casino and hotel resort that can be found between the Wynn and The Venetian. The resort’s hotel offers the most oversized suites and guest rooms on the Las Vegas Strip (720 square feet per room). It holds the record for the tallest completed building in Nevada. Dallas-based HKS, Inc designed the resort.
The construction began in February 2006, and a lot of time was allotted to the underground parking space. In March 2007, the hotel’s elevator core was completed, and the Palazzo was scheduled to open at least 1,000 rooms by December. The casino opened on December 30th, but the official grand opening of the Palazzo took place on January 17th, 2008. The building has a total floor area of 6,948,980 square feet and has become the largest in the United States in terms of floor space.
The Palazzo is a $1.8 billion resort. The guests are welcomed into a glass dome with a two-story fountain. Then they can enter the hotel. The hotel tower is a 642-square-foot high structure with 3,068 rooms and suites and 375 concierge-level suites. The Palazzo is the largest LEED-certified building in the United States and the eleventh largest in the world in terms of floor space. It is also the second-largest building in the Western Hemisphere.
09. Taipei 101 In Taipei, Taiwan.
Taipei 101, also known as the Taipei World Financial Center, is a skyscraper in Taipei, Taiwan. It used to be the world’s tallest building until the opening of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. It is a LEED Platinum certified building which also allowed it to become became the tallest and largest green building in the world.
The skyscraper was designed by C.Y. Lee & partners. Its construction was finished in 2004, becoming a landmark and a symbol for Taiwan. The reason why it’s called Taipei 101 is that it has 101 floors. There are also five additional floors situated underground. The building was designed to symbolize the evolution of technology and Asian tradition. It was also designed to withstand typhoons and earthquakes. Taipei 101 is owned by the Taipei Financial Center Corporation (TFCC).
The building used to hold the record for the fastest ascending elevator (16.83 m/s), and a giant countdown clock was displayed on New Year’s Eve. Taipei 101 is also one of the most stable buildings ever constructed. Its foundation is reinforced by 380 pillars driven 80 meters into the ground. The stability of the building was tested in 2002 when a 6.9 magnitude earthquake left it undamaged. The building’s roof and façade water recycling system meet 20 to 30 percent of its water needs, making it not just tall and imposing but also sustainable and eco-friendly. Other remarkable features are the 660-metric-ton tuned mass damper that stabilizes the tower against movement caused by high winds that can reduce its activity by up to 40%.
10. Burj Khalifa In Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Burj Khalifa, also known as Burj Dubai, is a skyscraper located in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It holds the record for the tallest artificial structure in the world, with a height of 829.8 meters. The project started on September 21st, 2004. The official opening was on January 4th, 2010. The tower is part of the 2 square km development called Downtown Dubai. Burj Khalifa was designed by Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill of Chicago. The total cost of the project was estimated at US$1.5 billion.
Named Burj Dubai initially, the tower was later renamed Burj Khalifa to honor UAE President Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan for his crucial support during the crisis that followed the project’s completion. The development includes 30,000 homes, nine hotels, 7.4 acres of parking space, 19 residential towers, and the Dubai Mall. Burj Khalifa holds the records for the tallest structure ever built, the building with the most floors, the highest elevator installation, and the world’s fastest elevator (18 m/s).
The building’s design incorporates cultural and historical elements which are particular to the region. It has a Y-shaped plan and a triple-lobed footprint inspired by the flower Hymenocallis. The tower is composed of three elements organized around a central core. Burj Khalifa also has 27 terraces. Outside the building, a record-setting fountain system was designed. It was a US$217 million project designed by WET Design, the same company responsible for the Bellagio Fountains.
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