Armani Hotel At Burj Dubai, United Arab Emirates

The Burj Dubai has become the tallest commercial and residential building in the world. The Arabic meaning for the word Burj is 'tower', which gives Burj Dubai a meaning of 'Dubai Tower' or 'Tower of Dubai'. The building and the surrounding 160 hectare development will include office space, commercial areas, residential buildings, retail malls and most importantly, a series of luxury hotels of five- to seven-star rating.

The building and the surrounding site is being developed by EMAAR Properties with an investment of over US$8bn, including over US$1bn earmarked for the development of seven luxury hotels and three resorts over the next ten years. The hotel part of the business will be administered by EMAAR Hotels & Resorts LLC, a subsidiary of EMAAR Properties.

The Burj Dubai development will add, when completed, over 2,000 rooms to Dubai's hotel trade.

ARMANI HOTEL

In a deal forged in 2004, Giorgio Armani S.p.A. and EMAAR Hotels & Resorts LLC agreed to develop a unique series of international 'Armani Hotels and Resorts'. Giorgio Armani S.p.A. has awarded a long-term license to EMAAR Hotel & Resorts LLC for the operation of the hotels and resorts, where EMAAR will be fully responsible for real estate, construction, management and operations.

Giorgio Armani will oversee all aspects of content, design and style, including interiors and amenities, incorporating the various Armani fashion, furnishings and beauty collections.

Giorgio Armani S.p.A. has established an Armani Hotels and Resorts division at its headquarters in Milan, which has been actively developing the design concepts under the close supervision of Giorgio Armani. This will define the look and feel of the hotels and resorts.

ARMANI AT THE BURJ

The first Armani brand hotel is expected to be opened by the first quarter of 2009 and is under construction as part of the Burj Dubai development. The Dubai 'Armani Hotel' will include 175 guest rooms and suites, five restaurants and a spa, covering more than 40,000m². Alongside the hotel, the Burj Dubai will also offer 160 luxury residential apartments all designed by Giorgio Armani and fully furnished with a specially designed line of products from the Armani Casa home furnishings collection.

The schedule of Armani hotel openings to follow Dubai will be Milan, London, and New York along with the first resort. Giorgio Armani said, "This marks the beginning of a new chapter in the Armani story. In this our thirtieth anniversary year, I cannot think of a more energising prospect than bringing my philosophy of style and design to a collection of hotels and resorts.

"Today, more than ever before, fashion has expanded to encompass our way of life, not just how we dress, but where we live, which restaurants we eat at, which car we drive, where we go on holiday and which hotels we stay in.

"I strongly believe that for those people who enjoy the Armani fashion and home furnishings collections there will be a real enthusiasm for the possibility to now stay at an Armani hotel or resort. This continues our ongoing strategy of building the Armani universe into a comprehensive lifestyle brand."

BURJ DUBAI

The Burj Dubai development includes The Dubai Mall, the world's largest shopping and entertainment complex; The Residences, an exclusive upscale series of high-rise apartment towers; an Office Park; Burj Dubai Lake Hotel; Burj Views; The Old Town, a low-rise traditional residences community inspired by the stylist antiquity of Arabian architecture; and The Burj Dubai Boulevard, a 3.5km stretch that binds the entire district and gives it an international ambience, besides man-made lakes and landscaped parks.

The Dubai Mall will be downtown Dubai's major retail outlet and will also be the world's largest shopping mall, covering 836,000m². Burj Dubai Mall will have areas for leisure pursuits, including a world-class aquarium, fashion show arena, gold souk and an ice rink. The Burj Dubai has been designed to be the centre of a large-scale, mixed-use development that will include 30,000 homes, 9 hotels, 6 acres of parkland, 19 residential towers, and the 12 hectare Burj Dubai Lake. Once completed, the tower will cover a total of 2 million m² of development.

BURJ DUBAI CONSTRUCTION

The Burj Dubai will be over 700m tall. There will be 162 floors above ground and two below ground with the height to the roof being around 630m. The groundbreaking for the building occurred in September 2004 and topout is expected by late 2008 and opening by March 2009. The gross floor area of the building will be 344,000m².

In June 2008 the building was on schedule, with 141 levels out of the ground. At 512.1m, the tower now has more storeys than any other building in the world. It is also taller than the 508m Taipei 101 in Taiwan, which has been the world's tallest building since it opened in 2004. The tower is increasing in height by a level every three days. More than 313,700m³ of concrete and 68,200 metric tons of steel rebar have been used so far in its construction.

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