What’s being touted as the biggest hotel on Earth is under construction in Saudi Arabia and its doors are set to open for business next year. At a cost of $3.5 billion, the Abraj Kudai will consist of 12 towers, 10,000 rooms, 70 restaurants and 5 helipads. Five floors of the hotel will be designated for the sole use of the Saudi Royal Family.
10 of the 12 towers will offer four-star accommodations. 2 of them will be equipped for five-star service and are going to be reserved only for “special clientele.”
Here is how The Guardian first described the hotel:
Modelled on a “traditional desert fortress”, seemingly filtered through the eyes of a Disneyland imagineer with classical pretensions, the steroidal scheme comprises 12 towers teetering on top of a 10-storey podium, which houses a bus station, shopping mall, food courts, conference centre and a lavishly appointed ballroom.
Located in the Manafia district, just over a mile south of the Grand Mosque, the complex is funded by the Saudi Ministry of Finance and designed by the Dar Al-Handasah group, a 7,000-strong global construction conglomerate that turns its hand to everything from designing cities in Kazakhstan to airports in Dubai.
For the Abraj Kudai, it has followed the wedding-cake pastiche style of the city’s recent hotel boom: cornice is piled upon cornice, with fluted pink pilasters framing blue-mirrored windows, some arched with a vaguely Ottoman air. The towers seem to be packed so closely together that guests will be able to enjoy views into each other’s rooms.
Some reports indicate that economic conditions in The Kingdom could delay the opening of the hotel until 2018.
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