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The Leaning Tower of Abu Dhabi
By Metilda Carl Published: 08/01/2009
‘World’s Most Inclined Tower’ will house a five-star Hyatt.
Surely you’ve seen someone’s photos of their vacation in Italy. You know, the ones where they strike a pose in front of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, carefully positioning themselves so the camera makes it appear as though they’re holding up the tower. Soon, guests of the Hyatt at Capital Centre in Abu Dhabi, will be able to take the same sort of photos, only they’ll have to crouch down a little further.
Later this year, Capital Gate, which will house the new Hyatt, is scheduled to open, and the project’s architectural firm, RMJM, says the building will lean four times more than the Pisa structure, securing it a place in the Guinness Book of World Records. Capital Gate leans westward at 18 degrees.
Because of its unique posture, the tower is being constructed on top of an incredibly dense mesh of reinforced steel. Its asymmetric diagonal structure, known as a “diagrid,” supports the tilting external load of the building and RMJM claims that it will be the first building in the world to use a pre-cambered core. Other diagrid buildings include the Hearst Tower in New York and the “Gherkin” in London.
The 200-room Hyatt will be the first Hyatt-operated hotel in the UAE capital.
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