Burj Khalifa is also the fi rst high-rise building to
contain controlled evacuation elevators for emergency
situations. The tallest tower in the world also has the
world’s highest elevator installation — the spire maintenance
elevator — situated inside a rod at the very top of the
building.
The water system supplys an average of 946,000
litres of water per day. At the peak cooling times, the
tower will require approximately 10,000 tonnes of
cooling per hour, which is equivalent to the capacity
provided by 10,000 tonnes (22.4 million lbs or 10.2 million
kg) of melting ice in one day.
The tower also has a condensate collection system,
which uses the hot and humid outside air, combined with
the cooling requirements of the building and results in a
signifi cant amount of condensation of moisture from the
air. The condensed water is collected and drained into
a holding tank located in the basement car park. This
water will then be pumped into the site irrigation system
for use on the tower’s landscape plantings. This system
will provide about 15 million gallons of supplemental water
per year, equivalent to nearly 20 Olympic-sized swimming
pools.
There are unconfi rmed reports of several planned
height increases since its inception. Originally proposed
as a virtual clone of the 560 m (1,837 ft) Grollo Tower
proposal for Melbourne, Australia’s Docklands waterfront
development, the tower was redesigned with an original
design by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. Marshall Straba-
la, a SOM architect who worked on the project until 2006,
said that it was designed to be 808 m (2,651 ft) tall.
The design (& height) changes Burj Khalifa went through
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