WEBVTT - Short Stuff: Jeddah Tower

0:00:04.160 --> 0:00:06.880
<v Speaker 1>Hey, and welcome to the short Stuff Josh Chuck, Jerry

0:00:07.240 --> 0:00:08.920
<v Speaker 1>Dave and Spirit short Stuff.

0:00:10.080 --> 0:00:13.000
<v Speaker 2>That's right, that's my cue. This is about the Jetta

0:00:13.039 --> 0:00:17.440
<v Speaker 2>Tower j E. D. D Ah thanks to Architectural Digest

0:00:17.560 --> 0:00:20.000
<v Speaker 2>and CNN and how stuff works for this stuff.

0:00:20.720 --> 0:00:22.480
<v Speaker 3>But this is the story.

0:00:22.160 --> 0:00:26.799
<v Speaker 2>Of if it's finished eventually will be at least for

0:00:26.800 --> 0:00:28.600
<v Speaker 2>a while, the tallest building in the world.

0:00:29.560 --> 0:00:32.880
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, it's gonna make the Bird Khalifa look like poop.

0:00:35.640 --> 0:00:37.120
<v Speaker 3>So let's go back to two thousand and eight.

0:00:37.320 --> 0:00:41.240
<v Speaker 2>There's a billionaire investor named Prince Alowed Ben Tallal of

0:00:41.280 --> 0:00:44.800
<v Speaker 2>Saudi Arabia, and I think his goal.

0:00:44.640 --> 0:00:46.400
<v Speaker 3>Was to make the Bird Khalifa look like poop. He

0:00:46.440 --> 0:00:47.600
<v Speaker 3>was like, I want to make one taller.

0:00:48.479 --> 0:00:51.080
<v Speaker 2>I want to build a city and around it called

0:00:51.080 --> 0:00:57.040
<v Speaker 2>the Jetta Economic City. Terrible name, and basically like they

0:00:57.040 --> 0:01:00.600
<v Speaker 2>wanted to compete with Dubai, but in Saudi Arabia, right.

0:01:01.000 --> 0:01:04.640
<v Speaker 1>Because Dubai is in the UAE. And he wanted to

0:01:04.640 --> 0:01:07.800
<v Speaker 1>build the first skyscraper to reach over thirty two hundred

0:01:07.840 --> 0:01:10.800
<v Speaker 1>and eighty feet or higher. And for those of us

0:01:10.840 --> 0:01:14.280
<v Speaker 1>in the United States and for our friends in Liberia,

0:01:15.040 --> 0:01:17.600
<v Speaker 1>that is a kilometer. So this would be the first

0:01:17.880 --> 0:01:23.399
<v Speaker 1>kilometer high building, which is mind bogglingly tall, and he's

0:01:23.440 --> 0:01:26.880
<v Speaker 1>doing it baby in two thousand. Well, I guess they

0:01:26.880 --> 0:01:28.800
<v Speaker 1>made it up to twenty eighteen.

0:01:29.720 --> 0:01:33.880
<v Speaker 3>Before oh no, year. I was thinking feet.

0:01:33.920 --> 0:01:37.920
<v Speaker 1>Right, No, no, the year. Yeah, that was a little confusing.

0:01:37.959 --> 0:01:40.160
<v Speaker 1>I'm sorry about that. That's right, especially when you know

0:01:40.520 --> 0:01:43.880
<v Speaker 1>the construction history of the tower. But no, they made

0:01:43.920 --> 0:01:47.280
<v Speaker 1>it up to twenty eighteen the year. See, I guess

0:01:47.319 --> 0:01:51.160
<v Speaker 1>I should have said before they had to halt construction

0:01:51.240 --> 0:01:52.840
<v Speaker 1>thanks to a bunch of different stuff.

0:01:53.120 --> 0:01:55.480
<v Speaker 2>That's right, you know, it's the way he said it

0:01:55.480 --> 0:01:57.160
<v Speaker 2>when you said they went all the way up to

0:01:57.600 --> 0:01:59.279
<v Speaker 2>twenty eighteen.

0:02:00.200 --> 0:02:03.360
<v Speaker 1>Brick by brick, all the way to twenty eighteen, big year.

0:02:04.320 --> 0:02:07.560
<v Speaker 2>So yeah, construction pause in twenty eighteen. We'll talk about

0:02:07.600 --> 0:02:10.320
<v Speaker 2>why here in a minute. And also, COVID had a

0:02:10.320 --> 0:02:13.440
<v Speaker 2>big dent in it. The bird Khalifa is the current

0:02:13.480 --> 0:02:17.000
<v Speaker 2>tallest building, at twenty seven seventeen feet.

0:02:16.760 --> 0:02:20.160
<v Speaker 3>Tall the year oh no.

0:02:21.320 --> 0:02:23.799
<v Speaker 2>If you're wondering about the eventual kilometer high building, the

0:02:23.840 --> 0:02:26.960
<v Speaker 2>Jetta Tower, if you remember our beloved twin towers here

0:02:27.000 --> 0:02:29.240
<v Speaker 2>in the United States, it'll be about twice the size

0:02:29.240 --> 0:02:32.040
<v Speaker 2>of those which is astonishing to think about.

0:02:32.600 --> 0:02:35.320
<v Speaker 1>Also, I mean, for a little closer to home, if

0:02:35.320 --> 0:02:37.400
<v Speaker 1>you don't live in New York, the average two story

0:02:37.440 --> 0:02:39.760
<v Speaker 1>houses about twenty to twenty five feet.

0:02:39.639 --> 0:02:42.799
<v Speaker 3>Right for comparison, how many big macs.

0:02:43.000 --> 0:02:44.720
<v Speaker 1>I looked and I was like, I'm not doing this.

0:02:44.919 --> 0:02:45.639
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, that's over.

0:02:46.800 --> 0:02:50.560
<v Speaker 2>It was designed both Birge Khalifa and the Jetta Tower

0:02:50.560 --> 0:02:52.920
<v Speaker 2>by an American architect named Adrian Smith.

0:02:53.440 --> 0:02:55.400
<v Speaker 3>Did not know that, Yeah, and they're both.

0:02:56.440 --> 0:02:59.000
<v Speaker 2>You know, it's not a copycat of the Bird Khalifa,

0:02:59.080 --> 0:03:03.200
<v Speaker 2>but it's definitely some in structure because what Adrian Smith

0:03:03.320 --> 0:03:07.480
<v Speaker 2>reckoned and figured out was that making a building that

0:03:07.639 --> 0:03:10.880
<v Speaker 2>tall as a triangle, as a y shape instead of

0:03:11.040 --> 0:03:16.040
<v Speaker 2>a square, instead of a box or a rectangle is

0:03:16.120 --> 0:03:18.799
<v Speaker 2>a lot safer for like, you know, he did wind

0:03:18.800 --> 0:03:21.600
<v Speaker 2>tunnel testing and stuff like that. It's like, this thing

0:03:21.680 --> 0:03:23.959
<v Speaker 2>is gonna meet the wind in a safer way.

0:03:24.440 --> 0:03:26.720
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, it gets awfully windy the higher up you go.

0:03:27.000 --> 0:03:29.359
<v Speaker 1>And if you want to, if you're like wind cheer

0:03:29.360 --> 0:03:32.880
<v Speaker 1>in buildings, that sounds interesting. I could not recommend more.

0:03:33.000 --> 0:03:35.760
<v Speaker 1>A nineteen ninety five New Yorker article called the fifty

0:03:35.880 --> 0:03:39.040
<v Speaker 1>nine Story Crisis about when the city Bank. I've talked

0:03:39.080 --> 0:03:41.080
<v Speaker 1>about it before. I don't know when, but when the

0:03:41.120 --> 0:03:45.720
<v Speaker 1>City Bank building in the seventies was built and occupied

0:03:46.160 --> 0:03:49.120
<v Speaker 1>and the engineer architect figured out like, oh god, like

0:03:49.200 --> 0:03:50.280
<v Speaker 1>basically I forgot.

0:03:50.040 --> 0:03:51.880
<v Speaker 3>To carry the one get everyone out of there.

0:03:52.600 --> 0:03:54.960
<v Speaker 1>They had to figure out how to shore it up

0:03:55.560 --> 0:03:59.000
<v Speaker 1>for a hurricane hit. Oh that was like on its way. Basically.

0:03:59.840 --> 0:04:02.080
<v Speaker 1>It's a really really great article.

0:04:02.760 --> 0:04:04.400
<v Speaker 2>I guess at the time they would have brought in

0:04:04.440 --> 0:04:05.960
<v Speaker 2>Bruce Willis to solve that problem.

0:04:06.320 --> 0:04:07.000
<v Speaker 1>That's right.

0:04:07.440 --> 0:04:09.720
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, man, I got to read that. That sounds great.

0:04:09.760 --> 0:04:13.400
<v Speaker 1>It is so greatly suspenseful. It's just a wonderful article,

0:04:13.440 --> 0:04:14.320
<v Speaker 1>one of the best ever.

0:04:14.640 --> 0:04:16.839
<v Speaker 3>Awesome. So the Birds Khalifa.

0:04:17.240 --> 0:04:19.679
<v Speaker 2>One of the differences is that one tapers in different

0:04:19.760 --> 0:04:21.279
<v Speaker 2>stages at different sections.

0:04:21.760 --> 0:04:24.840
<v Speaker 3>But the Jetta tower is sort of one big triangle.

0:04:24.880 --> 0:04:29.320
<v Speaker 2>It's going to be one continuously tapering tower and literally

0:04:29.480 --> 0:04:31.440
<v Speaker 2>sort of piercing the clouds at one point.

0:04:31.960 --> 0:04:34.560
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. I saw that Adrian Smith was inspired by how

0:04:34.720 --> 0:04:37.479
<v Speaker 1>palm leaves stick up from the top of a tree

0:04:37.520 --> 0:04:41.000
<v Speaker 1>before they unfurl cool and bend over. And I looked

0:04:41.000 --> 0:04:42.800
<v Speaker 1>at a picture. I'm like, yep, that looks like the

0:04:42.839 --> 0:04:43.480
<v Speaker 1>Jetta tower.

0:04:43.839 --> 0:04:44.760
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, awesome.

0:04:45.920 --> 0:04:48.200
<v Speaker 1>So you want to take a little break and come

0:04:48.240 --> 0:04:50.520
<v Speaker 1>back and talk about I don't know, the Jetta Tower

0:04:50.560 --> 0:04:50.920
<v Speaker 1>some more.

0:04:51.040 --> 0:05:06.919
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, let's do it.

0:05:12.320 --> 0:05:14.560
<v Speaker 2>So we're gonna just give you a few nuts and

0:05:14.600 --> 0:05:19.359
<v Speaker 2>bolts appropriately about the Jetta Tower. The big showstopper there

0:05:20.120 --> 0:05:23.800
<v Speaker 2>will be the observation tower, open air observation tower, which

0:05:23.800 --> 0:05:28.760
<v Speaker 2>is terrifying. It'll be a two eighty seven feet They

0:05:28.800 --> 0:05:31.400
<v Speaker 2>were gonna have a helipad on it, or it was

0:05:31.440 --> 0:05:35.000
<v Speaker 2>supposedly supposed to be a helipad, I think, and architects

0:05:35.040 --> 0:05:38.200
<v Speaker 2>were like, he can't out here with you can't land

0:05:38.200 --> 0:05:40.360
<v Speaker 2>a helicopter. It's on something that high out here. That's

0:05:40.360 --> 0:05:41.000
<v Speaker 2>not a good idea.

0:05:41.440 --> 0:05:43.440
<v Speaker 1>So like, we'll make it an observation deck. We'll just

0:05:43.440 --> 0:05:45.960
<v Speaker 1>tell everybody to ignore the giant h in the circle

0:05:46.000 --> 0:05:46.479
<v Speaker 1>on the deck.

0:05:46.560 --> 0:05:48.160
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, exactly, stand in the center of that.

0:05:49.560 --> 0:05:52.520
<v Speaker 1>So yeah, I mean, I don't like heights, but I

0:05:52.520 --> 0:05:54.960
<v Speaker 1>would check that out if I ever found myself in Jeta.

0:05:56.680 --> 0:05:57.400
<v Speaker 3>Yeah. Maybe.

0:05:58.760 --> 0:06:01.960
<v Speaker 1>By the way, Jeda is actually already a town there

0:06:02.000 --> 0:06:05.120
<v Speaker 1>on the Red Sea. There was a guy who was

0:06:05.160 --> 0:06:09.520
<v Speaker 1>interviewed in this house stuff works article maybe Architectural Digest,

0:06:10.080 --> 0:06:11.920
<v Speaker 1>where he said like, this is not a place where

0:06:12.000 --> 0:06:15.120
<v Speaker 1>you would normally live, which I think is kind of

0:06:15.200 --> 0:06:17.839
<v Speaker 1>mean to people who live in Jedda, But I get

0:06:17.839 --> 0:06:21.560
<v Speaker 1>his point. It's not like Jeda economic city. But it's

0:06:21.600 --> 0:06:24.320
<v Speaker 1>claimed to fame, as far as I know, is that

0:06:24.440 --> 0:06:28.000
<v Speaker 1>it is the tomb. It holds the tomb of Eve,

0:06:28.800 --> 0:06:32.640
<v Speaker 1>Eve of Garden of Eden fame. And they think that yes,

0:06:32.760 --> 0:06:37.000
<v Speaker 1>and they think that Jeta is the is a derivation

0:06:37.120 --> 0:06:42.479
<v Speaker 1>of Jada, which means grandmother. Okay, that's some Raiders of

0:06:42.520 --> 0:06:44.039
<v Speaker 1>the Lost Ark stuff right there.

0:06:44.160 --> 0:06:48.359
<v Speaker 3>Wow, all right, my mind is kind of blown.

0:06:48.920 --> 0:06:50.960
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, it blew mine too, and I just could not

0:06:51.080 --> 0:06:51.520
<v Speaker 1>share it.

0:06:51.600 --> 0:06:53.640
<v Speaker 3>All right, this might blow your mind too.

0:06:53.680 --> 0:06:56.560
<v Speaker 2>The Jeda Tower, at least according to its original plans,

0:06:56.600 --> 0:06:59.280
<v Speaker 2>who knows what's going to end up happening. We'll have

0:06:59.320 --> 0:07:03.719
<v Speaker 2>about eighty t eighty thousand tons of steel, fifty nine

0:07:03.800 --> 0:07:08.159
<v Speaker 2>ultra high speed elevators, eight escalators, seven double decker elevators.

0:07:09.000 --> 0:07:11.400
<v Speaker 2>I think if you're going up to that observatory in terrace,

0:07:11.440 --> 0:07:13.680
<v Speaker 2>you're going to go at about thirty two feet per second,

0:07:14.360 --> 0:07:16.800
<v Speaker 2>which is pretty fast. And it's the mixed use space.

0:07:16.840 --> 0:07:19.280
<v Speaker 2>It's gonna the bottom third is going to be office space.

0:07:19.960 --> 0:07:22.880
<v Speaker 2>It's gonna be a luxury hotel, and then the one

0:07:22.960 --> 0:07:26.280
<v Speaker 2>hundred and sixty seven highest floors, which sounds crazy to say,

0:07:26.960 --> 0:07:31.360
<v Speaker 2>will be apartments. And of course I'm sure some very

0:07:31.480 --> 0:07:35.280
<v Speaker 2>rich sheeic or somebody will own that penthouse at the

0:07:35.360 --> 0:07:36.320
<v Speaker 2>crown of the whole thing.

0:07:37.080 --> 0:07:39.880
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. I found some pictures, some renderings of it, and

0:07:39.920 --> 0:07:42.239
<v Speaker 1>I'm like, meh, I mean, you could find the exact

0:07:42.280 --> 0:07:45.800
<v Speaker 1>same thing in Miami or Rio or it just looks

0:07:45.880 --> 0:07:48.800
<v Speaker 1>like whatever. It's Yeah, you know, I mean, the tower

0:07:48.800 --> 0:07:51.680
<v Speaker 1>itself is going to be amazing, but yeah, the it's just,

0:07:51.880 --> 0:07:53.680
<v Speaker 1>you know, when you have that much space and that

0:07:53.760 --> 0:07:56.080
<v Speaker 1>much wealth, there's only so much you can do.

0:07:56.640 --> 0:07:57.520
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, agreed.

0:07:58.160 --> 0:08:00.240
<v Speaker 2>The original name was a Kingdom Tower, and they broke

0:08:00.280 --> 0:08:03.160
<v Speaker 2>ground in April of twenty thirteen. It took more than

0:08:03.200 --> 0:08:06.760
<v Speaker 2>a year just to lay the foundation, and they have

0:08:06.920 --> 0:08:10.400
<v Speaker 2>these concrete pilings ten feet in diameter, longer than a

0:08:10.400 --> 0:08:13.000
<v Speaker 2>football field, that go down very very very deep into

0:08:13.000 --> 0:08:15.880
<v Speaker 2>the earth. And because of these delays, you know, they

0:08:15.920 --> 0:08:18.800
<v Speaker 2>had to stop in twenty seventeen when there was a

0:08:18.840 --> 0:08:21.480
<v Speaker 2>political crisis in Saudi Arabia that was a move to

0:08:22.040 --> 0:08:25.560
<v Speaker 2>sort of consolidate power and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman

0:08:26.680 --> 0:08:30.200
<v Speaker 2>had a big anti corruption purge where he arrested eleven

0:08:30.240 --> 0:08:33.480
<v Speaker 2>Saudi princes, one of which was the financial backer of

0:08:33.480 --> 0:08:36.360
<v Speaker 2>the Jetta Tower and some of the partners in the

0:08:36.360 --> 0:08:38.959
<v Speaker 2>Saudi bin Laden group. So because of that and COVID,

0:08:39.440 --> 0:08:41.480
<v Speaker 2>it halted for a lot of years, and I think

0:08:41.520 --> 0:08:44.120
<v Speaker 2>like five years. And I was watching this YouTube video

0:08:44.160 --> 0:08:46.840
<v Speaker 2>where they basically said, like, when that happens in a

0:08:46.880 --> 0:08:49.840
<v Speaker 2>place like this, like you usually tear it down and

0:08:49.880 --> 0:08:54.080
<v Speaker 2>start over, because you know, sand damage, salt damage, just

0:08:54.160 --> 0:08:58.360
<v Speaker 2>corrosion to steal and corrosion to the concrete probably makes

0:08:58.400 --> 0:09:02.560
<v Speaker 2>it very unsafe move forward. But apparently they had the

0:09:02.600 --> 0:09:06.840
<v Speaker 2>foresight to install these underground sensors in those pilings and

0:09:06.880 --> 0:09:10.240
<v Speaker 2>they could get readings that apparently said like we're all

0:09:10.280 --> 0:09:10.960
<v Speaker 2>good down here.

0:09:11.720 --> 0:09:15.920
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, that's amazing. That is some foresight. You were telling

0:09:15.960 --> 0:09:17.520
<v Speaker 1>me about that, and you hadn't got to the part

0:09:17.559 --> 0:09:19.280
<v Speaker 1>where they had the sensors, And I was like, please

0:09:19.320 --> 0:09:22.080
<v Speaker 1>tell me that they are not just building on top

0:09:22.120 --> 0:09:24.040
<v Speaker 1>of an unsafe structure or they're going to have to

0:09:24.040 --> 0:09:26.720
<v Speaker 1>tear the whole thing down and start over. But nope,

0:09:26.760 --> 0:09:29.240
<v Speaker 1>you really came through with the great positive twist at

0:09:29.240 --> 0:09:29.559
<v Speaker 1>the end.

0:09:29.920 --> 0:09:30.160
<v Speaker 3>Yeah.

0:09:30.240 --> 0:09:34.280
<v Speaker 2>Well, they eventually restarted after COVID. I think in twenty

0:09:34.840 --> 0:09:37.640
<v Speaker 2>twenty three. Of September twenty twenty three is when they

0:09:37.679 --> 0:09:42.520
<v Speaker 2>finally restarted. They said in twenty twenty three it would

0:09:42.520 --> 0:09:46.560
<v Speaker 2>be another four or five years, But in twenty twenty five,

0:09:46.880 --> 0:09:49.360
<v Speaker 2>just over a year ago, sixty of the one hundred

0:09:49.360 --> 0:09:52.400
<v Speaker 2>and sixty seven floors have been built, and this year

0:09:52.400 --> 0:09:55.920
<v Speaker 2>in January they passed just recently the eighty floor mark.

0:09:56.800 --> 0:10:00.640
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, so they're almost halfway there. There was they're thinking

0:10:00.679 --> 0:10:03.320
<v Speaker 1>that they might be done in the next couple of years.

0:10:03.600 --> 0:10:05.640
<v Speaker 2>Yeah. I don't know, but I mean I did. The

0:10:05.679 --> 0:10:07.760
<v Speaker 2>YouTube video also said that they are going at like

0:10:07.920 --> 0:10:08.800
<v Speaker 2>breakneck pace.

0:10:08.880 --> 0:10:11.600
<v Speaker 1>Now, yeah, that's you don't really want to do that

0:10:11.640 --> 0:10:13.440
<v Speaker 1>when you're building the world's tallest building.

0:10:13.480 --> 0:10:14.880
<v Speaker 3>But no, I agree.

0:10:16.520 --> 0:10:20.000
<v Speaker 1>Also a little fact, if you're like Prince Muhammed ben Solomon,

0:10:20.080 --> 0:10:22.800
<v Speaker 1>he sounds kind of familiar. Yeah. When he did that

0:10:23.720 --> 0:10:27.800
<v Speaker 1>anti corruption purgo's the same time that he ordered Jamal Kashogi,

0:10:27.920 --> 0:10:30.319
<v Speaker 1>the coltunist and dissident murdered.

0:10:30.679 --> 0:10:33.280
<v Speaker 3>That's right, Yet he was still welcomed into our White House.

0:10:34.600 --> 0:10:36.760
<v Speaker 1>Wow, so you got anything else.

0:10:37.120 --> 0:10:39.520
<v Speaker 2>I have nothing else. We'll see what happens with the

0:10:39.559 --> 0:10:42.000
<v Speaker 2>Jetta Tower. I mean, it looks like it'll be finished,

0:10:43.040 --> 0:10:44.800
<v Speaker 2>you know. I don't know about four or five years

0:10:44.800 --> 0:10:46.800
<v Speaker 2>from twenty twenty three, but we'll see.

0:10:47.320 --> 0:10:50.320
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. And sorry to all the people who saw this

0:10:50.800 --> 0:10:53.240
<v Speaker 1>short stuff title Jetta Tower and were like they better

0:10:53.240 --> 0:10:58.199
<v Speaker 1>not bring the White House into this short stuff is out.

0:11:00.160 --> 0:11:03.760
<v Speaker 2>Follow Stuff You Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio.

0:11:04.240 --> 0:11:07.440
<v Speaker 2>For more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app,

0:11:07.640 --> 0:11:10.559
<v Speaker 2>Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.