There are all sorts of criteria that we use to catalogue all the impressive buildings and projects throughout the world. This time we’ve decided that a top with 10 Of The Most Expensive Buildings In The World would be an interesting topic so we’ve gathered information and this is what we came up with:
1. The Marina Bay Sands Resort.
The Marina Bay Sands is a resort located in Singapore. It was developed by Las Vegas Sands and it’s the world’s most expensive standalone casino property. The cost of the whole project was $8 billion. The resort includes, besides the casino, a hotel with 2,561 rooms, 1,300,000-square-foot convention and exhibition center, an 800,000-square foot mall, a museum, two theatres, 7 celebrity chef restaurants, an ice-skating ring and, of course, the world’s largest atrium casino that has 500 tables and 1,600 slot machines.
This spectacular resort was designed by Moshe Safdie Architects. Originally, the plan was for the resort to open in 2009 but it all had to be delayed. It officially opened in June 2010 and there was a two-day celebration. The casino had already opened on April the 17th the same year. The theatres became functional on November 30th while the other facilities also opened later that year.
The total cost of the project is estimated at $8.0 billion. It was a challenging project but the casino is expected to generate at least $1 billion in annual profit. It attracts around 25,000 visitors daily. But the resort doesn’t impress with numbers only. Its design is spectacular as well. As the designer has declared, the resort was initially inspired by card decks. Besides the casino, it integrates three hotel towers connected by the Skypark which is built at the height of 200 meters. The resort’s gardens are also amazing. The 250 trees and 650 plants that live here cover an area big enough to fit three football fields.
2. The Emirates Palace.
The Emirates Palace is a luxury hotel that can be found in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates. The hotel was designed by architect John Elliott RIBA. The cost to build it was 3.9 billion GBP. This amazing hotel opened its doors in November 2005. However, some of the restaurants and spas that are part of the complex only opened in 2006.
The hotel occupies a total area of 850,000 square meters of floor space. In addition, it has an underground parking for 2,500 vehicles as well as its own marina and helipad. It occupies the second place in the top most expensive hotels in the world. The Emirates Palace has 302 rooms and 92 suites. There are also 16 Palace Suites and 22 three-bedroom suites.
Some of the suites and rooms are furnished in gold and marble. The top floor contains six Ruler’s Suites which are reserved for Emirati royalty and dignitaries only. The hotel also features the world’s most expensive Christmas tree which is valued at 11 million dollars.
The hotel was built in 3 years and it cost approximately $3 billion USD with the help of 20,000 workers. Sitting on over 100 hectares of land, the hotel has spectacular gardens as well as 1.3 km of exclusive beach. It also offers two swimming pools, one for adventure and one for relaxation, several tennis courts and cricket courts, a rugby pitch and soccer facilities, along with fitness suites and a luxury spa.
3. The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas.
Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas is a luxury resort casino and hotel complex built on the west side of the Las Vegas Strip. It opened its doors on December the 15th 2010. It was a $3.9 billion project. In total, it offers 2,995 hotel rooms, a 75,000 square foot casino, 300,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space and a 40,000 square foot spa and fitness facility. In addition, the resort also features a 1,800 seat theater and 150,000 square feet of meeting space. The resort has three different types of pools: one for relaxation, a day club pool and a nightclub pool.
The project’s design team was led by Friedmutter Group and it was a collaboration with Arquitectonica, DeSimone Consulting Engineers and a design team formed of Prophet, the Friedmutter Group, The Rockwell Group, Jeffrey Beers, Adam Tihany, and Bentel & Bentel. The resort was built on a parking lot that belonged to the Jockey Club.
The Cosmopolitan is the second Las Vegas hotel to feature an underground parking garage. This is why the garage had to be built first. The parking structure was completed in 2007. The casino was then built on the ground level. Due to trademark disputes, in March 2010 the resort was renamed Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas. Several celebrity restaurants also announced their opening and, little by little, the resort became the impressive structure that it is today.
4. The Wynn.
The Wynn or Wynn Las Vegas is a resort and casino that’s also located on the Las Vegas Strip in Nevada. It’s a $2.7 billion resort and it was named after casino developer Steve Wynn. The entire resort covers an area of 215 acres and the hotel alone sits on 614 feet of space. The hotel has 45 floors and houses 2,716 rooms.
The resort also includes the 111,000 square foot casino and a 223,000 square foot convention center as well as 76,000 square feet of retail space. If we also add the adjacent Encore hotel, the Wynn resort complex offers a total of 4,750 rooms. The resort opened its doors on April the 28th 2005. It was the first resort to include a luxury car dealership for cars such as Ferrari and Maserati. The dealership is located near the valet parking where guests can admire the model cars while waiting for their own to arrive.
But the cars aren’t the only attraction. There’s also a Ferrari Store that offers apparel, racing merchandise, electronics as well as a home gym branded with the Ferrari logo. Besides there attractions, the resort also include the Wynn Golf Course, the only one on the Las Vegas Strip. The hotel’s Tower Suites are a total of 296 rooms with a private driveway with Rolls-Royce house cars and a private entrance.In 2006, the resort celebrated its one-year anniversary. It was then that a second hotel tower also began its construction. The tower was called Encore and it was a $2.3 billion project.
5. The Venetian Macao.
The Venetian Macao is also a hotel and casino resort which, as its name might suggest, is located on the Cotai Strip in Macau. The resort is owned by the Las Vegas Sands corporation. It’s an amazing 40-story high structure that occupies 10,500,000 square feet of space. The cost of the project was $2.4 billion and the result was the largest single structure hotel building in Asia. It’s also the 6th largest building in the world and it houses the world’s largest casino.
The resort was designed to resemble The Venetian from Las Vegas. The construction for the main hotel tower was completed in July 2007 but the resort officially opened on the 18th of August the same year. In total, the resort incorporates 3000 suites along with 1,200,000 square feet of convention space and 1,600,000 square feet of retail space. There’s also 550,000 square feet of casino space that has 3400 slot machines and 800 gambling tables as well as a 15,000 seat arena for entertainment and sports events.
The casino is divided into four themed gaming areas which are the Golden Fish, the Imperial House, the Red Dragon and the Phoenix. The resort’s hotel also has a club (the Paiza Club) which has a gaming area divided into several private rooms named after Asian cities and regions such as Yunnan, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. The Venetian Arena hosts sports events such as basketball, tennis or boxing but it’s also used for events such as concerts and televised awards shows.
6. The Antilia.
We now go from resorts to family homes. Of course, we’re going to start with the Antilia which the world’s largest and most expensive family home ever built. It’s located in Mumbai, India. It has 27 stories and it’s 568 feet high. In total, the Antilia has over 398,000 square feet of living space. This $1 billion family home was built for Mukesh Ambani and his family.
The project was a partnership between architecture firms Perkins+Will and Hirsch Bedner Associates. It took them 3 years to complete it. The result was this oversized family home that could easily be confounded with a hotel. Inside, the structure contains a health club, a gym, a dance studio, a swimming pool, a ballroom and several guestrooms. On the ground floor there is also a parking garage that can hold 160 vehicles. To take care of this place, the owners employed a staff of 600 people.
Even though, initially, the project described the building as the greenest structure in the world, covered in foliage and with all sorts of similar features, the final result was very different. The building features a steel structure with no apparent green elements. Nevertheless, it still remains the biggest and also the most expensive private home in the world. Named after the mythical Atlantic island of Antilia, the building has nine elevators in the lobby, three helipads and an air traffic control facility. Moreover, it houses the world’s largest collection of antique sewing machines.
7. The Bellagio.
The Bellagio is a luxury hotel and casino that can be found on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada. Very popular for its fountains, the complex is owned by MGM Resorts International. It was built on a site where the Dunes hotel and casino used to be. It was named and inspired after the Lake Como town of Bellagio, Italy.
The element it’s most popular for is the 8-acre lake positioned between the building and the Strip. Here you can admire the famous Fountains of Bellagio, most notably the one that is synchronized to music. Inside the hotel and casino building, visitors are welcomed into a lobby where 2,000 hand-blown glass flowers cover 2,000 square feet of the ceiling. The main tower houses 3,015 rooms. It has a total of 46 levels and it’s 508 square foot high. To the south of the main tower you can find the Spa Tower. This one has 33 floors and a height of 392 square feet, with a total of 935 rooms.
The Bellagio complex opened its doors on October the 15th in 1998 with a $88 million ceremony. In 2000 the Mirage Resorts merged with MGM Grand Inc. and became MGM Mirage. In 2010 the company was renamed MGM Resorts International. In 2006, the casino was remodeled and in 2011 all of the main tower’s 2,500 rooms were also upgraded and remodeled. The Fountains of Bellagio which is a great attraction can be seen from numerous points on the Strip. The show takes placed every 30 minutes in the day and every 15 minutes from 8 pm till midnight.
8. The Palazzo.
The Palazzo is a luxury casino and hotel resort that can be found between the Wynn and The Venetian. It holds the record for the tallest completed building in Nevada. The resort was designed by Dallas based HKS, Inc. The resort’s hotel offers the largest suites and guest rooms on the Las Vegas Strip (720 square feet per room).
The construction began in February 2006 and a lot of time was allotted to the underground parking space. In March 2007 the hotel’s elevator core was completed and the Palazzo was scheduled to open at least 1,000 rooms by December the same year. The casino opened on December the 30th but the official grand opening of the Palazzo took place of January the 17th, 2008. The building has a total floor area of 6,948,980 square feet and has become the largest building in the United States in terms of floor space.
The Palazzo is a $1.8 billion resort. Here, the guests are welcomed into a glass dome with a two-story fountain. Then they can enter the hotel. The hotel tower is a 642 square foot high structure and has a total of 3,068 rooms and suites as well as 375 concierge-level suites. The Palazzo is the largest LEED certified building in the United States and it’s also the eleventh largest building in the world in terms of floor space. It is also the second-largest building in the Western Hemisphere.
9. Taipei 101.
Taipei 101, also known as the Taipei World Financial Center is a skyscraper located in Taipei, Taiwan. It used to be the world’s tallest building until the opening of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. It is an LEED Platinum certified building which also allowed it to become became the tallest and largest green building in the world.
The skyscraper was designed by C.Y. Lee & partners. Its construction was finished in 2004 and it became a landmark and a symbol for Taiwan. The reason why it’s called Taipei 101 is because it has 101 floors. There are also 5 additional floors situated underground. The building was designed as a symbol of the evolution of technology and Asian tradition. It was also designed to withstand typhoons and earthquakes. Taipei 101 is owned by the Taipei Financial Center Corporation (TFCC).
The building used to hold the record for the fastest ascending elevator (16.83 m/s) and for the largest countdown clock which is displayed on New Year’s Eve. Taipei 101 is also one of the most stable buildings ever to be constructed. Its foundation is reinforced by 380 pillars driven 80 meters into the ground. The stability of the building was tested in 2002 when a 6.9 magnitude earthquake left it undamaged. The building’s roof and façade water recycling system meets 20 to 30 percent of its water needs, making it not just tall and imposing but also sustainable and eco-friendly. Other remarkable features are the 660-metric-ton tuned mass damper that stabilizes the tower against movement caused by high winds that can reduce its movement by up to 40%.
10. Burj Khalifa.
Burj Khalifa , also known as Burj Dubai, is a skyscraper located in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It holds the record for the tallest man-made structure in the world with a height of 829.8 meters. The project started on the 21st of September in 2004. The official opening was on January the 4th, 2010. The tower is part of the 2 square km development called Downtown Dubai. Burj Khalifa was designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill of Chicago. The total cost of the project was estimated at US$1.5 billion.
Originally named Burj Dubai, the tower was later renamed Burj Khalifa to honour the UAE President Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan for his crucial support during the period of crisis that followed the project’s completion. The development includes 30,000 homes, nine hotels, 7.4 acres of parking space, 19 residential towers and the Dubai Mall. Burj Khalifa holds the records for the tallest structure ever built, the building with most floors, the highest elevator installation and the world’s fastest elevator (18 m/s).
The building;s design incorporates cultural and historical elements which are particular to the region. It has a Y-shaped plan and a triple lobed footprint inspired by the flower Hymenocallis. The tower is composed of three elements organized around a central core. Burj Khalifa also has 27 terraces. Outside the tower, a record-setting fountain system was designed. It was a US$217 million project designed by WET Design, the same company responsible for the Bellagio Fountains.