The Chinese construction company that vowed to build the world's tallest building in just 90 days, at a fraction of the cost of comparable skyscrapers, is a little behind schedule.
In June, Broad Sustainable Building announced plans for a 220-story skyscraper named Sky City, to rise in Changsha, the provincial capital of Hunan Province.
The company said the building would top out at 838 meters—10 meters higher than the Burj Khalifa, which is currently the world's tallest building—and cost $628 million to construct.
But in a recent profile of BSB founder Zhang Yue in Wired, reporter Lauren Hilgers reveals that the 90-day timeline for Sky City has been pushed back.
She writes:
It’s hard to say for sure that the 16-million-square-foot plan isn’t entirely a publicity stunt. But Zhang has hired some of the engineers who worked on the current height-record holder, Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, and Broad has created two large models of “Sky City” (as the J220 has been nicknamed). The foundation is scheduled to be laid in November at a site in Hunan; if everything goes well, the building will be complete in March 2013.
That's a seven-month, or 210-day construction schedule, far longer than the 90-day period the company originally projected. Even so, it's practically light-speed when it comes to highrise construction; the Burj took five years to build, in comparison.
BSB plans to do the work quickly by using a proprietary prefabrication technique. It eventually hopes to sell standardized skyscrapers around the world and become the "McDonald’s of the sustainable building industry," writes Hilgers.
Sky City will be mixed use, with luxury apartments, low income housing, and space for businesses and retail, according to the company. It will also be earthquake-resistant and have 31 high-speed elevators to take visitors to the upper-level observation decks, the company has said.
BSB has already build 16 structures in China, including a three-story building that went up in nine days and a 30-story hotel constructed in just 15 days.
Check out this ridiculous time-lapse video of BSB's 30-story hotel rising from the ground.
SEE ALSO: The 10 Tallest Skyscrapers That Are Being Built Right Now
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