Inclined to luxury £1m spent on concrete for Hyatt hotel
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Your support makes all the difference.The builders of Capital Gate, the landmark tower in a $2.2bn (£1.4bn) office and residential development in Abu Dhabi, pre-ordered more than £1m worth of concrete to tame volatile prices and a national shortage of the material.
The five-star Hyatt hotel was designed by UK and US-based architect RMJM Hillier and is due to open next autumn. It slants 18 degrees, more than four times the gradient of the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
The build programme saw 850 trucks deliver 5,500 cubic metres of concrete over 24 hours to build the base of the 35-storey, 160m tower. Tony Archibold, RMJM's project leader, said: "The scale of the scheme necessitated forward planning with the precision of a military campaign. Pre-ordering millions of pounds' worth of concrete was part of that and it worked like clockwork."
The district will surround the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre, which submitted the tower to the Guinness Book of Records to recognise it as the world's "most inclined" building.
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