Skyscraper Signals

The boldest skyscraper project the world has seen in 75 years is currently being contructed in Dubai. The Burj Dubai will apparently top 2,600 feet, which would be 56% taller than the current tallest building (in Taipei) and more than twice as tall as the Empire State Building.

The American has a good cover story this month on the current tall building boom.

And Wikipedia has some construction shots of the Dubai project.

If privately financed, skyscraper projects are an interesting indicator of business sentiment in a city or a nation and investor bullishness on growth. If you want to know what business and investors in Chicago, Paris, London, Hong Kong, or Sao Paulo think about growth prospects in those cities, check out the skyscraper construction market. You can do that at this amazing site.  

Even Ayn Rand would be impressed with the current explosion in cloud-topping building projects.