Imagine living in a development that stretches roughly the distance from Manhattan to New Haven, Connecticut.
That’s what’s being touted In Saudi Arabia, where a 75-mile-long skyscraper dubbed the Mirror Line is being planned, the Wall Street Journal reported. If it ever gets built, the $1 trillion project would be the world’s largest structure.
The specs alone are the stuff of legend. It would consist of two parallel buildings, each 1,600 feet tall. They would be connected by walkways as they traverse coastal, mountain and desert terrain. It would house up to five million people.
For Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the project is meant to leave a legacy the size of the Egyptian pyramids.
It’s so big that everything a person needs would essentially have to be available. It would include a high-speed train under the buildings and a vertical farming scheme to help feed the population. Even entertainment will be taken care of, as plans call for a sports stadium up to 1,000 feet above ground.
Boat owners won’t be banished either, as there will be a marina for yachts.
To account for the fact that the Earth curves, designers have proposed leaving a gap at the top of 2,600-foot modules so that the structures could “bend” around the planet.
The development is part of a bigger project known as Neom, which is roughly the size of Massachusetts. The development has struggled to gain foreign interest and funding due to Saudi Arabia’s human rights history, including 2018’s killing of journalist Jamal Khasoggi.
Other Saudi Arabia megaprojects have gone off the rails. During the last oil boom, plans emerged for the world’s tallest skyscraper, only for it to get scuttled. Issues with master plans and unhappy foreign employees are plaguing this development.
The prince has a completion deadline of 2030, which seems optimistic. An initial impact assessment from last year estimated it would be a 50-year project.
Morphosis Architects of the U.S. is the designer.
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— Holden Walter-Warner