April 2015 | James Howard Kunstler

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Edited | Hate | Peak Oil | Culture
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Kingdom Tower. Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture. Flickr (CC BY 2.0)Kingdom Tower. Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture. Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

James Howard Kunstler -- World News Trust

April 2, 2015

I waited until April 2 because this is no joke.

Behold the proposed new Kingdom Tower for Jeddah, Saudi Arabia — at one full kilometer in height, about twice the size of New York’s new Freedom Tower. The Kingdom Tower comprises 252 floors of mixed market apartments, hotel rooms, and offices. It is an axiom that imperial societies build their greatest monuments just before they collapse, so consider this a portent for the oil empire of Saudi Arabia. There will always be an Arabia — well something will occupy that desolate region — but it may not be the private domain of the Saud clan much longer, especially as war breaks out across the Middle East and Persia.

World's tallest buildings

This will give you some idea of the scale. A year ago I went on on a junket to Dubai (a panel to discuss the development of a proposed a new urban quarter). The opening night cocktail party was held at the top of the Burj Khalifa. I took a cab to the base of the damn thing, looked up at the top, and almost blew chunks. Well, I guess some people enjoy being trapped 2500 feet up in the air. Considering the hostilities currently ramping up in that part of the world, I have just one design suggestion to make (below) that might make explicit the true destiny of the Kingdom Tower. After all, that is a technique pioneered by Saudis.

Kingdom Tower Target

Note: JHK’s 2014 Garden Report is finally up

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The new World Made By Hand novel

!! Is now available !!

“Kunstler skewers everything from kitsch to greed, prejudice, bloodshed, and brainwashing in this wily, funny, rip-roaring, and profoundly provocative page- turner, leaving no doubt that the prescriptive yet devilishly satiric A World Made by Hand series will continue.” — Booklist

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Buy at: Abebooks

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Also: Published as an E-book for the first time!
The 20th Anniversary edition
With an entertaining new introduction by the author

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Bargain Price $3.99

Amazon Kindle …or … Barnes & Noble Nook …or… Kobo

Hard- and soft-cover, new and used: Abebooks

James Howard Kunstler is the author of many books including (non-fiction) The Geography of Nowhere, The City in Mind: Notes on the Urban Condition, Home from Nowhere, The Long Emergency, and Too Much Magic: Wishful Thinking, Technology and the Fate of the Nation. His novels include World Made By Hand, The Witch of Hebron, Maggie Darling — A Modern Romance, The Halloween Ball, an Embarrassment of Riches, and many others. He has published three novellas with Water Street Press: Manhattan Gothic, A Christmas Orphan, and The Flight of Mehetabel.