KONE Corp. has won the contract for the vertical transportation in Kingdom Tower, a multi-use building that is planned for a record height of 1 kilometer. For the tower, under way near Jeddah, KONE plans to install its lightweight hoisting system, called UltraRope, which it introduced last year.
If completed as planned, the estimated $1.2-billion megatower—designed by Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture, with structural engineer Thornton Tomasetti—would replace the 828-meter-tall Burj Khalifa as the world's tallest building. Kingdom Tower—the pet project of a Saudi prince named Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz—is under construction by general contractor and part owner Saudi Binladin Group. The developer is Kingdom Holding Co.'s Jeddah Economic Co.