Burj al arab

Rating[edit]

The Burj Al Arab is a five-star hotel, the highest official ranking. While the hotel is sometimes erroneously described as "the world's only seven-star hotel", the hotel management claims never to have done that themselves. In the words of a Jumeirah Group spokesperson: "There's not a lot we can do to stop it. We're not encouraging the use of the term. We've never used it in our advertising."^[26]

Reception[edit]

Reviews by architecture critics[edit]

Burj Al Arab Hotel Interior

Burj Al Arab has attracted criticism as well "a contradiction of sorts, considering how well-designed and impressive the construction ultimately proves to be."^[23]The contradiction here seems to be related to the hotel’s decor. "This extraordinary investment in state-of-the-art construction technology stretches the limits of the ambitious urban imagination in an exercise that is largely due to the power of excessive wealth." Another critic includes negative critiques for the city of Dubai as well: "both the hotel and the city, after all, are monuments to the triumph of money over practicality. Both elevate style over substance."^[23] Yet another: "Emulating the quality of palatial interiors, in an expression of wealth for the mainstream, a theater of opulence is created in Burj Al Arab … The result is a baroque effect".^[23]

Notable events[edit]

Several events have taken place on the helipad 210 m (689 ft) above ground to attract media attention. These include:

• 
  2004: Tiger Woods teeing off^[27]
  
• 
  2005: Andre Agassi and Roger Federer playing tennis^[28]
  
• 
  2006: Ronan Keating shot the Music Video for his single "Iris" at the Helipad of Burj Al Arab.
  
• 
  2007: The Today Show broadcast from the Helipad a segment of Where in the World is Matt Lauer?^[29]
  
• 
  2011: Golfer Rory McIlroy performing a bunker shot.^[30]
  
• 
  2013: Heli-lift of Aston Martin Vanquish.^[31]
  
• 
  2013: David Coulthard performing donuts in a Formula 1 racecar.^[32]
  
• 
  2017: Nick Jacobsen kiteboards down to the sea.^[33][34]
  

In popular culture[edit]

The last chapter of the espionage novel Performance Anomalies^[35][36] takes place at the top of the Burj Al Arab,[1]^[37]where the spy protagonist Cono 7Q discovers that through deadly betrayal his spy nemesis Katerina has maneuvered herself into the top echelon of the government of Kazakhstan. The Hotel can also be seen in Syriana, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol and also some Bollywood movies.^[which?]

Richard Hammond included the building in his television series, Richard Hammond's Engineering Connections.

The Burj Al Arab serves as the cover image for the 2009 album Ocean Eyes by Owl City.