Dubai to Get 33-Story High LED Screen

UAE development company Tameer Holdings has announced that it will be constructing a 33-story high LED screen on the side of a planned commercial building in the Majan district of Dubailand.

According to Persian Gulf news outlet Gulfnews, a UAE-based development company has been given the green light to construct a massive LED screen. Tameer Holdings, who is showcasing the idea at Cityscape Dubai 2008. The worlds-largest 33-story LED screen will be part of the "Podium" project, which will see the screen attached to the side of a commercial skyscraper.

Called" The podium," the building seems to fit in the norm of what we should expect out of Dubai: 33 levels of lavish commercial space with another six floors of parking and retail. When you’re one of the worlds fastest growing cities (both outwards and upwards), nothing short of astonishing is expected.

The massive LED screen is being designed by industry experts Dactronics, and will be visible from almost a mile away. Essentially a massive billboard, the screen "will be a powerful medium for advertising, messaging and art." Also, because of the screens design, the flow of natural light will not be blocked, allowing for the extraordinary building to have a normal office environment. While the press images show one massive banner, it will be interesting to see how the screen gets split up, potentially having advertisements on the top, and art or some multimedia service on the bottom.

The Dubai skyline is quickly filling with some of the most innovative (and tallest) structures on the planet. While a 33-story LED banner is nothing to sneeze at, it can barely hold a candle to some of the monstrosities currently in the planning or building stages in Dubai. Currently, the worlds tallest free-standing structure is the Burj Dubai (http://www.burjdubai.com/), which when completed will stand at 818m tall. It surpassed both the CN Tower in Toronto and the KVLY-TV mast in North Dakota during construction.

Even more astonishing than the Burj Dubai is the just-announced one kilometer-tall building that will be the heart of the Nakheel port and harbour complex, also located in the small Arab emirate. With 200 floors and planned housing and office space for over 100,000 people. "It sends another message to the world that Dubai has a vision like no other place on Earth," said Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, chairman of Dubai World, the parent company of developer Nakheel.

While the rest of the world sees banks going under and stock markets plunging, Dubai seems to be in its own small bubble of prosperity, and it wouldn’t be a shock to see another building even taller than the 1km behemoth in the near future.