Dubai architecture

These photos aren't going to win any prizes. They were taken from the inside of a moving car (no, Mom and Dad, I wasn't driving at the time). But they give a decent idea of what Dubai-style architecture looks like. It can be gaudy, but also more innovative than what we see in the U.S.

When I lived in Chicago -- the only place in the U.S. where architecture approaches this level of creativity -- I was told that the city only became an architectural capital after the Fire burned the entire place to the ground. The best architects in the world flocked to Chicago and made it their canvas.

Dubai is so new -- it was literally desert forty years ago -- that something similar has happened here, I would guess. Designers don't have to fit the mold because there is no mold, just sand. Some of these styles will trickle their way into the West in the next decade, I'll bet.

All pictures can be double-clicked for a full screen view. Or better yet, right-click on the photo and select "Open Link in New Window."

From a distance:

Driving through downtown:

Some interesting buildings:

Only lame cities build their towers one at a time:

Even ordinary overpasses are exciting suspension bridges:

And all of this is built with magical curving cranes!

I hear Japan is working on a miniaturized version of this magic crane that will help make PB&J sandwiches and tuck your baby into bed.

Ironically, the tallest building in the world is going up just two blocks away from the smallest apartment in the world (mine). It's still just a big hole in the ground and a bunch of exciting street signs. Unfortunately, it will only be the tallest building in the world for a second, before a taller tallest building in the world is completed a couple miles away in downtown Dubai. It's History Rising, people!

By the way, do not confuse the Burj Dubai ("History Rising") with the Burj al-Arab, the seven-star hotel and my own personal Everest. The other, taller tallest building in the world will be called Burj World, or something like that. Burj is Arabic for "tower." It sort of sounds cooler before you know what it means, I think.

Last but not least, a roadside café. (By the way, I think using that little accent on "café" is a bit pretentious, but asshole Microsoft Word is not giving me any choice. Where's that talking paper clip when you need him, Dobias?)

Anyway, a roadside café.

Let's zoom in on the man. What, pray tell, is he doing? Why, he's smoking shisha!

I think I'll go have a shisha right now.