Saudi Arabia’s Jeddah Tower is no longer a stalled render on a developer slide deck. As of October 2026, the mixed-use megatall in Obhur, north of Jeddah, has reached roughly Level 118 and about 474 metres — already in the same height band as completed landmarks such as New York’s Central Park Tower — while still aiming for more than 1,000 metres when finished (Arabian Business; New Atlas; Wikipedia summary of Oct 2026 progress).

For architects, fabricators and CAD teams, that halfway mark is useful not as spectacle, but as a live case study in how extreme height reshapes documentation: concrete pumping, elevator banks, cladding tolerances, and the sheer volume of coordinated drawings. The same habits that keep a kilometre tower honest also keep a Dubai villa stone package from arriving wrong.

Designed to take the world’s tallest title

Jeddah Tower (also known historically as Kingdom Tower / JEC Tower) is designed by Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture (AS+GG), with Adrian Smith as design architect — the same talent lineage behind Dubai’s Burj Khalifa from his SOM years (Wikipedia; New Atlas). Structural engineering is credited to Thornton Tomasetti; the main contractor is Saudi Binladin Group. The tower anchors Jeddah Economic City, developed under Kingdom Holding / Jeddah Economic Company on a multi-million-square-metre masterplan north of central Jeddah.

Published programme figures describe a mixed-use stack — residences, offices, hotel, retail and high observation levels — inside a three-legged, tapering concrete form with an all-glass façade. Exact final architectural height is still closely held; public reporting consistently says “a kilometre plus”, often citing at least about 1,008 m in reference tables, enough to clear the Burj Khalifa’s 828 m by a wide margin (Wikipedia; AGBI).

The form is not decorative alone. The three wings and central core organise wind response, lift zoning and façade modules. That geometry only works if every consultant’s set agrees on the same grid, the same piece IDs and the same revision cloud. Pretty marketing sections cannot replace a fabrication set that a CNC operator can trust.

Pause, restart, and a late-2028 target

Construction started in April 2013, then stalled for years around the late 2010s. Work restarted in January 2025 after a long hiatus; by mid-to-late 2026 the climb had accelerated past the hundredth floor. Jeddah Economic Company leadership has publicly pointed to late 2028 completion, a few months later than earlier messaging, while noting that apartment sales are expected later in the decade (AGBI; New Atlas).

AGBI also reported that workers need roughly five days to add a floor to the core (wings take longer), and that dozens of floors were added across roughly ten months after the restart. Those cycle times matter because shop-drawing windows shrink when structure outruns façade and fit-out design.

That restart matters for anyone studying Gulf megaprojects: documentation sets, temporary works drawings and fabrication packages often freeze when a site stops — then must be revalidated when concrete and steel move again. Version control on drawings is not a nicety at this scale; it is survival. Teams that treat “latest PDF in a chat thread” as the source of truth will pay for it in scrap and rework.

Why concrete-to-the-top changes the drawing set

One detail that separates Jeddah Tower from Burj Khalifa in public commentary is the structural approach: executives have emphasised pumping concrete to extreme height, with concrete used through most of the height except the spire (AGBI). For drafting teams, that implies dense coordination between:

core and wing pour sequences
embed plates and façade brackets
mechanical risers that cannot “move later”
lift shafts and machine rooms that lock early
temporary crane and jump-form interfaces that still need documented clearances

Elevator counts reported for the project run in the high fifties (Wikipedia lists 57 Kone units including double-deck cars; other trade coverage has cited around 59). Either way, vertical transportation drawings become a primary coordination spine — not a late MEP add-on (Wikipedia; New Atlas).

Façade and interior stone packages sit on top of that spine. A millimetre error at Level 20 becomes a programme risk by Level 100 when panels are already cut and numbered. That is why fabrication drawings for cladding, stone and joinery need the same seriousness on a Jeddah tower as on a Dubai fit-out floor — only the cost of getting it wrong is larger.

Lessons for everyday shop drawings and 3D work

Most UAE and international fit-out packages will never touch a kilometre tower. The transferable habits still apply on every site D3DDD supports:

Freeze geometry before cutting stone or metal. Megatall projects amplify the cost of a wrong cut; marble and cladding packages on any high-rise share the same risk profile. Clear marble shop drawings with piece IDs, edge profiles and joint layouts keep fabricators aligned with approved elevations.
Layer discipline beats pretty plots. When hundreds of consultants touch a model, AutoCAD layer standards and clean AutoCAD drafting deliverables reduce clash noise and make consultant redlines faster to absorb.
Visualise before you pour or order. 3D rendering is not marketing fluff when a client needs to approve vein direction on a feature wall or the look of a lobby cladding module under site lighting.
Measure twice for BOQ. Tall buildings multiply waste if stone and glass quantities are guessed. Structured take-offs sit next to the drawing set, not after the order form — see our related service pages under Services.
Publish a revision table humans can read. Clouded changes and a dated revision block save more site hours than another decorative cover sheet.

D3DDD’s day-to-day work sits in that practical layer — fabrication-ready drawings and visualisations for contractors and fabricators — even when the project itself is a villa kitchen rather than a Red Sea megatall. The same drafting culture that keeps Jeddah Tower’s wings on sequence is what keeps a book-matched vanity from arriving 12 mm short.

What Gulf drafters can steal from the megatall playbook

You do not need a 1 km brief to borrow the workflow:

Issue for fabrication only after dimensions are locked against survey.
Keep one naming convention for pieces across plan, elevation, section and cutting list.
Separate design intent sheets from shop sheets so fabricators are not guessing.
Use short, versioned PDFs for site, and keep editable DWG as the master.

Those habits travel from Jeddah Economic City to a Sharjah stone yard without translation.

What to watch next

Through 2027–2028, the industry will watch three non-PR metrics: floor cycle time (how many days per core level), façade installation lag behind structure, and when residential marketing packages open. AGBI reporting already flags Cityscape land talks and apartment sales sliding into 2027 (AGBI).

For drafters and design managers, the useful takeaway is simpler: height is a documentation problem before it is a postcard. When geometry, structure and finishes finally meet at 1 km, the only thing that scales cleanly is a disciplined drawing set.

Sources

Need fabrication drawings or visuals for a high-rise or fit-out package? Request a quote from D3DDD, or follow project notes via Fiverr (@mxhoaib).

Jeddah Tower 2026: Halfway to One Kilometre — What Drafters Should Watch