The Al Faisaliyah Centre (or Al Faisaliah Centre, ar, برج الفيصلية) is a commercial skyscraper and mixed-use complex located in the business district of

Riyadh Riyadh (, ar, الرياض, 'ar-Riyāḍ, lit.: 'The Gardens' Najdi pronunciation: ), formerly known as Hajr al-Yamamah, is the capital and largest city of Saudi Arabia. It is also the capital of the Riyadh Province and the centre of the R ...

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...

. The 267-metre-high office tower, the centrepiece of the

Foster + Partners Foster + Partners is a British architectural, engineering, and integrated design practice founded in 1967 as Foster Associates by Norman Foster. It is the largest architectural firm in the UK with over 1,500 employees in 13 studios worldwide. ...

development, it is notable for having been the first skyscraper built in Saudi Arabia, and for the monumental stained glass wall of its lobby, designed by architectural artist

Brian Clarke Brian Clarke (born 2 July 1953) is a British painter, architectural artist and printmaker, known for his large-scale stained glass and mosaic projects, symbolist paintings, set designs, and collaborations with major figures in Modern and conte ...

in collaboration with

Norman Foster Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

. Presently the fourth tallest building in

after the

Kingdom Centre Kingdom Centre (Arabic: مركز المملكة) is a 41-story, skyscraper in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. When completed in 2002, it overtook the Faisaliyah Tower as the tallest tower in Saudi Arabia. It has since been surpassed and, , is the fifth ...

Burj Rafal Burj Rafal (Arabic: برج رافال) is a skyscraper hotel in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. It opened in January 2014, its 70 floors constructed on an exclusive 20,000 sqm plot. About The skyscraper has about 350 rooms and is the tallest residentia ...

and

Abraj Al Bait The Clock Towers ( ar, أبراج الساعة, ʾAbrāǧ alsaa'a "Towers of the Clock") is a government-owned complex of seven skyscraper hotels in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. These towers are a part of the King Abdulaziz Endowment Project that aim ...

, the Center presently ranks as the 325th tallest building in the world.

History and structure

First appointed to the architectural practice Foster + Partners in 1994, the complex was commissioned by Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal, with construction begun in 1997. The complex is made up of the central office tower, a five-star hotel, a three-storey retail mall, and a banqueting and conference hall. The skyscraper comprises 30 floors of office space, above which, at 200 metres above ground level, an observation deck provides a panoramic view of Riyadh. The 240,000-square-metre Centre was completed in May 2000, with the skyscraper opened to the public in the same month. The skyscraper, also called the Star Dome, contains one of Saudi Arabia's premier restaurants, "The Globe", located in the sphere above the observation deck, possessing 360 degree views of the city.

Stained glass

In 1999, the artist Brian Clarke, who had formerly collaborated with Norman Foster on architectural art proposals for

Stansted London Stansted Airport is a tertiary international airport serving London, England, United Kingdom. It is located near Stansted Mountfitchet, Essex, England, northeast of Central London. London Stansted serves over 160 destinations acro ...

and

Chep Lap Kok Chek Lap Kok is an island in the western waters of Hong Kong's New Territories. Unlike the smaller Lam Chau, it was only partially leveled when it was assimilated via land reclamation into the island for the current Hong Kong International A ...

airports, was commissioned to design a 22,000 sq. ft. wall of glass for the modular atrial space connecting the complex's hotel, north of the tower's base, and the tower's residential and retail developments. Clarke's initial designs for the project, produced in 1994 and incorporating traditionally-leaded

stained glass Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...

and an interrelated glass mosaic floor for what was then known as 'The Link Building', developed in tandem with the architect's resolution of the complex, and were resolved as an integral, five-storey-high glass art 'skin', considered a landmark development in the history of stained glass.''Brian Clarke: Transillumination'' (exhibition catalogue), Tony Shafrazi Gallery, New York. .

Similar towers

The Shard The Shard, also referred to as the Shard of Glass, Shard London Bridge, and formerly London Bridge Tower, is a 72-storey skyscraper, designed by the Italian architect Renzo Piano, in Southwark, London, that forms part of The Shard Quarter dev ...

, building in London

Other towers

* Kingdom Center *

References

External links

Al-Faisaliah Center
at ArchNet , - 2000 establishments in Saudi Arabia Commercial buildings completed in 2000 Skyscrapers in Riyadh Buildings and structures with revolving restaurants Residential skyscrapers in Saudi Arabia Skyscraper office buildings in Saudi Arabia Landmarks in Saudi Arabia {{SaudiArabia-struct-stub