Burj Dubai just became the world’s tallest free-standing structure, surpassing Toronto’s CN Tower, which held the record for the last 31 years.

The Dubai tower, a US$4.1-billion hotel, business, and residential complex still under construction in the United Arab Emirates, now has 150 storeys and is 555.3 meters (1,822 feet) high, surpassing the CN Tower's 553.3 meters, according to Emaar Properties PJSC e-mail statement.

Wednesday was the day when Burj Dubai ended CN Tower’s supremacy and it's expected to reach even higher heights as construction continues.

However, reports show that Burj Dubai's observation deck will be located on its 124th floor, which is 442 meters high. That could still leave the famous tower of Toronto as the world's highest "publicly" accessible observation deck, which is five meters above the Burj Dubai deck.

Jack Robinson, CN Tower's Chief Operating Officer, said in a statement Thursday that once construction of the new Dubai tower is complete "we will congratulate the Burj Dubai project on their unique achievement. For now, we remain proud of the 30-year-plus record Canada's National Tower has held as world's tallest."

More about the Burj Dubai

The Burj Dubai already has 145 floors finished as workers erect the building at a rate of
one floor at three days. At its opening ceremony the hotel complex will have 165 floors, 56 elevators, luxury apartments, swimming pools, exclusive corporate suites, Italian fashion designer Giorgio Armani's first hotel, and a 124th floor observation platform.

The developers of the world’s tallest building estimated 2008 as the year of the skyscraper’s completion, but its final height is kept secret. The state-owned company Emaar Properties gave the reporters just a hint about the final height, saying that it would be somewhere above 2,275 feet (693.42 meters).

The Burj Dubai project was launched in 2004 as part of a $20-billion, 200-hectare downtown development billed as the most prestigious square kilometer on earth.

The Dubai skyscraper became the world's tallest high-rise building in July after it surpassed Taiwan's Taipei 101, which at 508 meters has been holding the tallest-building title since it opened in 2004.

The Burj Dubai will be situated on a man-made lake designed to wrap around the tower. It’s part of a new district in Dubai, which will cost US$22.7 billion. The district will house 30,000 apartments and the world's largest shopping mall.
Burj Dubai predecessors are - in order of completions and of course surpassing each other - New York's Empire State Building at 1,250 feet (381m); Shanghai's Jin Mao Building at 1,381 feet (421m); Chicago's Sears Tower at 1,451 feet (442m); and Malaysia's Petronas Towers at 1,483 feet (452m).