"METROPOLIS, undigestible" a Riyadh Travel Page by hjohnso4

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Texas Tea, Black Gold, Oil can be as much a curse as a blessing, as the ackward structures of Riyadh can attest to. You will underwhelmed by the decaying 1970s concrete structures that oil payed for. There a few jewels, however, if your tastes run to the modern(if they don't, Riyadh is singularly lacking in classic, historical Arabian structures). Norman Foster, the architect of the Millenium Bridge and the German Parliament's glass dome, recently gave Riyadh its first skyscraper at the Al Faisaliah Complex. The complex boasts:

- a five-star hotel,
- a banqueting and conference centre
- luxury apartments and a three-storey retail mall
- Three (3) Starbucks!

The skyscraper is square in plan, designed around a compact central core, and tapers to a point, with four main corner columns defining its unique silhouette. The building is clad in silver-anodised aluminium panels with cantilevered sunshading devices which minimise glare(useful in these parts...) It also houses the highest restaurant in Saudi Arabia, set within a golden glass sphere 200 metres above ground level. The observation deck below the globe provides a fantastic panorama of wretched Riyadh and the surrounding desert.