KEY POINTS:
It reduces Auckland's Sky Tower to pipsqueak status - yet the world's tallest skyscraper, the Burj Dubai, isn't finished yet.
With 141 floors piercing Dubai's futuristic skyline, the tower is living proof Kiwi engineer Greg Sang is at the very top of his profession.
The 41-year-old from Auckland is overseeing the $2 billion luxury tower project by Emaar Developments. He has been based in Dubai for three years as project manager to what will soon overtake the 553m CN communications tower in Toronto, and the 630m KVLY-TV mast in Fargo, North Dakota, to become the world's tallest free-standing man-made structure.
There is still plenty of work to be done by the 6000 Asian labourers before the Burj opens in 2009.
Once completed, it will be home to the first hotel and spa by designer Giorgio Armani.
It will have 56 lifts that travel at 64km/h and 1000 luxury apartments, including the ultimate penthouses worth tens of millions of dollars each.
Not bad for a guy who admits he didn't know what civil engineering was when he enrolled at Auckland University in the mid-80s.
Sang's last job in New Zealand was a little more humble. "I worked for North Shore City Council, doing mainly water mains," he told the Herald on Sunday.
It wasn't long after the 1987 crash.
"There wasn't too much work around. It was okay for a little while but then I just decided to head off."
And head off he did - and up and up - building skyscrapers and a soaring career both in Hong Kong, and China.
He worked on the Shun Hing Square, a building in China's Shenzhen province.
It is its largest, coming in at a respectable 384m, but it is a baby compared with the Burj, which may eventually top 800m. Its final height is a secret that Sang said he would be keeping until the last possible minute.
"It will be way over 2000ft [610m]."
The massive structure has been designed to twist and sway by up to 1.2m as the wind flies in from the Gulf. It will expand and contract by 30cm as the desert heats up to 50C during the day, and cools to 10C at night.
An inbuilt damper system will make it almost impossible to feel the movement.
But Sang, who said the project was the most challenging of his career so far, won't be keeping an apartment in the tower.
"They are a little out of my price range - it's a nice thought though." He added he had no plans to return to New Zealand while business continued to boom across the Middle East and North Africa.
People were literally "pouring" into Dubai, he said.
"They issue 800 residencies every day on average. It puts a lot of strain on the infrastructure."
There was still a long way to go in the country's construction business.
"I'll be hanging around here for a little while yet."
