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Image for Windowless building rises in Bur Dubai
© XPRESS/Virendra Saklani
Rooms with no view: etisalat’s windowless building.
Published: December 13, 2007, 09:59

Windowless building rises in Bur Dubai

By Derek Baldwin, Staff Reporter

A curious oddity has sprouted high into the Bur Dubai skyline raising eyebrows of passers-by.

At first glance, it looks like any new skyscraper but on closer inspection pedestrians say they are baffled that the building is devoid of a single window on any of its sides. The frontally sloped façade of the building extends all of the way to the roof without a single break in its shell.

"I don’t think I’ve ever laid my eyes on a building this large without any windows," said British expatriate William Eros, who was shopping at the busy intersection of Bank and Mankhool streets.

Indian expatriate Praveen Singh who works at a nearby café said he watched the construction of the building for months and believes he was one of the first to notice no windows were ever added to the structure.

The building belongs to etisalat and an official from the company told XPRESS the reason for having no windows was simple: it’s a data warehouse.

Windows let in sunshine and raise the temperature of the interior of the building.

Having no windows keeps the heat out so that large corporate-sized computer servers can stay cool to keep Bur Dubai phone lines connected.

 
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