The Burj Khalifa opened 5 years ago on January 4, 2010, becoming the tallest structure in the world at 2,722 feet. The Burj is classic Dubai, marrying design elements pulled from Islamic architecture (like the spiral minaret) with a heaping helping of Western-style vanity. The project was explicitly designed to help the Persian Gulf city make headlines and attract tourism investment. (More than a quarter of the skyscraper’s height is taken up by a spire which adds no functional space.)

With oil production a small part of the local economy, Dubai has turned to flashy tourist-bait projects like the Burj. The approach has attracted Western capital along with a flood of low-paid laborers from East Asia, in one of the world's most unique local economies.

Inside the skyscraper are 163 floors, occupied by a hotel, restaurant, business space, and apartments. When the Burj opened, it had the world’s highest observation deck on the 124th floor. When a Chinese building took that record away, the Burj’s owners decided to open another deck on the 148th floor, and won the record back.

Dubai’s “Disneyland in the desert” economic approach has taken a hit during the global recession, with many projects being timed nearly perfectly to the global economic collapse. The Burj is no exception. While its 900 apartments supposedly sold out within eight hours of going on the market, they were nearly empty when the building opened, and have only managed to achieve about 80% occupancy since. While the Burj can fairly be described as a vanity project that hasn’t quite panned out as planned so far, it’s definitely an impressive one…and the New Year’s fireworks are supposedly quite a sight to see.

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