Cayan Tower

«We wanted a building that couldn't be confused with any other — and that performs better than a straight one.»

— MARSHALL STRABALA · LEAD ARCHITECT, SOM

In 2005, Cayan Group — a Dubai developer with architectural icon ambitions — approached Skidmore, Owings & Merrill with an open brief: build something that stands apart from Marina's standard glass boxes. SOM proposed an unexpected solution — a spiral tower twisting 90 degrees. On paper it looked like a pure aesthetic move; in practice the engineering rationale was substantial.

Lead architect was Marshall Strabala, SOM's senior high-rise designer (who later founded his own firm, Studio Marshall Strabala). The concept: each floor shifts 1.2 degrees relative to the one below. Across 73 floors, this produces exactly 90° of rotation. Structurally — a central reinforced concrete core (fixed), plus external columns following the twisted contour. This is complex and expensive in terms of formwork, but yields a real engineering benefit: wind vortex shedding doesn't 'lock in' to the tower's natural frequency (as it would on a regular box) but distributes across the height.

Result — no tuned mass dampers (systems costing millions of dollars and consuming usable floor area, as in Taipei 101). Cayan Tower stands without them.

The contractor was Arabtec, the same firm that built Burj Khalifa. However, the twist form significantly complicated construction: each floor required individual formwork with unique geometry, slowing the cycle. The 2008 financial crisis added further delays. Original handover was planned for 2010, but the tower was actually delivered in 2013 — three years behind schedule.