The engineer behind Saudi Arabia’s Jeddah Tower says a rarely discussed design advantage comes from building well above the atmospheric boundary layer—where wind behaves differently than it does near the ground—helping explain how the world’s tallest tower is
When Jeddah Tower nears completion, most people will only notice what’s at the surface: the height, the skyline dominance, the headlines about becoming the world’s tallest building.
But the engineer managing the project says there’s a detail even specialists don’t often talk about. John Peronto. managing principal at Thornton Tomasetti and project manager for the tower. described a feature that’s “barely visible to the eye”: roughly “a third” of Jeddah Tower will rise above the atmospheric boundary layer—an altitude band where most of Earth’s weather processes that hit buildings most strongly are concentrated.
“We don’t talk about that a lot in tall buildings because not many have really achieved these levels of height,” Peronto told Newsweek.
Once topped out, Jeddah Tower—designed by architects Adrian Smith and Gordon Gill of Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture (AS+GG)—is set to rise above 1,000 meters, around 3,281 feet, surpassing Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, the current tallest building in the world, which stands at around 2,717 feet.
Smith, who designed the Burj Khalifa while at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), later co-founded AS+GG. The comparison underscores the scale of the leap Jeddah Tower is aiming for—and why the way it meets the atmosphere matters.
The conversation around supertall buildings doesn’t stop at engineering feats. Their environmental cost is part of the debate too. Buildings are responsible for 39 percent of global energy-related carbon emissions—28 percent from operational energy and 11 percent from materials and construction—according to the World Green Building Council.
A major portion comes from embodied carbon, defined by the U.S. Green Building Council as “the millions of tons of Earth-warming carbon emissions” generated across a building product’s life cycle, from extraction and manufacturing to construction, maintenance, and eventual disposal.
Gill has previously acknowledged that supertall towers must confront this reality, particularly through their structural systems. He warned that “the real challenge lies in refreshing existing buildings and making them more sustainable. ” telling Newsweek earlier this month that “the majority of embodied carbon that we’re seeing is primarily in the infrastructure and the structure of these buildings.”.
“It’s almost like a city…underneath the asphalt, there’s a whole other world under there that’s driving the embodied carbon of cities,” Gill said.
Even so, efficiency remains a central goal in how Jeddah Tower is being built. Gill described the tower as “extremely efficient,” saying the balance between form and performance is critical. “When we talk about form and performance, these are the kind of things we strive for,” he said.
The urgency isn’t just theoretical. The World Green Building Council has warned that “upfront carbon”—emissions released before a building is operational—could account for half of the entire carbon footprint of new construction by 2050. stressing that addressing these emissions is an “urgent” priority for the sector.
The wind lesson sits underneath all of it. The atmospheric boundary layer is typically the lowest one to three kilometers of the atmosphere. where surface-driven forces—friction. heat transfer. and turbulence—have the strongest impact. It’s also the zone where thunderstorms can generate powerful downdrafts and high wind pressures.
Peronto explained that most extreme wind effects occur in this lower layer. particularly in the first few hundred meters above ground. But as height increases, conditions change. Advances in measurement techniques have shown wind becomes more “layered”: it may occur more frequently at higher levels. yet peak loads can be less severe.
“Once you kind of get above the atmospheric boundary layer…even though the winds are more frequently higher… the maximum loads are actually less than what you would see lower down,” Peronto said. He attributed that to storms pushing downward rather than persisting at altitude.
In other words, the tower’s greatest height doesn’t necessarily mean the highest peak wind pressure is felt everywhere. The result is counterintuitive: parts of Jeddah Tower may experience lower peak wind pressures than sections closer to the ground. simply because the atmosphere’s behavior changes with altitude.
That shift doesn’t replace structural basics. At the heart of Jeddah Tower’s stability is a tri-legged structural system, chosen for efficiency and steadiness. Peronto said the concept draws on a fundamental principle: three points are the minimum required for balance. “The minimum number of legs…for stability is three. ” he said. adding that the question becomes why add a fourth when efficiency is the target.
The geometry is also practical. Peronto said a tri-legged structure can be rotated to “pretty much maximize the full circle…almost the entire way around. ” making it more effective than a four-legged arrangement. “The tri-legged structure is a very efficient way to maximize stability, minimizing the amount of points of contact,” he said.
Peronto also predicted a comfort outcome that goes beyond avoiding collapse. He believes Jeddah Tower will “probably be the most comfortable tall building on the planet. ” pointing to the tower’s mass and the energy required for wind to “excite” it. “Even though it’s the first man-made structure to hit a kilometer…there’s so much mass to the tower…it takes so much wind energy to actually excite the tower. even given its scale. ” he said.
Gravity remains the constant that shapes every decision. Peronto said the designs are driven by the need to resist “such enormous gravity loads.” He described a goal commonly pursued in supertall construction: keeping the footprint minimized while ensuring elements remain buildable.
That’s where the form comes in. Peronto explained that the structure flares out at its base to distribute loads more efficiently without requiring excessively thick walls. Without that strategy. he said. a straight tower would need increasingly thicker walls toward the bottom. adding material use and complexity.
The story of Jeddah Tower isn’t just about chasing a number above 1,000 meters. It’s about how height changes wind behavior, why stability can be engineered through a tri-legged system, and how those choices intersect with the reality that embodied carbon is largely tied to the structure itself.
Taken together, the details Peronto discussed point to a tower designed not only to stand at the edge of what’s possible—but to make that edge survivable in the atmosphere it has to live in.
Jeddah Tower Saudi Arabia tallest building John Peronto Thornton Tomasetti Thornton Tomasetti engineer atmospheric boundary layer wind loads tri-legged structural system Adrian Smith Gordon Gill AS+GG Burj Khalifa embodied carbon upfront carbon