The tower was designed by architectural firm Skidmore, Owings & Merril, known for their designs for the Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower) and the new One World Trade Center in New York. The three-pronged design is based on the spider lily desert flower and consists of three elements around a central core, with the elements spiralling upwards. It can rightly be called an international project: the construction team consisted of Samsung Engineering & Construction employees from South Korea in collaboration with Besix from Belgium and Arabtec from the United Arab Emirates. The UK consultancy Hyder Consulting was responsible for overseeing construction of the building. In total, companies from more than 30 different countries contributed to the construction of the Burj Khalifa.