This paper will describe a foundation design process for high-rise buildings. The process will be illustrated via its application to three high-rise building projects in Dubai, the Emirates Twin Towers, the Burj Dubai, and the Nakheel Tall Tower. The Burj Dubai is now the world's tallest building and the Nakheel Tower will become the world's tallest when completed. The foundation system for each of the towers was a piled raft, founded on deep deposits of carbonate soils and rocks. For each case, an outline will be given of the geotechnical investigations undertaken, the field and laboratory testing programs, and the design process. Of particular concern in these cases was a potential issue of low skin friction and cyclic degradation of skin friction. A numerical computer analysis that was adopted for the design process, using a limit state approach, will be described. For the Emirates project, a comprehensive program of pile load testing was undertaken and “Class A” predictions of both axial and lateral load-deflection behaviour were in fair agreement with the load test results. Despite this agreement, the overall settlements of the towers observed during construction were significantly less than those predicted. The possible reasons for the discrepancy are discussed. For the Burj Dubai, load tests were also carried out, and “Class A” predictions were made, taking account of the lessons learned from the Emirates project. The measured and predicted building settlements will be presented. For the Nakheel Tower, no performance measurements are available as it is in the early stages of foundation construction.