Petronas Towers
The eighty-eight-story, 451.9-meter-tall Petronas twin towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, became the tallest buildings in the world when completed in 1996, replacing Chicago's Sears Tower, which had held the record since 1974. Designed by the American architect Cesar Pelli (b. 1926), each of the steel-clad towers is topped by a functionless spire, suggesting that their record-breaking height was not accidental. The two towers are joined by a 58.4-meter skybridge at the forty-first and forty-second stories, 170 meters above street level. Together, they form part of a larger development, the Kuala Lumpur City Centre (KLCC).
The towers are located at the northwest corner of KLCC, which is a northeastward expansion of Kuala Lumpur's main commercial district, the so-called Golden Triangle area, occupying the site of the former colonial racecourse. Piling and foundation work for the towers commenced in 1993 and experienced some difficulties owing to the limestone geology of the area. Rival Japanese and South Korean–led consortia were responsible for construction of one tower each, the Japanese eventually winning the "race to the top" in April 1996. One tower is occupied by the national oil company, Petronas, whose name the towers bear. Multinational companies occupy the remaining space.
Further Reading
Crosbie, Michael J. (1998) Cesar Pelli: Recent Themes. Berlin: Berkhauser.
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