The 451.9 m tall including antenna spire twin towers was built in 1992 through 1998 and recorded as the tallest building in the world, until Taipei 101 tower surpassed it in 2004. The building cost to the tune of USD 1.6 billion.
The Towers must have partly contributed Malaysia’s tourism surge since the building completion in 1998. Now Malaysia ranks the World’s Ninth Tourist Destination with 24.6 million tourist arrivals in 2010 four-fold that of 1998 with 5.5 million tourists. (Our beloved Indonesia grew at a snail’s pace of 4.6 million in 1998 and 6.2 million in 2008)
Thanks to National Geographic Channel unfolded inspiring story during its construction.
First, incredible shape of towers.
Cesar Pelli, the Argentine architect, who had already won the design contest, was ordered to change the very design. However, after several proposals, the Client still felt unsatisfied. In this stalemate situation, it was Mahathir himself came up with solution by proposing Islamic art-inspired Rub El Hizb consisting of 2 overlapping squares. Bingo!
Later Cesar Pelli added circular sections at the intersections to increase building space that made the building even more beautiful.
Compared to other skycrappers, Petronas Towers with stainless-steel cladding looks very impressive, unique, and photogenic! To me, many previous towers, such as the collapsed Twin Towers, seem to have no soul resembling tall boxes on the ground.
Second, the connection bridge, prescient idea of 911-disaster evacuation (If only 1 tower is attacked)
A skybridge connecting between the two towers on 41st and 42nd floors can also serve as a safety device. In the event of a fire or other emergency in one tower, people can evacuate by crossing the skybridge to the other tower.
Third, ingenious project execution by sparking competition, between 2 towers, and between 2 ever-competing nations.
The completion had been set perfectly since the beginning. Tower 1 was built a month sooner, than Tower 2 was. As a result, Tower 1 team tried hard to maintain its advance, while Tower 2 team played catch-up.
Moreover, Tower 1 was built by a Japanese consortium led by the Hazama Corporation, while Tower 2 by a South Korean consortium of Samsung C&T and Kukdong Engineering & Construction. It brought, as usual, harsh competition between 2 nations: Japanese and Koreans. In this race – the first team reaching the top – Koreans edged out Japanese.
This brings us back to what Indonesia can do.
I do love Indonesia. I want to see Indonesia “beating” Malaysia, our “arch enemy”in megastructure. But after nearly 66 years old of independence, unfortunately Indonesia’s building can’t match Malaysia’s, nor the old-sick man Pertamina can outperform relatively newly-established Petronas.
And the best Indonesian government-led building is 132 meter tall Monas.
which has to compete with 451.9 m tall Petronas
It’s a no brainer to conclude the winner.
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