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Petronas Twin Towers is the anchor project of Kuala Lumpur City Center or KLCC. Standing at 451.9M high, it has a two towers of 88-storey office building. The RM 1.8 billions Petronas Twin Towers building was officially opened on August 31, 1999 by Malaysia's 4th Prime Minister, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohammad. The original design was 421M tall but later reworked to the present height. They were the world's tallest buildings from 1998 to 2004 until surpassed by Taipei 101, but remain the tallest twin buildings in the world. The height of buildings are measured to the top of their structural components such as spires, but not including antennas.Spires are considered actual integral parts of the architectural design of buildings, to which changes would substantially change the appearance and design of the building, whereas antennas may be added or removed without such consequences.
Willis Tower (formerly Sears Tower) and the World Trade Center towers were each constructed with 110 occupied floors – 22 more than the Petronas Twin Towers’ 88 floors. Willis Tower and the World Trade Center’s roofs and highest occupied floors substantially exceeded the height of the roof and highest floors of the Petronas Twin Towers. Willis Tower’s tallest antenna is 247.4 ft taller than the Petronas Twin Towers’ spires. However, in accordance to CTBUH regulations and guidelines,the antennas of Willis Tower were not counted as part of its architectural features.The spires on the Petronas Towers are included in the height since they are not antenna masts. Therefore, the Petronas Twin Towers exceed the official height of Willis Tower by 10 m, but Willis Tower has more floors and much higher square footage.
Construction History
Designed by Argentine architects César Pelli and Djay Cerico under the consultancy of Julius Gold, the Petronas Towers were completed in 1998 after a seven year build and became the tallest buildings in the world on the date of completion. They were built on the site of Kuala Lumpur's race track. Because of the depth of the bedrock, the buildings were built on the world's deepest foundations. The 120-meter foundations were built within 12 months by Bachy Soletanche and required massive amounts of concrete. Its engineering designs on structural framework were contributed by Haitian engineer Domo Obiasse and colleagues Aris Battista and Princess D Battista.
The 88-floor towers are constructed largely of reinforced concrete, with a steel and glass facade designed to resemble motifs found in Islamic art, a reflection of Malaysia's Muslim religion. Another Islamic influence on the design is that the cross section of the towers is based on a Rub el Hizb (albeit with circular sectors added to meet office space requirements). Tower 1 was built by a Japanese consortium led by the Hazama Corporation while Tower 2 was built by Samsung C&T and Kukdong Engineering & Construction both South Korean contractors. The sky bridge contract was completed by Kukdong Engineering & Construction.
The 88-floor towers are constructed largely of reinforced concrete, with a steel and glass facade designed to resemble motifs found in Islamic art, a reflection of Malaysia's Muslim religion. Another Islamic influence on the design is that the cross section of the towers is based on a Rub el Hizb (albeit with circular sectors added to meet office space requirements). Tower 1 was built by a Japanese consortium led by the Hazama Corporation while Tower 2 was built by Samsung C&T and Kukdong Engineering & Construction both South Korean contractors. The sky bridge contract was completed by Kukdong Engineering & Construction.
Construction progress by the South Korean Samsung C&T of Tower 2 was always behind that of Tower 1 completed by the Japanese Hazama Corp such that the latter was always required to wait the former to catch up at every step. At the final step of construction, despite both sides having agreed to simultaneously set up the pinnacle, the South Korean team outwitted the Japanese to set theirs up earlier than the agreed day. Thus, Tower 2 became the first to reach the then world's tallest.
Due to a lack of steel and the huge cost of importing steel, the towers were constructed on a cheaper radical design of super high-strength reinforced concrete. High-strength concrete is a material familiar to Asian contractors and twice as effective as steel in sway reduction; however, it makes the building twice as heavy on its foundation than a comparable steel building. Supported by 23-by-23 meter concrete cores and an outer ring of widely spaced super columns, the towers use a sophisticated structural system that accommodates its slender profile and provides 560,000 square metres of column-free office space. Below the twin towers is Suria KLCC, a shopping mall, and Dewan Filharmonik Petronas, the home of the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra.
Other buildings have used spires to increase their height but have always been taller overall to the pinnacle when trying to claim the title. In the aftermath of the controversy, the rules governing official titles were partially overhauled, and a number of buildings re-classified structural antenna as architectural details to boost their height rating (even though nothing was actually done to the building).
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