· The Petronas Twin Towers were the tallest buildings in the world until Taipei 101, as measured to the top of their structural components (spires, but not antennas), took over the record.
· Spires are considered 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.
· The Petronas Twin Towers remain the tallest twin buildings in the world.
· The Sears Tower and the World Trade Center towers were each constructed with 110 occupied floors – 22 more than the Petronas Twin Towers’ 88 floors.
· The Sears Tower and the World Trade Center’s roofs and highest occupied floors substantially exceed the height of the roof and highest floors of the Petronas Twin Towers.
· The Sears Tower’s tallest antenna is about 250 feet (76 meter) taller than the Petronas Twin Towers’ spires. However, in accordance to CTBUH regulations and guidelines, the antennas of the Sears Tower were not counted as part of its architectural features. Hence, surpassing the roof of the Sears Tower by 10m.
HISTORY
· These towers, which were designed by Cesar Pelli, an Argentine-American architect.
· were completed in 1998 and became the tallest buildings in the world on the date of completion.
· 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.
· 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 by Bachy Soletanche, and required massive amounts of concrete.
· In an unusual move, a different construction company was hired for each of the towers, and they were made to compete against each other.
Tower 1 = Hazama Corporation
Tower 2 = Samsung constructions (win)
· 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.
· Below the twin towers is Suria KLCC, a popular shopping mall, and Dewan Filharmonik Petronas, the home of the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra
TENANTS OF THE PETRONAS TWIN TOWERS
· Tower One is fully occupied by the Petronas Company and a number of its sudsidiaries and associate companies.
· The office spaces in Tower Two are mostly available for lease to other companies.
· A number of companies have offices in Tower Two, including Accenture, Al Jazeera English, Bloomberg, Boeing, IBM, Khazanah Nasional Berhad, Mckinsey & Co, Krawler Networks Microsoft, Newfield Exploration and Reuters.
KLCC PARK
· Outside the building is a park with jogging and walking paths, a fountain with incorporated light show, wading pools, and a children's playground. Suria KLCC is one of the biggest shopping malls in Malaysia.
SKYBRIDGE
· The towers feature a skybridge (constructed by Kukdong Engineering & Construction) between the two towers on 41st and 42nd floors, which is the highest 2-story bridge in the world.
· The bridge is 170m above the ground and 58 m long. The same floor is also known as the podium, since visitors desiring to go to higher levels have to change elevators here.
· The skybridge is open to all visitors, but free passes (limited to 1700 people per day) must be obtained on a first-come, first-served basis.
· The Skyway is closed on Mondays. Visitors are allowed to go only on the 41st floor as the 42nd floor is used only by the tenants of the building.
ELEVATOR SYSTEM
· The main bank of elevators is located in the center of each tower.
· All main elevators are double-decker with the lower deck of the elevator taking passengers to odd numbered floors and upper deck to even numbered floors.
· In order to access an even numbered floor from ground level, passengers are required to use an escalator to access the upper deck of the elevator.
· From the ground floor there are three groupings of elevator.
1. The "short haul" group of 6 elevators take passengers to floors between
level 2/3 and level 16/17.
2. The "mid haul" group of 6 elevators take passengers to floors between level
18/19 and level 37/38. There is also a set of shuttle elevators that take
passengers directly to levels 41/42. In order to get to levels above 41/42,
passengers are required to take the shuttle elevators and then change
elevators to the upper floors.
3. The pattern now repeats with the upper levels, one set serving levels
43/44 to 57/58 and one set serving levels 59/60 to levels 73/74.
SERVICE BUILDING
· The service building is to the east of the Petronas Towers and contains the services required to keep the building operational, such as dissipating the heat from the air-conditioning system for all 88 levels in both towers.
REFERENCE
- Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat preamble to High Rise Database: "OTHER MEASUREMENTS OF HEIGHT:"
- http://www.wikipedia.com/
- http://www.ctbuh.org/
- http://www.thesearstower.com/propertyprofile.html
- Fire Forces Evacuation at Malaysia Towers, CBS News, November 4, 2005.
