Petronas Towers, The Tallest Twin Towers In The World
In Kuala Lumpur, with a height that reaches 452 meters, are the Petronas Towers, the twin towers that until 2003 was the tallest building. They are also the headquarters of the Malaysian oil company “Petronas”, hence its name. Let’s get to know them a little better.
Raising the Petronas Towers
At the time of construction, they were devised by the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Mahathir Mohammad. This leader thought of a symbol of the country, which had to be at the same time a traditional building that had some elements of style corresponding to the Islamic culture.
The architect in charge of carrying out the project was César Pelli. For the job, he thought of a base that would have an eight-pointed star shape. This is an Islamic symbol that represents harmony and order. To all this, semicircular convexities were added to expand the useful surface.
The static engineer was Charlie Thornton. This professional thought that the base had a great chance to support the tallest building on the planet.
The truth is that the omens when building the skyscraper were not the best. After laying the first stone in 1992, the work stopped because the rock under the place where the building should be was too fragile to support the towers.
Because of this, Thornton made the decision to move the entire complex about 60 meters and thus build a soft-ground skyscraper. At the time of filling the foundations of the two towers, they had to put special concrete 52 hours in a row.
Interesting facts about the Petronas Towers
They were built from 1992 to 1997, have 88 floors and are 452 meters high. They have 47 normal elevators and 29 double-deck elevators in each tower. Its construction cost no less than 950 million euros.
Add that its foundations are the deepest on the planet, as they must support a weight of 270,000 tons for each structure.
Kuala Lumpur City Center
Inside the complex is the Kuala Lumpur City Center. This place has shopping centers, banks and hotels. Besides this, there is also an art gallery and concert hall.
More curiosities
The term for its construction was six years, and for each day of delay than planned, the companies had to pay $700,000 as a penalty. The result was that all the works were carried out at a great pace and with great pressure.
In this great work, up to 2,000 operators working 24 hours a day could be counted. And that, without any rest days during the week. For each floor it took four days in an 88-story building.
Construction problems
The team that worked on Tower I had a bit of an advantage. When the work reached the 72nd floor, a surveyor determined that the tower had an inclination of 2.5 cm from the vertical.
Charlie Thornton managed to correct this error and the last 16 floors were built with a slope of 0.2 cm per floor. The tower is stable and no such defect can be detected when viewed. The realization works finished without problems.
The bridge
Between the 41st and 42nd floors, at about 170 meters high, there is a 400-ton bridge called the Sky Bridge, which is in charge of connecting the two towers. The gangway can be used as an emergency exit whenever necessary, and it is resting on ball bearings that give it extra stability.
The completion
In 1997 the Petronas Towers were finished and the inauguration took place in style. Until 2003, as we said at the beginning, they formed the tallest building on the planet.
Currently, there is talk of a new building of 630 meters high and that would have 118 floors, called Merdeka PNB118, and that will be completed in its first stage in 2020. It will be the structure that dethrones the Petronas Towers in Malaysia.
If completed, it would be the second tallest building on the continent and the fifth tallest on the planet. Inside will be a 236-room luxury hotel, 82 floors of offices and a shopping center that will house more than 200 stores and a cinema.
But meanwhile, the Petronas Towers remain a symbol of their country. Would you dare to climb to its highest floor? The views are spectacular.
