Petronas Towers

Petronas Towers

Petronas Towers

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Petronas Towers Petronas Towers

L_{ocation in central Kuala} L_umpur 

Type Office

Location KualaL_{umpur , Malaysia}

Owner K LCC

Started 1992

Completed 1998

Height 451.9 metres (1482.6 feet)

Antenna spire 451.9 m (1,482.6 ft)[1]

Roof  378.6 m (1,242.1 ft)

Top floor 375.0 m (1,230.3 ft)

Floor count 88

Floor area 395,000 m2(4,252,000 sq ft) (1 & 2)

Elevator count 78 (1 & 2)

Main contractor

Tower1: HazamaC_orporation

Tower2: Samsung Engineering &

C_{onstruction and Kukdong Engineering}

&C_onstruction

C_ityC_{enter: B.}L_{. Harbert International}

Cost $ 1.6 billion [2]

Architect Cé_{sar Pelli}

Structural

engineer Thornton Tomasetti

The Petronas Twin Towers (Malay: Menara Berkembar Petronas) (also known as the Petronas Towers or just Twin Towers), in KualaL_{umpur , Malaysia were the world's tallest buildings}

from 1998 to 2004, when their height was surpassed by Taipei 101. The towers remain the tallest twin buildings in the world.

Contents

y 1 Comparison with other towers y 2 History

y 3 Tenants of the Petronas Twin Towers

o 3.1 K LCCpark  o 3.2 Skybridge o 3.3Lift system o 3.4 Service building y 4 Notable events y 5 Popular culture y 6 Gallery y 7 Quotations y 8 See also y 9 References y 10 External links

[

edit] Comparison with other towers

In accordance to C_{TBUH, the pinnacles contributed to the overall height of the towers, thus}

surpassing the Willis Tower .

The Petronas Twin Towers were the tallest buildings in the world until Taipei 101 was completed in 2004, as measured to the top of their structural components (spires, but not

antennas).[3] 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.[4]

The Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower) and the World Trade C_{enter towers were each}

constructed with 110 occupied floors ± 22 more than the Petronas Twin Towers¶ 88 floors. The Willis Tower and the World Trade C_{enter¶s roofs and highest occupied floors substantially}

exceeded the height of the roof and highest floors of the Petronas Twin Towers. The Willis Tower¶s tallest antenna is 247.4 ft taller than the Petronas Twin Towers¶ spires. However, in accordance toC_{TBUH regulations and guidelines,}[5] _{the antennas of the Willis Tower were not}

counted as part of its architectural features.[6] 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 the Willis Tower by 10 m, but the Willis Tower has more floors and much higher square footage.

[

edit] History

Designed by Argentine architectsCé_{sar Pelli and Djay}C_{erico 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.[7] They were built on the site of Kuala

L_{umpur's race track .}[8] _{Because of the depth of the bedrock , the buildings were built on the}

world's deepest foundations.[9] The 120-meter foundations were built within 12 months by Bachy Soletanche and required massive amounts of concrete.[10]. 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.[11] 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).[12]Tower 1 was  built by a Japanese consortium led by the HazamaC_{orporation while Tower 2 was built by}

SamsungC_{&T and Kukdong Engineering &}C_{onstruction, both South Korean contractors. The}

sky bridge contract was completed by Kukdong Engineering &C_{onstruction. The notable event}

was that the South Korean SamsungC_{&T started construction later than the Tower 1 but}

completed building faster and became the first.

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.[13]High-strength concrete is a material familiar to Asian contractors and twice as effective as stee l in sway reduction; however, it makes the building twice as heavy on its foundation than a co mparable steel building.

Supported by 23-by-23 meter concrete cores[14]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.[15]Below the twin towers is Suria K LCC_{, a shopping mall, and Dewan Filharmonik Petronas, the home of the Malaysian}

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).

[

edit] Tenants of the Petronas Twin Towers

A skybridge connects the two towers

An inside view of the skybridge

Tower One is fully occupied by Petronas and a number of its subsidiaries and associate companies, while the office spaces in Tower Two are mostly available for lease to ot her  companies.[16] A number of companies have offices in Tower Two, including Huawei

Technologies, Accenture, AVEVA, Al Jazeera English, C_{arigali Hess Bloomberg, Boeing, IBM,}

Khazanah Nasional Berhad, McKinsey &C_{o, T}C_{S, H}CL _{Technologies, Krawler , Microsoft, The}

Agency (a modeling company) and Reuters. [

edit] KLCC park 

Main article: K LCC_Park 

Spanning 17 acres (69,000 m2) below the building is the K LCC_{park with jogging and walking}

 paths, a fountain with incorporated light show, wading pools, and a children's playground. Suria K LCC _{is one of the largest shopping malls in Malaysia.}[17]

The towers feature a skybridge between the two towers on 41st and 42nd floors, which is the highest 2-story bridge in the world.[18] It is not attached to the main structure, but is instead designed to slide in and out of the towers to prevent it from breaking during high winds.[19] The  bridge is 170 m (558 ft) above the ground and 58 m (190 ft) long, weighing 750 tons.[20]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.[21]Visitors are only allowed

on the 41st floor as the 42nd floor can only be used by the tenants of the building.[22]

The skybridge also acts as a safety device, so that in the event of a fire or other emergency in one tower, tenants can evacuate by crossing the skybridge to the other tower.[23] The total evacuation triggered by a bomb hoax on September 12, 2001[24] (the day after the September 11 attacks destroyed the Twin Towers of the World TradeC_{enter in New York} C_{ity) showed that the bridge}

would not be useful if both towers need to be emptied simultaneously, as the capacity of the staircases was insufficient for such an event. Plans thus ca ll for the lifts to be used if both towers need to be evacuated, and a successful drill following the revised plan was conducted in 2005. [

edit] Lift system

The main bank of Otis L_{ifts is located in the centre of each tower. All main lifts are}

double-decker with the lower deck of the lift taking passengers to odd numbered floors and upper deck  to even numbered floors. To reach an even-numbered floor from ground level, passengers must take an escalator to the upper deck of the lift.[25]

From the ground floor, there are three groups of lifts. The "short haul" group o f 6 lifts take  passengers to floors between level 2/3 and level 16/17. The "mid haul" group of six lifts take  passengers to floors between level 18/19 and level 37/38. There is also a set of shuttle lifts that

take passengers directly to levels 41/42. To get to levels above 41/42, passengers must take the shuttle lifts, then change to lifts to the upper floors. These connecting lifts are directly above t he lifts that serve levels 2 to 38. 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.[25]

Apart from this main bank of lifts, there are a series of "connecting" lifts to take people between the groups. Unlike the main lifts, these are not the double-decker type. Two lifts are provided to take people from levels 37/38 to levels 41/42 (levels 39 and 40 are not accessible as office

space). This spares someone in the lower half of the building from having to go back to the ground floor to go to the upper half of the building.

The lifts contain a number of safety features. It is possible to evacuate people from a lift stuck   between floors by manually driving one of the adjacent lifts next to it and opening a panel in the

wall. It is then possible for people in the stuck lift to walk between lift cars.[26]During an

evacuation of the buildings, only the shuttle lift is allowed to be used, as there are only doors at levels G/1 and levels 41/42; therefore should there be a fire in the lower half of the building, this enclosed shaft would remain unaffected. Firefighter lifts are also provided in case of 

[

edit] 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.

[

edit] Notable events

Thousands of people were evacuated on 12th September, 2001 after a bomb threat was phoned in the day after the September 11th attacks destroyed the Twin Towers of the World TradeC_enter 

in New York C_{ity. Bomb Disposal squads found no bomb in the Petronas towers but they}

evacuated everyone. Workers and shoppers were allowed to return three hours later, around noon. No-one was hurt during the evacuation.[27]

On the evening of 4th November, 2005, a fire broke out in the cinema complex of the Suria K LCC_{shopping centre below the Petronas Twin Towers, triggering panic among patrons who}

 joined screaming in the thick, acrid smoke. There were no reports of injuries. The buildings were largely empty (except the shopping mall, Suria K LCC_{) because of the late hour; the only people}

involved were moviegoers and some diners in restaurants.[28]

On the morning of 1st September, 2009, French urban climber, Alain "Spiderman" Robert, using only his bare hands and feet and with no safety devices, scaled to the top of Tower Two in just under 2 hours after two previous efforts had ended in arrest.[29] On 20th March, 1997, police arrested him at the 60th floor, 28 floors away from the "summit." He made a second attempt on 20th March, 2007, exactly 10 years later, and was stopped once again on the same floor (though on the other tower).[30]

[

edit] Popular culture

The Petronas Towers were a setting for some scenes in the 1999 film E ntrapment starring Sean

C_{onnery and}C_{atherine Zeta-Jones.}[31] _{It ends in a dramatic pursuit of the two stars by the}

Pasukan Gerakan Khas, eventually leading to C_{onnery's escape and Zeta-Jones's capture.}

The towers were depicted in flames for a few seconds in the future-set filmC_{hildren of Men.}

A dynamic aerial shot of the towers at 4:00 pm is the first image of the po pular American television series 24. That is, the towers are the first thing that we see in the first episode of the show.

In the episode "Bound and Buried", in Life After People: The Series, the towers are shown collapsing 500 years after people due to corrosion and the weakening of the concrete columns. The towers are displayed in Rise of Nations, where it is in the background of the Information Age icon.

American singer Jesse McC_{artney's 2004 Malaysian album cover Beautiful Soul showed the}

Petronas Twin Towers in the inset.

The towers also feature in three levels of the game H itman 2: Silent Assassin where the player  travels from one tower to another using the sky bridge, though it is unlike the real sky bridge; instead of being a narrow passageway, the sky bridge is wide and entered by breaking a panel of  glass.

The PS2 game Burnout Dominator features the Twin Towers as Spiritual Towers. Episode 22 from the anime series Cowboy Bebop shows what closely resembles the Petronas Twin Towers  being blown up by a terrorist. This was taken off the air for a short time post-11/9.

The Petronas Towers are also a major setting in the 2006 Bollywood film, Don - The C_hase

Begins Again, starring Shahrukh Khan and 2005 Kollywood film, Anniyan, directed by S. Shankar .

Also, in the 2007 movie, Billa starring Ajith, Nayanthara, Namitha, a remake of the 1980 classic Billa by Rajnikanth, the Petronas Twin Towers are being seen as a major setting.

It also can be seen in Joseph Vijay's Kuruvi and Surya Sivakumar 's Ayan.

[

edit] Gallery

This section looks like an image gallery. Wikipedia policy discourages galleries of  random images of the article subject; please improve or remove the section accordingly, moving freely licensed images to Wikimedia C_{ommons if not already hosted there.}

Pictures of Petronas Twin Towers

Foggy tower scene Skyscraper comparisonThe Petronas Towers, looking upwards

From front-central- base entrance

Suria K LCC_shopping

complex at the base of  the towers

Part of the Suria K LCC

shopping complex

Front facade of the towers

Towers from the water  fountain in K LCC _Park 

Towers with Suria K LCC_{and water} 

fountain

Front facade of the

towers The towers The towers

L_{ooking up from}

concourse level in Suria K LCC_{'s atrium space}

From the flyover bridgeView from the public  park 

Galactica Night at K LCC_{Petronas Twin}

Towers

From the open public children

 park/playground

KualaL_{umpur from}

Genting Highland Resort

The water fountain at the rear entrance of  Suria K LCC

The 41st floor  skybridge

Towers at night Close up view of the skybridge

The twin towers in the rain

Petronas Towers at  Night

L_{ooking up from the}

 base of one of the Towers

K LCC_{park fountain, at}

night

L_{ooking up from the}

 base of one of the Towers at night

Petronas Towers at  Night

A view of the facade details of the towers from the street level

Bustle Area Detail. C_Lobbyeiling Detail at the

[

edit] Quotations

A quote by the building's main architect:

"  According to Lao Tse , the reality of a hollow object is in the void and not in the walls that  define it. H e was speaking, of course, of spiritual realities. These are the realities also of the  Petronas Towers. The power of the void is increased and made more explicit by the pedestrian

bridge that ... with its supporting structure creates a portal to the sky ... a door to the infinite." [32]

 ² Cé_{sar Pelli, architect (1995)}