Twin towers

Twin towers

Here are some interesting facts about the Petronas Towers:

- combined the towers have 1,000,000m2 of floor space;
- at the 41st and 42nd level a skybridge connects the two towers 170m/558f above the ground.
This bridge is 58.4m/192f long, weighs 750 tons and is open for the public since the end of 2000.
The entrance is free (closed on Monday!), but only a limited amount of timed tickets (800) is given out each day.
Chances are you will have to wait in line quite a while, before you get such a free ticket;
and you're only allowed on the bridge for a mere 10 minutes. Worth it?
Maybe, but instead a visit to the observatory of Menara Kuala Lumpur is much more interesting,
though there is an entrance fee there (of RM15);
- the towers have 32.000 windows;
- the building costs were US $ 1,2 billion;
- the towers were designed to symbolise strength and grace using geometric principles typified in Islamic architecture;
- without pinnacle the buildings are 'only' 378m/1,240f tall;
- the towers are part of the 100-acre KLCC Development.
Other components of the development include the Suria KLCC, a six-story, 93,000 square feet shopping centre
(with 270 specialty shops, cinema's and a food arcade), Menara Maxis, Menara Esso, the 20-hectare KLCC Park,
a 6,000 capacity Surau, the District Cooling Centres to provide air conditioning
and infrastructure works within the vicinity.
The whole complex was built on a former horse-racing track;
- the towers' complex includes an art gallery, an 840-seat concert hall, and an underground parking lot;
the main occupant of the buildings is Petronas, the national oil-company;
- though completed in 1998, the buildings were officially opened on August 28th, 1999;
- each tower contains 80,000 m3 of concrete in strengths up to Grade 80, almost 11,000 tonnes of reinforcement,
and 7,500 tonnes of structural steel beams and trusses.
- when standing in front of the building and looking towards the entrance,
like seen on the picture above on the left (kl015), tower 2 is the building on the left,
and tower 1 is the building on the right.

The Petronas Towers feature a diamond-faceted facade consisting of 83,500 square meters of stainless steel extrusions. In addition, a 33,000-panel curtain wall cladding system resides within the towers. While the stainless steel element of the towers entices the illustrious sun, highlighting the magnificent towers, they are composed of 55,000 square meters of 20.38 mm laminated glass to reduce heat by reflecting harmful UV rays.

On the top of each tower is a pinnacle standing 73.5 meters tall. The pinnacles were more than just the finishing touches to the height of the towers, each taking over 19 weeks to construct and both being assembled outside the country. One was constructed in Japan and the other in Korea. Each pinnacle is composed of 50 unique parts making up the main components: the spire, mast ball and ring ball. Together these parts weigh 176 tons. While the pinnacles may seem to be an aesthetic feature of the towers to enhance their presence and height, they also play function to aircraft warning lights and are an essential element to the overall Islamic minaret design that the towers embody.

The interiors of the towers highlight the Malaysian cultural inspiration to the design through traditional aspects such as fabric and carvings typical of the culture, specifically evident in the foyer of the entrance halls in the towers.

The construction of the Petronas Towers turned out to be a multinational effort. The structural design engineers worked out of New York City, while the wind-tunnel consultants and elevator design engineers were from Canada. In order to meet local safety construction codes, the towers had to be able to withstand 65 mph winds. In order to assure this requirement would be fulfilled the engineers tested the towers twice within a wind tunnel, first by computer simulation and second by building an actual model of the towers.

The inspiration of architect César Pelli is rooted in the tradition of the culture and the Islamic symbols including the geometric eight-pointed star floor design, the inspiration is mainly from Malaysia’s own ambition and aspiration. As evident in Pelli hoping the skybridge would symbolize a gateway to the future.

Interior