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Petronas Twin Towers(Redirected from Petronas Towers)
The Petronas Twin Towers
The Petronas Twin Towers, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and are the second tallest high rise when measuring from the sidewalk level of the main entrance to the structural or architectural top. They claimed to be the world's tallest buildings by this using this measure from their completion until they were unseated by Taipei 101 on October 17, 2003. The Petronas Twin Towers are currently the tallest twin towers in the world, and they laid claim to being the world's tallest high rise of the 20th century, though this claim is highly disputed and requires condidering the highest architectural detail the most important criteria.
In the wake of its controversy that its claim generated the rules were overhauled, but many still do not accept the claim. The conflict between spire like constructions considered architectural details and spire like constructions classified as antennas has net yet been totally resolved, and as result controversy over buildings like the Petronas that take advantage this classification setup to boost their ranking continue.
The towers themselves are entirely devoted to office space and were designed by architect Cesar Pelli in 1998. The 88-story, largely stainless steel and glass structure was designed to resemble motifs found in Islamic art, a reflection of Malaysia's Muslim majority and heritage. The basic structure however was a development of the design firms design for a cancelled Chicago building. Petronas, Malaysia's national oil company, wanted to build the world's tallest building. Although other buildings such as the Sears Tower have higher occupied floors, a higher pinnacle, and a higher roof, the Petronas towers spires rise to 1483 feet (452 m). The Sears towers higher spires (1,703 ft (519 m)), are classified as antennas and do not count. Taking advantage of the quirks of the rules govering building measurements has generated a large amount of controversy over the towers claim to the title.
A comparison of the tallest buildings in the world.
By taking adavantage of the pecularities of these rules and then claiming to have the tallest building(high rise) the towers themselves have been obscured in heated debates over building height. A great addition to the world's collection of tall, beautiful buildings has been tainted by what many consider to be a false and spurious claim. While the having a tall building can be great source of postive acclaim and pride for a city, the Petronas are popularly derided. Ironically, this is the opposite of what was intended and a great shame for buildings that would otherwise had a unblemished reputation.
Without warning, one morning in 1997 French urban climber, Alain "Spiderman" Robert, using only his bare hands and feet and with no safety devices of any kind, scaled the building's exterior glass and steel wall all the way to the top.
Below the twin towers is a popular shopping complex, called Suria KLCC. There is also a performance hall in the complex, Dewan Philharmonik, in which a classical orchestra plays. Outside the shopping mall there is a well planned park with fountains, pools, jogging tracks and many trees. The skybridge is open to tourists who wish to have a glimpse of Kuala Lumpur from on high.
See also: Skyscraper, List of towers
This article is adapted from from Wikipedia All Wikipedia article text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License
Petronas Towers : The Architecture of High Construction by Cesar Pelli
The Petronas Towers (Building World Landmarks) by Catherine M. Petrini
The Petronas Twin Towers: World's Tallest Building by Mark Thomas
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