Petronas Towers

From 1998 to 2004 the Petronas Towers were the tallest buildings in the world, and they are still the tallest twin towers anywhere, at 451.9 metres. The Argentine-American architect César Pelli designed them for the Malaysian state oil company. He deliberately drew on Islamic geometry: each tower's floor plan is an eight-pointed star made of two overlapping squares, with rounded lobes fitted into the angles to gain office space. The steel and glass cladding repeats the pattern as it steps up towards the spires. The Prime Minister, Mahathir Mohamad, opened the towers on 31 August 1999.

The engineering was as ambitious as the silhouette. Test borings showed that half the original site sat on decayed limestone, so the whole footprint was shifted about 60 metres to rest on firmer rock. The towers stand on piles bored up to 114 metres deep beneath thick concrete rafts. Imported steel was expensive, so the structure is mostly high-strength reinforced concrete. That material damps sway well but doubles the load on the foundations. To meet the government's deadline, each tower was given to a different contractor. A Japanese consortium led by Hazama built the west tower and a South Korean one led by Samsung the east, which topped out first.

The feature that makes the pair read as a single building is the skybridge. It is a two-storey link at levels 41 and 42, about 170 metres above the street and 58 metres long, resting on a hinged arch. It was assembled on the ground and lifted into place over three days in 1995. It lets people move between towers in high winds or an emergency. Visitors can cross it as part of a limited daily tour that continues to an observation level near the top. At the base are the Suria KLCC mall, the Petronas Philharmonic Hall, home of the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, and KLCC Park, a 17-acre garden with a lake and fountains that is the best place to take in the towers at night.

The towers were built on the site of the old Selangor Turf Club racecourse. They remain the defining landmark of Malaysia's capital, although since 2019 newer Kuala Lumpur towers, The Exchange 106 and then Merdeka 118, have overtaken them in height.

Getting there

The towers are in the KLCC district on Jalan Ampang, about 1 km from the Bukit Bintang shopping area. KLCC station on the Kelana Jaya LRT line (KJ10) is directly beneath the complex. Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport (SZB) at Subang is about 18 km away but handles mainly regional flights. Most international travellers arrive at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KUL), about 45 km south of the city.