THE PETRONAS TWIN TOWERS IN KLCC, MALAYSIA

A brief background & development history on KLCC ("The Kuala Lumpur City Centre")
&Petronas Twin Towers, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

INTRODUCTION

The world's tallest twin building - Petronas Twin Towers is the anchor project of Kuala lumpur
City Center or KLCC. Standing at 451.9M high, it has a two towers of  88-storey office building.
The 1.8bil Ringgit Petronas Twin Towers building was officially opened on August 31, 1999 by
Malaysia's 4th Prime Minister, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohammad. The Petronas Twin Towers was
designed by Argentinian architect Cesar Pelli. The original design was 421M tall but later reworked to
the present height.

Twin Tower and Suria KLCC

There is a 192ft-long (58.4m) double-decker skybridge linking the Petronas Twin Towers at the
41st and 42nd floor (175m above street level). This skybridge linking the two sky lobbies from each
tower facilitates the movement flow between the two towers. The Petronas Twin towers also houses
a 864-seat acoustic distinction concert hall - the Dewan Filharmonik Petronas.

Next to the Petronas Twin Towers is the premier shopping mall of Kuala Lumpur City Center -
Suria KLCC. The design of the mall utilizes maximum skylight form the spacious center court for
natural lighting, to befit the name Suria KLCC - "Suria" means sunshine. Its huge 6-level crescent
shaped shopping mall contains over 200 shops of specialty stores, 3 departmental stores, fashion
boutiques, cinemas, a 1200-seat food court on the second floor and a 300-seat local food court and
theme restaurants on the fourth floor. At the ground  floor of Suria KLCC there are several cafes
facing the beautiful KLCC Park

Outside Suria KLCC is the 20-hectare KLCC Park,  part of the KLCC project designed by the late
Brazilian landscapist Roberto Burle Marx. The KLCC Park includes a Symphony Lake with its 2
playful musical fountains at the esplanade just outside Suria KLCC. A 2-acre kiddie playground with
colourful child-safe play equipment, a public wadding pool, patterned footpaths and a soft and well
design jogging track. Close to 2000 indigenous trees from 74 species are planted in the KLCC park
with about 40 trees preserved and replanted from the former Selangor Turf Club.

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The KLCC project currently include the Petronas Twin Towers, the 1.5 million sq. feet Suria
KLCC shopping mall, a 20-hectare KLCC Park, Menara Maxis Tower, Menara Esso, Mandarin
Oriental Hotel and a 6000 capacity Masjid As Syakirin.

THE PROJECT MANAGEMENT

The sequence of events in the course of project management for this state of the art modern urban
living mega project can be roughly outlined as followed:

a. Concept Defination: December 1991;

b. Concept Developement: January 1992—June 1994;

c. Developement Stage:- April 1993—August 1999 and

d. Operational Stage: January 1998—now.

Concept Defination. The notorious traffic jam along Jalan Ampang back in the 1970 ~ mid of 1990
during any race day at the Selangor Turf Club’s course where the current entire KLCC locates was a
distant memory now. Widely seen as a brain child of Malaysia's retired Prime Minister, Tun Dr.
Mahathir Mohammed - it was another of his conceptual thinking in transforming the "unproductive"
once-a-month utilities into a visionary "City within the City" concept. Commissioned of Projects:
December 1991;

Concept Developement. Hence, an international opened bid was called, the eventual winning entry
was work by California based architectural firm, Klages Carter Vail & Partners . KCV was an
active player in the Pacific Rim. Carter Vail & Partners and Cesar Pelli & Associates are the
designer of KLCC/Twin Towers. Cesar Pelli of Cesar Pelli & Associates Architects have won quite a
number of industrial awards in building designs. Other than the KLCC's Petronas Twin Towers,
other thumb prints of his with significant interest are, Canary Wharf, London, World Financial Centre,
Manhattan, Carnegie Hall Tower(1991/3), New York City, Owens-Corning World Headquarters, NTT
Headquarters (1997), Bank of America Corporate Center, Petronas Towers (1999) + many others.

The entire master plan for KLCC project development around freehold prime property (KLCC: 40.5
hectares - Petronas Twin Towers & Retail: 5.8 hectares with 18,000 m2 each tower - 994,000 m2 total
Petronas complex) was focused into seven main sections. i.e. Office Buildings, Hotels, Retails,
Convention Centre, Residential, Recreational facilities and Infrastructure. The conceptual

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redevelopment project was to covert site of the former Selangor Turf Club, a 100-acre horse race track
located in the center of Kuala Lumpur's “Golden Triangle, into an integrated, self-contained modern
city as well as creating a new landscape for the capital city of Malaysia. The design of the Petronas
Twin Towers adopted on Islamic geometric forms and traditions. From an bird eye's view, the two
interlocked squares creates an eight-pointed star and superimposing 8 circular arcs in inner angles of
the star, hence, creating a 16-branched form. In each of the 16 inner angles are smaller curved column
covers expressing the main structural columns of the building

Developement Stage. The work of first phase was probably began between in 1992/3,

a. Twin Towers. With the 1,483 feet, 88-story tall Twin Towers as the center stage of attraction
(It surpassed the Sears Tower, Chicago- once held the “world's tallest building” distinction since 1974-
by 33 feet.). The various office buildings provides an estimate 11 million sq./ft. space. . Another
unusual practice for the construction of the two towers was, there were actually two main contracting
consortiums being awarded the primary Tower One & Tower Two contracts.

i. Tower One. The Tower One where Petronas current headquarters situates was
handled by Japanese-led Hazama Corp. along with others such as US-based J.A. Jones
Construction Co. Ltd., Mitsubishi Corp. Japan, local participating firms consists of MMC
Engineering & Ho Hup Construction (All grouped as "Mayjus Joint Venture";

ii. Tower Two. The Tower Two was constructed by SKJ Consortium which comprised
of Korean based Samsung Engineering & Construction Co. Ltd. Kuk Dong Engineering &
Construction Co Ltd. along with local participation, Syarikat Jasatera and First Nationwide
Engineering Sdn Bhd, Malaysia, along with Singapore based Dragages and Bachy-Soletanche

iii. KLCC Sky Bridge. The latter grouping of SKJ Joint Venture was also being awarded
the contract for the adjoining KLCC sky bridge between the two towers.

Assembly for each tower took about approx. two years and has deployed with such advanced
technologies like global positioning satellite to ensure the accuracy of the buildings vertical height.
The two towers, if I can recalled has been "moved" approx. a short distance from original planned spot
after piling works began (due to stability factor on structural rock formation underground, it involved
32,550-ton concrete foundation for each an took a year to complete just on the foundation). Next,
seemingly, the two Japanese and Korean firm also used this rare opportunity to "compete" with each
other in speed of delivery - both had their National Flag moving floor after floor to showcase the
progress (the more determined Japanese won....). Other technical highlights on its core structure: each
tower required approx. 11,000 tons of reinforcement, 2,825,120 sq./ft. of very high-strength concrete
and roughly 7,500 tons of structural steel beams and trusses. 240-ft pinnacles clad entirely in brushed
stainless steel; 830,000 sq./ft. of windows; the incorporation of 76 elevators for guest and/or service
use; and sophisticated building security systems that utilize card-access, photo-identification and voice
intercom systems.

b. Suria KLCC. The retail area, Suria KLCC is a six-levels modern shopping centre with a
capacity of approx. 1.5 million sq. ft was another highlight.

c. Menara Maxis. The third, a 49-storey Menara Maxis was a little coincidental - because it
was also the headquarters of the businessman, T Ananda Krishnan who has been given the task of
undertook this mega-project. Mr. Ananda, was relatively unknown to even many Malaysian during the
early '90 because his core business activities was centered around United Kingdom where he primarily
engaged in oil & gas, properties and others (he even owned an studio in Hollywood for Cartoon
movies and other businesses in countries like Australia etc.). Basically, the man was handpicked by
Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad as his self-establshed international creditability was part of the element in
ensuring the RM3 billion (US1.00 to approx. RM3.70/80) project will get international/local funding.

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As the projected completion may take 7-8 years, the trade off was a series of proprietary business
licenses such as award of a lottery operating permit, creating a multimedia/telecommunication empire
from scratch to ensure sustainability of business income to support during the duration. That was how
the current hugely successful Public Listed establishments of Tanjong PLC (gaming), Maxis
(Cellular Phone Operator), Astro (Multimedia & Satellite Communication), Powertek (Oil & Gas -
now de-listed, privatized & grouped under Tanjong PLC) & KLCC (Property, Retail and building
Management) all took shape during that intensive development era. Despite with an unofficial wealth
count, the listed entities of the entire business empire was close to USD 9 Billion and many people
even quoted him easily as one of the wealthiest Malaysian today, Mr. Ananda still stays relatively very
low profile. Frankly, until I did a search,

d. Menara Esso. I am not aware the 30-storey Menara Esso Esso (now called Esso-Mobile)
building was part of the entire project.

e. Mandarin Oriental. The Mandarin Oriental (Kuala Lumpur) Hotel, one of the handful of Asian
hotel that has been voted as the best hotel in a succession of 5 years in Bangkok, was just annexed to
the KLCC' Suria Shopping Mall (with an approx. 1.2 million traffic flow of visitors a WEEK !) serves
as a logical supplement to this ultramodern project.

f. Asy-Syakirin Mosque. As Islam is the official religion of the country existing few smaller
nearby locations for Friday's prayer may not be adequate to accommodate enlarged working/tourist
community, thus, one of the purpose of the Asy-Syakirin Mosque (Surau" in Bahasa Malaysia) was
designed to resolve this issue and provide easy access for Muslim tenants whenever it requires. The
interior design, with facade of the dome finished in patterned gypsum ceiling while Islamic carvings
and calligraphy as well as external facade of the dome was works of the skilled craftsmen from
Uzbekistan. The combined presentation exhibits a strong Islamic feel. The Mosque, is actually a 3-
storey multi-levels structure (main hall, the lower hall and the trellis area.) with its main prayer to
accommodate approx. 6,000 people. The serene, greenery surroundings of the park helps calm the
mind and soothe the soul as worshippers spend time in prayer.

g. Distrct Cooling Center. The district Cooling Center, on a less significant note architecturally,
is meant for air-conditioning and infrastructure works within the vicinity.

h. KLCC Public Park. Among the mentioned, the spacious 50-acres KLCC's Public Park
deserves a separate featured section as its tropical landscaping in the heart of the KLCC development
provides an urban sanctuary and lessen the strong sense of commercial touch. Unlike the rest of other
more eye-arresting concrete structures, the man who was appointed to design the landscaping of this
park was the conceptual idea of a world renowned Brazilian landscape artist, the late Roberto Burle
Marx, where this was regarded as one of his last masterpiece. The amenities include a two-acre public
(means "free") children's playground, a two-in-one symphony fountain, wading pool, a modern 1.8km
a round jogging track that surfaced with Rubberflex® shock absorption and traction necessary for safe,
comfortable outdoor running; good shelters and benches, patterned footpaths and sculptures. I was told
Mr. Roberto has spent 3 years around the country to identify various species of trees which has
resulted relocation of approx. 2000/74 trees/palm/species to this park. Many of the more distinctive
species have been labeled and explanation of their respective origin are placed under each of them as
references. Out of curiosity, for the last one year (I do jog or walk almost daily during evening as it is
just located between my house and office), I don't seem to find Durian, coconut, rambutans and some
good representative species, hehe....so, out of respect, sometimes, I 'would still think it lacks a little
good input by local landscaping consultants.

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Operational Stage.

The Twin Towers took approx. 6 years to complete. Amidst the Asian Economic Crises which spread
across all major Asian developing Nations, the Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir officiated opening
this new KL landmark during Malaysia’s 42nd National Day celebration on Aug. 31, 1999. Although
the entire project was located differently from another Malaysia's conceptual national project of
Multimedia Super Corridor ("MSC"), KLCC/Petronas Twin Towers has also been designated as
alternate location in the heart of Kuala Lumpur. Today, tenants comprised of large multi-international
corporations who chooses to relocate their regional offices or representing offices here at the Petronas
Tower Two. Some prominent corporate names such as Bloomberg Asia, Microsoft Malaysia, Reuters
Asia, Shell Global exploration, The Boeing Company, G.E., US, PCCB, TATA, UBS, Veritas, Asia
Telecom, Baclays Capital, Conoco Philips, IBM, Hua Wei Technologies, Foundation for the Future,
Keppel, Lucent Technologies, Mc Kinsey, Mitsubishi Japan etc..filled up the long list of its tenant
directory at the entrance. .I was quite surprise the Khazanah National Berhad was here too. Further,
KLCC properties management companies are mostly situated here (as well as their IT/Web company,
IPerintis Sdn. Bhd.).

Officially, the first batch of tenants that moved into the Petronas Twin Towers back in March, 1998
was Petronas own staffs force (mainly comprised of their Central Admin, IMS (Management
Information System) and of cause, the property management team. Actually, during this stage, the
Shopping Mall, Suria KLCC was not even ready yet - where during an official visit by the Dr.
Mahathir led Cabinet Ministers that the main contract of building the Suria KLCC was awarded to a
local firm (I think it was Ahmad Zaki Sdn Bhd - now a "Berhad" Company (PLC).

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