We arrived in Kuala Lumpur in the evening. The airport is a true metropolis, consisting of an arrival city and a departure city, connected by high-speed trains. All services operate smoothly and very quickly. There are no customs officers or border guards.
The Malaysian capital sprawls where palm groves and reed huts flourished just a few decades ago. Now it is a dynamically developing multi-million metropolis, for which one day is not enough to explore. We have only fourteen hours to spare.
Our hotel is in the city center. The cozy room invites relaxation. But the vibrant life and lights of Kuala Lumpur are even more enticing. Unable to resist the desire, we head out to the street. It feels like the city has just awakened. Restaurants and bars are opening, music, songs, and laughter fill the air. The sidewalks and parks are crowded with people. If I didn't know I was in Kuala Lumpur, I would never think this is a Muslim country, especially after Iran or, say, Jordan. The city has a European atmosphere.
We head towards the Petronas Towers - the symbol of Kuala Lumpur. The largest modern structure in the world. We have no guide, no reference book, no map. The towers are visible from everywhere. So we chart our own path to them.
...And there it is, a miracle of modern architecture. Illuminated by a gentle bluish light from invisible projectors, the twin Petronas Towers impress. They are so astonishing that for the first few moments, you don't understand where time has suddenly transported you. They rise so high above the surrounding city. Great creations of modernity that are worth seeing, sacrificing time, sleep, and money.
The first impression is purely emotional - delight! It is overwhelming when you learn the scale and uniqueness of these complex structures. Truly a wonder of the world!
The night, pushed out of the city’s central streets, lurks in the suburban quarters. In the light of bright lanterns and advertisements, Kuala Lumpur runs, spins, leaps from the sheer heights of tall buildings, rising in beams, flooding everything with magical light.
We stood at the foot of the Petronas Towers, and our heads spun from the height of the tower spirals, twisting into the night sky. The structure is so enormous that it was simply impossible to find a point for a photo. I had to move a hundred meters away, climb roadside terraces and curbs. But it was all in vain. The camera's focus only captured fragments. Perhaps for the first time, I regretted that there was no guide nearby to tell me how, by whom, and when this incredible cosmic project was created. Therefore, the first question I asked the World Wide Web when I got to a computer was about the Petronas Towers.
Here’s what I found out. It happened in the early nineties of the last century. The Prime Minister of Malaysia, Mahathir Mohamad, had the ambitious idea to build something the most grandiose and beautiful in the world in the very center of the densely populated capital Kuala Lumpur, on the site of the existing city racetrack.
After the racetrack was moved, a territory of 40 hectares was freed up. The cost of this land was already in the tens of millions of dollars at that time. There was still no clear understanding of what to build. The development project was accepted over several years. Initially, it was proposed to create a huge park on the site of the racetrack, intended to become the main place of recreation for residents and guests of the capital. However, preliminary estimates showed that the park could only be maintained through commercial activities. Therefore, it was decided to design a business center with a park, expand the highways around, and build a light transit railway line.
The competition for the best project was won by an American architectural firm from Connecticut, led by the architect of Argentine descent, Cesar Pelli. It is believed that the architectural style of this master is renowned for incorporating elements of national culture.
The Petronas skyscraper complex consists of two 88-story buildings, representing two eight-pointed stars, characteristic of Islamic cultural motifs. The floors feature unique attics that expand the space, creating a sense of openness.
During the preparatory work, Pelli created thousands of models of various parts of the future skyscraper. Just for the window design, he had to develop several dozen models.
In 1992, when the project for the construction of the Petronas Towers was approved, studies of the soil composition began both at the surface and at a depth of one hundred meters. The most important stage - the laying of the foundation of the twin skyscraper - took place over three days. Every 90 seconds, using special machines, the foundation of the tower was poured with concrete. The construction of the foundation required three thousand cubic meters of concrete. Moreover, this was not ordinary concrete, but a special type called elastic, with the addition of quartz, comparable in strength to steel.
On the first common floor of the twin towers is a concert hall for 840 seats. A six-level shopping center with an area of 93,000 square meters and a spherical roof is located at the base of the towers. About 650,000 people visit it each week. The underground parking lot accommodates 5,400 cars. In addition to the towers, the architectural and construction complex of Kuala Lumpur's business center includes a 420-meter television tower built in 1996, as well as exhibition, concert, and conference halls, an art gallery, a museum, shopping, and entertainment complexes.
A true masterpiece of architectural thought can be considered the symbolic bridge connecting the towers into a single whole. In August 1995, a unique bridge was installed at the level of the 41st and 42nd floors of the Petronas Towers. According to the architect Pelli's design, its construction had not only functional but also symbolic significance. The bridge connecting the towers was constructed in South Korea. It was then disassembled into 493 parts weighing a total of 452.6 tons. Upon arrival at the destination, the bridge was first assembled on the ground and then lifted up. The main part of its structure is 41 meters long, 5 meters wide, and 9 meters high, weighing 325 tons. The two supporting beams of the bridge are 42.6 meters long, each weighing 60 tons. Special dampers were designed for these beams, which underwent numerous tests for wind resistance, as they reduce the wind's impact at great heights. Two other blocks are intended to strengthen the bridge at its ends, each measuring 8.3 meters long and weighing 30 tons. The total weight of the bridge's structures is 750 tons.
Each of the Petronas Towers is equipped with 29 two-story elevators, each with a capacity of 52 people. Their speed reaches up to seven meters per second. In total, there are 76 elevators in the towers.
Naturally, the implementation of a project of such scale required enormous financial resources. The construction cost was $1.6 billion (for comparison, I will say that the budget of Kyrgyzstan for 2011 was approved at 53 billion soms, which is about $1.1 billion at the current exchange rate).
Some of the construction costs were borne by Malaysian firms, which distributed office spaces among themselves. In addition, local magnate T. Ananda Krishnan, who heads a business empire, actively participated in the project. He owned not only a stake in the country's oil and gas developments and the export of these natural resources but also the largest telecommunications systems and even satellites. One of the towers houses the headquarters of the largest national oil company, Petronas National Berhad, after which the skyscraper is named. The second tower is occupied by business partners of the oil giant from around the world.
Only the tinted glass protecting against tropical heat has a total area of 77,000 square meters. Other figures are even more impressive. The total area of all the building's premises is 213,750 square meters (an area equal to 48 football fields). Washing the 16,000 windows of one tower takes a month. 10,000 people live and work in the towers.
In 1994, when the towers were still under construction, the Malaysian government decided that they should be taller than the tallest building at that time, the Chicago Tower, and demanded that the project manager, Cesar Pelli, increase the height of the towers to a record mark. Thus, steel spires were added above each tower, reaching a height of 73.5 meters. As a result, the height of the skyscraper reached 451.9 meters.
On April 15, 1996, two years before the completion of construction, the Petronas Towers were recognized as the tallest in the world. The official opening of this grand structure took place on August 28, 1999.
In the early morning, we returned to the hotel. All I had time to use was a shower and a cup of coffee. The car arrived, and we rushed back to the airport. Everything happened so quickly that I still didn’t understand: was there Kuala Lumpur in my life? Did I see these towers reaching into the sky, the night streets illuminated by magical light, and the unclaimed hotel?
Accelerating down the runway, the plane hovered over the vast city. Among the patterns of neighborhoods and streets, overpasses, and green ribbons of parks, the octagonal stars of the Petronas Towers shone with silver light. From above, they appeared as fairy gates, opening the way to new journeys.