The twin Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur were the tallest buildings in the world until Taipei 101 was completed in 2004. When they were completed in 1998, the 451-metre tall towers surpassed World Trade Centres 1 and 2 in New York City as the tallest twin towers in the world.
The largest tenant is Malaysian state oil giant Petronas, which occupies all the office space in Tower One. The tower was designed with many Muslim motifs. For example, the cross section of the towers resemble an eight-pointed star with round bits in between each point, loosely resembling the Islamic Star.
Starting from the bottom, the base of the building is occupied by a six-storey mall called Suria KLCC. Floors 41 and 42 almost midway up the building are connected by a Sky Bridge, where visitors can buy tickets and use it as an observation deck. Another observatory deck is on floor 86, which is also the highest inhabitable floor in the 88-floor towers.
The designers also cheated by splitting 84 floors into three levels. My guess is that they were intent on getting the height up to exactly 88 because 8 is a lucky number in Chinese. Perhaps that’s why Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei is a major tenant.
