One almost done, one has half way to go, and one is still on ground. Updates on three supertall construction projects in Kuala Lumpur.

Kuala Lumpur is ranked among one of the best city skylines in the world. It gained such recognition due to its splendid array of clustered buildings topped with the iconic Petronas Twin Towers and KL Tower. However, the city skyline is going to further transform, thanks to the many new skyscrapers currently being built in the city. They are going to immensely impact the city skyline due to their enormous heights. The city won’t look the same after every few years and I look forward to see more tall and nice-looking buildings being constructed in the city.

Here are the 3 supertall skyscraper projects in Kuala Lumpur that are receiving high attention and shown together are their latest construction images. Render is shown for each project below too. Supertall building refers to a building that exceeds 300 metres in height.

1.Four Seasons Place. 

It is a 65-storeys mixed use tower currently under construction besides the Petronas Twin Towers. Once completed, it will have a final height of 343 metres. It will contain a hotel, serviced residences and a shopping mall at the podium. After undergoing multiple delays and design changes in the past, the tower has now finally rising quickly. It has structurally topped out not long ago and the work on the building’s crown has started. It will top out architecturally before last quarter of the year and will open next year. Once completed, it will be the third tallest building in the country, right after the two twin towers that sat beside it. Now, it has already made the twin towers to look not as tall as in the past eventhough it is still shorter than them by a little over 100 metres.

 

This one is ALMOST DONE.

2. TRX Exchange 106 Tower. 

It is a 106-storeys office tower currently under construction at the Tun Razak Exchange site. Once completed, this new region will become the financial hub of the city. Once completed, the tower will have a final height of 452 metres. It surprisingly will have the same height as the Petronas Twin Towers. You may wonder that it should be taller than the twin towers since it almost has over 20 floors more than the twin towers? Nope. It’s because this TRX Tower has no spire to add up to its height. The construction for this tower is very fast and it has now already half way to its top. It has now already making a huge impact to the city’s skyline. The highlight of the tower will be its crystalline crown.

This one is HALF WAY TO FINISH.

3. PNB118 Merdeka Tower.

It is a 118-storeys office tower currently under construction on the lot bordering the historical Stadium Merdeka and Stadium Negara in Kuala Lumpur. It is just right opposite my former secondary school, the Methodist Boys School KL. Once completed, it will be the tallest building in the country as well as among the top five tallest buildings in the world at a height of 644 metres. It will surpass the height of Shanghai Tower (632 metres), One World Trade Center (541 metres), Taipei 101 (508 metres) and many other skyscrapers across the world. However, its construction has been very slow and I read a news somewhere that it experienced problem with its foundation. I predict that it will be completed by 2020 or 2021. It will reach this immense height of over 600 metres due to its very long spire at the top.

 

This one is still not rising and is STILL ON GROUND WORK.

Hoping to see great progress from these skyscraper projects once I’m back to KL end of this year.

(Images in this post are from skyscrapercity.com forum webpages)

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New tall buildings rising in KL and latest skyline images of the city.

Since I’m back to Kuala Lumpur last November and some visits to the city since then, I have noticed some new tall buildings in the city. Some are still under construction but are already visible from far and making an impact to the city’s skyline due to their massive heights. Some have already topped out due to speedy construction and some have been totally completed and opened. So, there must be addition of few more buildings over 200 metres in height in the city of Kuala Lumpur.

But when I check out any latest list of the tallest buildings in the city online from Skyscraper Center, Emporis, Wikipedia, and other sources, there hasn’t been any much difference which is so not right. The list differs in each websites I browsed and I couldn’t really find one that truly reflect the current statistic of the city’s buildings. That is disappointing. Some new buildings are missing in this list and some others on the other list. They should have an accurate and updated database compiling the correct and latest information on this. I also found out some new buildings are listed there but without much essential data present like its height.

Here below are some of the new buildings in the city that are around or over 200 metres in height and should be apparent in the list of tallest buildings in Kuala Lumpur but are not:

Vortex KL Suites and Residences – Emporis stated it to be 235 metres tall and still under construction. But actually this 58-storey tower has been completed. Skyscrapercity put it at 260 metres high but I don’t think that is correct by looking at its picture.

Ritz-Carlton Residences KL – Also called as Berjaya Central Park, it is 48 floors high but there is no height data for this building at all.

Le Nouvel Residences – the taller tower is 49-storey high with Emporis stating a height of 199 metres, just 1 metre short of 200 metres mark.

Elite Pavilion – this one is going to be 230 metres tall and has 50 floors when completed. Its construction pace is noticeably fast and it is going to be topped out this year.

Platinum Suites Tower – Skyscrapercity put this tower at 51 floors high but Emporis states 57 floors and 231 metres tall. I don’t think Emporis’ data on this one is right. I knew its top floor swimming pool level is on 51st floor which is also the tallest swimming pool in the city. It also claims to be the tallest condominium in the city, a title previously hold by The Troika Tower 3 at 204 metres.

From left to right for first picture and from right to left for second picture – Sentral Residences Tower 1 & 2, St. Regis Hotel & Residences and Q Sentral. These new buildings in KL Sentral Development reach around 200 metres in height respectively and has already been completed except for the Sentral Residences Tower 1 & 2 that are still under construction but have already topped out. However, almost none of these buildings are featured in any list out there for the tallest buildings in the city. Emporis stated that Q Sentral is 49 floors and 199 metres high (but no data in Skyscraper Center), both Emporis and Skyscraper Center stated that St. Regis Hotel & Residences is 48 floors and 205 metres high (so I assume that is the correct data), and Skyscraper Center stated that Sentral Residences Tower 1 & 2 to be 52 floors and 200 metres tall each (but no data in Emporis). Weird right?! Conflicting or incomplete data everywhere.

KL Eco City Vogue Suite One – This project is expected to be completed by this year and it has topped out to its final height of 243 metres. Emporis states that it has 60 floors while Skyscraper Center said it has 63 floors. Whatever…! When completed, it is going to be the tallest residential building in the city and the whole Malaysia. This is a bit further away from the city area as it is in Mid Valley region. Now, the 310-metres tall Telekom Tower is not the only skyscraper standing in that Mid Valley region.

Four Seasons Place KL – This one is finally making huge progress after many years of delay in construction. When completed next year, it will be 65 floors high and has a height of 343 metres tall, a much taller companion to the adjacent Petronas Twin Towers (452 metres tall and current world’s tallest twin buildings).

W Hotel & Residences – Emporis states that it has 55 floors and 235 metres tall but Skyscraper Center states that it has 50 floors and is 232 metres tall. Conflicting data again. This skyscraper will be completed this year.

These buildings above are only those buildings in final stage of construction, topped-out or newly completed in KL that is over 200 metres tall respectively. Skyscraper projects that are still in early stage of construction are not included here such as the PNB118 Tower that is going to be the tallest building of the country when completed at 630 metres high. There is still no visible progress of this skyscraper project after so many years. I’m sure it is going to be completed later than the targeted year 2020 deadline.

Some cool latest pictures of Kuala Lumpur city skyline below before I end this post. Click on the images for a larger and more breathtaking sight.

(Images in this post are from Skyscrapercity.com)

More updated details for KL118 Tower.

Finally, after months and months of speculation and secrecy surrounding Malaysia’s plan for the next tallest building of the country, more details had been revealed recently from the officiating ceremony. What is the project that I’m talking about? It’s the KL118 development. Now, it is renamed to PNB118 since PNB is the name of the owner’s company for this project. Well, I prefer KL118 more as it has more international appeal than ‘PNB’. Nobody knows (not only foreigners but also locals) what does PNB stands for.

Also known as ‘Warisan Merdeka’ (Heritage Independence), this development is located on a site just adjacent to the historic Stadium Merdeka and Stadium Negara. It is also located nearby to some very old buildings like Victoria Institution, Methodist Boys School (my former secondary school), Chin Woo Stadium, and Petaling Street (Chinatown). The project has been receiving heavy criticism due to its location on low-lying area which is also full of historical buildings and that this new modern supertall would not fit into this site context. I agreed. This project also receiving strong objection as the money put into this can be more beneficial for other purposes as the city does not need another supertall yet.

The iconic feature of this development would be the construction of an 118-storey tower, now named PNB 118 Tower. The final height of this skyscraper is still not confirmed but it is now fixed to be between 600 metres to 650 metres. Some sources said 610 metres or 630 metres while some even said it would be 644 metres tall which would make it even taller than the Shanghai Tower, the current world’s second tallest building. No matter what the final height is, this PNB118 Tower would still easily be the country’s new tallest building as well as one of top five world’s tallest buildings once it is completed. And it is announced recently that it is expected to be completed in 2024. Years ago, it is planned for completion by 2020 to coincide with Wawasan 2020 (Vision 2020) when the country would become a developed nation by year 2020. However, the project faced delay and it’s getting back on track now. It is now officially under construction.

The tower is designed by Fender Katsalidis Architects, an architecture office based in Melbourne, Australia which is previously famous for designing Eureka Tower in Melbourne. The design is also not that well received as many people commented that it is too simple, too glassy and do not possess timeless elegance like what Petronas Twin Towers achieved. I agreed to these opinions too. However, after its official rendering and an animation clip of the tower are out recently, some changed their mind and started to like the design. I’m one of them, but I still think that the design needs further improvement especially on its treatment to the top where it meets the spire. The spire is also a bit too long and out of proportion in comparison to the building form and volume. I knew it is just there to increase a substantial height for the building just to have it to be placed higher in the list of world’s tallest buildings later on.

So, here below are some new (latest) renderings, plan view and models’ images of the PNB118 Tower and also an animation clip for it by RSP Architects, the local design consultant for this project.

Looking forward to see this new skyscraper dominating the skyline of Kuala Lumpur as soon as possible. Hmm…I suddenly changed my mind and think that KL needs a new supertall now since Petronas Twin Towers have been here for almost two decades already. However, it is undeniable that the twin towers are still elegant and remain as icon of the country forever.

(Images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)

 

Current KL: 5 tallest buildings completed, 5 tallest buildings under construction, and 5 tallest buildings proposed in the city.

My city, Kuala Lumpur is considered slow in terms of construction boom compared to many cities in China or even in our neighbouring South East Asian countries. However, there are several (actually multiple) interesting skyscraper projects on-going (either in construction stage or still in proposal phase) in the city currently that deserve some attention worldwide.

Before I proceed, do you know that building above 150 metres high is classified as a tall skyscraper. Building above 300 metres is then called supertall skyscraper while megatall skyscraper refers to building beyond 600 metres high (currently only three buildings in the world are megatalls; Burj Khalifa, Shanghai Tower and Mecca Royal Clock Tower). Based on data available from Council of Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH), Kuala Lumpur has about nearly 50 tall skyscrapers (above 150 metres high) with 3 of them being supertalls (Petronas Twin Towers as two and Telekom Tower). Kindly take note that KL Tower (421 metres high) is a telecommunication tower and hence, not to be included.

The present five tallest buildings in the city are (as of 2016):

1. Petronas Twin Tower 1 (452 metres, 88 floors)

2. Petronas Twin Tower 2 (452 metres, 88 floors)

 

3. Telekom Tower (310 metres, 55 floors)

4. Ilham Tower (274 metres, 64 floors)

5. Petronas Tower 3 (267 metres, 60 floors)

The five tallest buildings in the city are all beyond 250 metres mark. Wonderful. KL can be considered home to plenty of skyscrapers eventhough we still lose out to bigger cities like Hong Kong, New York, Chicago, Shanghai, Dubai, etc.

The five tallest buildings currently under construction in the city are (as of 2016):

1. KL118 Tower (644 metres, 118 floors, to be completed in 2020).

2. Fairmont Kuala Lumpur Tower 1 (370 metres, 78 floors, to be completed in 2019). (Surprised of very lack of real data of this project despite it is already under-construction now)

3. Four Seasons Place (343 metres, 65 floors, to be completed in 2018).

4. Fairmont Kuala Lumpur Tower 2 (278 metres, 71 floors, to be completed in 2018).

5. Banyan Tree Signatures (240 metres, 55 floors, to be completed in 2016, that’s this year!).

Glad that there are still many skyscraper projects under construction in the city despite the poor economic situation especially the current crisis in the country. Wishing for these buildings above to be finished quick.

The five tallest buildings proposed in the city are (as of 2016):

1. Tradewinds Square Tower A (608 – 775 metres, 110 – 150 floors). (Three unconfirmed designs shown below)

I personally prefer the first design; clean, simple yet elegant. The second and the third designs are average looking only.

2. Platinum Tower / TRX Signature Tower (430 metres, 90 floors). (Three unconfirmed designs shown below)

The first design looks like a shorter version of Shanghai Tower. Second one looks quite good while the third one charms from its crown treatment. Hard to choose if you ask me.

3. Oxley Tower 1 (380 metres, 83 floors).

4. Oxley Tower 2 (380 metres, 83 floors).

5. Tradewinds Square Tower B (288 metres, 61 floors).

Hoping to see at least some of the proposals above get to be materialized very soon. But like I said earlier, the economic downturn in our country currently is not looking good to ‘breath life’ into these amazing proposals. If most of these projects (under-construction or under proposal) are to be really completed in the next five or ten years, then Kuala Lumpur would become a much denser city with a more stunning skyline to enjoy in near future. I’m looking forward to that!

(Images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)

6 skyscrapers (beyond 400m high) that have architecturally topped-out and ready to climb to the ranking of the world’s tallest buildings.

Many buildings constructed nowadays are mostly very high due to the worldwide interest on building tall as the trend helps to maximize the limited land space available especially in dense and highly-populated cities. However, till now, there are still not many buildings that cross the 400-metres mark in height. Till now, there is only about 18 buildings across the world that managed to cross that milestone. However, by next year, we would see at least 6 additional skyscrapers which would accomplish that too and be part of the official ranking of the world’s tallest completed buildings.

This means that these 6 buildings which are still under construction now have had already topped-out architecturally. Topped out means that the building has reached its final height but are still not completed in construction yet. These are the 6 buildings:

Ping An Finance Center, 599 metres, 115 floors, Shenzhen, China.

Goldin Finance 117, 596.5 metres, 128 floors, Tianjin, China.

Guangzhou CTF Finance Centre, 530 metres, 111 floors, Guangzhou, China.

 

Wuhan Center Tower, 438 metres, 88 floors, Wuhan, China.

Marina 101, 426.5 metres, 101 floors, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

432 Park Avenue, 425.5 metres, 85 floors, New York City, United States of America.

These extremely tall buildings are all nearing completion. Out of the 6 buildings mentioned above, the first four tallest are all in China. China is in full force now not only in their emerging global power in economy but also in constructing supertall buildings. Few years later, the country is definitely going to dominate the world’s tallest list (in fact, now, they already did). China is big and we observed many emerging cities like Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Tianjin, Wuhan, Nanjing and Chongqing building skyscrapers aside from their already popular massive urban centres like Hong Kong and Shanghai.

(Images in this post are from forum webpages in skyscrapercity.com)

My latest favourite skyscraper in KL: Ilham Baru Tower.

Forget about Petronas Twin Towers. I knew Malaysians are all bored to see the twin towers already since we have been seeing it for almost 20 years. However, we can’t deny that the twin towers still remains as the most striking icon or landmark of our nation. Despite losing the title of world’s tallest building years earlier, Petronas Twin Towers are still the current world’s tallest twin buildings. If we ignore the towers for a second, what is the other skyscraper in the city of Kuala Lumpur that you admire the most?

For me, my latest favourite skyscraper in the city is the Ilham Baru Tower (let’s shorten it to IB Tower). It is a tall mixed-use skyscraper comprising of offices and serviced apartments and is located nearby the twin towers. It is also nearby to my office, and hence, I can get to see the building for almost every day. I’m not tired of catching every glimpse of it. Well, you can easily spot the building from far since it is tall enough to stand out among the rest of the cluster of buildings in that part of the city.

There has been a number of varying technical information regarding the building from what I have browsed from some sites online. But based on The Skyscraper Center (official site for worldwide skyscrapers), IB Tower has a height of 298 metres and a total of 64 floors above ground. However, I think the height and number of floors of the tower have been reduced to 274 metres and 58 floors respectively. It would be nice if someone can clarify to me about this issue.

The tower is now still under-construction but has already topped out to its final height. It is expected to be completed by this year and opened next year. It is designed by Foster + Partners under the leading architect Norman Foster who have once received a Pritzker Prize (highest architectural prize in the world handed out annually to individual). Well, he is also the one designing Troika Tower (tallest residential building in Malaysia) which is just right besides the IB Tower. It’s great to have famous foreign architects to come and design something fantastic for buildings in my city.

The design of the tower resembles a bit of the famous Bank of China Tower in Hong Kong from that glass cladding with zig-zag pattern feature. Well, IB Tower has a much darker-toned glass and is more complicated with integrated louvered fins which act as sun-shading device for the building. That is essential since the weather can be very hot in Malaysia. The form of the tower is also very interesting as a portion of an upper section of the tower is cut-in to make way for outdoor sky decks. The cut-in makes the building ‘lighter’ and gives extra ‘dimension’ and ‘depth’ to its form.

I have written a post on this building about 3 years earlier when it is still at its early stage of construction. The link to that post: https://vincentloy.wordpress.com/2012/12/02/ilham-baru-tower-a-soon-to-be-addition-to-tall-buildings-in-kuala-lumpur/. It’s cool seeing the building rising up quickly to the skyline of the city and finally it has topped out and nears completion right now. Not only a great addition to the many buildings in Kuala Lumpur, IB Tower is also now the fourth tallest building in the city (also in the country), just behind Petronas Twin Towers and Telekom Tower.

From rendering to reality now:

More information of the tower can be found in these following websites:

http://www.ilhamtower.com/index.html

http://skyscrapercenter.com/building/ilham-baru-tower/9344

http://www.fosterandpartners.com/projects/ilham-baru/

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=1119813

(Images in this post are obtained from the forum site with link shown above except for the last image of which I own the copyright)

 

16th ARCHIDEX from 12th to 15th August 2015.

The annual International Architecture, Interior Design and Building Exhibition (ARCHIDEX) is back with its 16th edition this year. The exhibition began today and will run until this Saturday at the usual venue: Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre. The event is not only comprising of an exhibition that runs in several halls in the convention centre but also several conferences and design-related forums (DATUM KL International Architectural Design Conference, KL Design Forum, Green Building Forum, Professional Practice Forum) will be held at the same time. ARCHIDEX is always an important event particularly for people in the field of building construction, architecture and interior design. Even if you are not in this circle, you can still visit the exhibition to learn more about building construction and gain extra knowledge. Entrance is complimentary.

(Image source: http://www.decra.com.my)

This event in recent years is also touted as Southeast Asia’s leading multi-national exhibition and networking event in the industry’s trade calendar. It has also earned itself a pivotal position as a leading gathering among the region’s fraternity of architects, urban planners, interior designers, developers, academicians, students and other related industry professionals.

I’m not going to miss it and I’m planning to go to the exhibition on this Saturday, the last day of the event. That’s the only day that I’m free to go since I have to work till Friday. I have been to ARCHIDEX for several years already and I knew what to expect from visiting the exhibition. There would be a lot of booths displaying, promoting and highlighting many latest building products, technologies and systems. What’s more exciting to me is that I will always return from the exhibition with a lot of free gifts: bags, pens, key chains, note books, brochures, and even small product samples. Entering with empty hands and leaving with plenty of bags! That’s my objective. Haha…

It’s also nice that we would be attended quickly if we are interested on certain things along the tour in the exhibition halls. And sometimes, I do get excited by some very advanced and never-seen-before products from the exhibition. But usually these items are very expensive. Listening to four or five people explaining their products is still fine, but as the visit progresses, I would be getting really tired of all the promotional talks and will just walk through many booths in a split second. That’s the time to avoid eye contact with the people from the booths. If not, I would be spending many hours there. That’s my past experience of visiting ARCHIDEX and this year, it will be the same for me on this coming Saturday.

On the other hand, there will be a section that displays excellent design presentation boards and some scaled models by local architecture students. This is where I will stay longer a bit to check out talent from young architecture students in Malaysia through their works. Unfortunately, ARCHIDEX didn’t emphasize much on this and we will only see very little from this section. As for the forums and conferences mentioned earlier, I would just say no as the entry fees are very costly and that most speakers invited are not famous and it’s not worth that much of money. Unless, they invite star architects like Zaha Hadid, Norman Foster, Cesar Pelli, etc.

Before I end this post, here is the official website of the ARCHIDEX 2015: http://www.archidex.com.my/. Check it out if you want to know more about this exhibition before visiting especially when you have never been to ARCHIDEX before.