Merdeka 118 Tower officially opened.

Merdeka 118 Tower is at last officially inaugurated on last Wednesday, 10th January 2024. With a staggering architectural height of 678.9 metres, the 118-storey megatall skyscraper in Kuala Lumpur is the second tallest building / man-made structure in the world, only behind the 828 metres tall Burj Khalifa in Dubai. It is the tallest building in Malaysia, having surpassed both the Exchange 106 Tower (453.6 metres tall) and the iconic Petronas Twin Towers (451.9 metres tall).

Merdeka 118 Tower — IZZRAFIQ ALIAS/The Star

Designed by an Australian architectural firm, Fender Katsalidis, the tower features multi-faceted diamond-shaped facade that symbolises the multi-racial society of Malaysia. Its form was inspired by the outstretched hand gesture made by Malaysia’s first Prime Minister (Tunku Abdul Rahman) in 1957, when he declared the nation’s independence in the adjacent Stadium Merdeka, which is part of the redeveloping Merdeka 118 precinct.

Groundbreaking took place in July 2014 and the tower topped out on November 2021 with the completion of its 160m tall spire. The tower reached completion in November 2023 and is officially inaugurated by Yang Di-Pertuan Agong (King of Malaysia) on last Wednesday in a ceremony that saw spectacular light and laser show from the tower. It took 10 long years to turn it from drawing board to reality.

I recalled that I do post periodic updates on the progress of the tower while it was under construction several years back in my blog here too. I do constantly follow up with any updates of this tower as I am a fan of skyscrapers. It is finally reaching a historic milestone this week with its official opening. By the way, the Park Hyatt Hotel that occupies the upper part of the tower will only be opened on third quarter of 2024 and the observation deck will only be opened on fourth quarter of 2024.

Still have to wait for a while to personally go up to its observation deck (tallest in South East Asia) and enjoy the city skyline view of Kuala Lumpur from high up there. The views must be insane. By the way, do you know that the tower is actually located right across from my former secondary school; Methodist Boys Secondary School Kuala Lumpur. When I was studying there, it was just a dump site and then barricaded for a few years with no activity or whatsoever. And now, it is the site of one of the world’s tallest structures. What a transformation!

Visited The Exchange TRX, Pavilion KL and Merdeka 118 today.

Got myself very eager to go for a walk around KL city today. The weather is pretty good today and I decided to stop at three consecutive MRT stations along Kajang Line to visit The Exchange TRX, Pavilion KL and Merdeka 118 Tower.

The Exchange TRX is the newest mall in KL and is part of the Tun Razak Exchange complex. It is a huge retail mall underneath a 10-acre central park (TRX City Park). It has presence of a lot of well known retailers and restaurant franchise including some that chose TRX as their first setup in Malaysia. In the coming February, Apple is expected to open its first Malaysian store at this mall too.

This is my first time visiting the mall since it opened just last month. I also took the chance to visit the lobby level of The Exchange 106 Tower (453.6 metres tall and is currently 18th tallest building in the world). It is only 1.7 metre taller than the iconic Petronas Twin Towers (451.9 metres tall).

Next up, I made my way to Pavilion KL at Bukit Bintang area not to go for shopping, but to quickly check out its annual extravagant Christmas decorations and displays at its main entrance and central atrium before they are gone (CNY decorations are going to take over very soon…haha). The decorations in this mall never fail to impress.

It is weekday today and yet there were so many people patronizing both The Exchange TRX and Pavilion KL during my visit today. I guess many were already on holiday this week to clear off their annual leave.

Finally, I went over to check out the Merdeka 118 Tower. The tower is now completed but not opened to the public yet. Merdeka 118 is the world’s second tallest building/man-made structure and has a height of 678.9 metres with 118 floors. It is located right opposite my former secondary school (Methodist Boys Secondary School Kuala Lumpur – MBSSKL). I’m very excited to visit this tower soon once it is opened and head up to its public observatory levels. It looks super massive!

That’s all for my little exploration around KL city today. Huh..huh…5 more days to 2024!

Up at CapitaSpring Tower today to visit its Sky Garden and Green Oasis.

As you may have already known from my last post, I took a day off today after feeling exhausted from my trip back to KL/Genting on last weekend. After getting enough rest, did laundry and cleaned my room, I have the rest of the day free. It suddenly came to my mind early today that I shall take this opportunity to visit a place that I have wanted to visit for a long time but is only open for public on weekdays.

So why not? The place I’m referring to is already revealed on the title of this post; CapitaSpring Tower. The tower is the joint second-tallest building in Singapore and was designed by architectural firm BIG. It is 280 metres tall and is famous for its Green Oasis (from Level 17 to 20) and Sky Garden (on Level 51 which is the highest level of the tower and is Singapore’s tallest public observation deck) that are open for public access (free admission!) only on weekdays with limited opening hours. They are opened since last year after the construction of the tower was completed in 2021.

I went up to visit the Sky Garden first. It contains observation deck that runs around and across an urban farm and two restaurants. The views from up here were quite spectacular. However, most of the views are kind off obstructed due to its enveloping facade. You have to get close to the edge (may not be for those who are afraid of height) to see unobstructed panoramic views of the CBD, Marina Bay, and the rest of Singapore. It was not a very clear day today (gloomy, cloudy and scattered rain at other parts of Singapore) during my visit today hence the pictures may not be the best looking.

After that, I went down to visit the Green Oasis, a multi-level garden deck connected by stairs and lifts. Its interesting shapes, the emphasis on the details of materials, balanced spatial composition and the play of levels here are quite remarkable. Quite an impressive space I must say. I didn’t even bother to look out for the views outside as I was already so occupied with the architecture within the space.

I spent about an hour and a half exploring the two attractions of the tower. Before I left, I also took some cool shots of the exterior of the massive tower. CapitaSpring Tower can be spotted easily among the towering skyscrapers right after you exited from Raffles Place MRT Station (Exit A in the middle of the park).

As the gardens are only opened on weekdays, there usually won’t be too many people around which makes the visit more relaxed and peaceful. The tower also contains a large food centre on the second and third floors but I didn’t check it out as I went there after my lunch today.

Merdeka PNB118 Tower is now architecturally topped out!

After beginning construction in 2014 (7 years ago), Merdeka PNB118 Tower located in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia has now reached one of its last few major milestones in its construction. The tower is now architecturally topped out! What does it means? It means that the tower has reached its full height structurally and architecturally (including its spire).

The tower has now reached the height of 644 metres as declared to the Council of Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH). However, it appears that the spire is still rising up in these few days after it has been declared as architecturally topped out. There is a possibility that the tower may go beyond 644m as published earlier. Its final confirmed architectural height is still quite a mystery but there is no doubt that the tower is now the second tallest building in the world (has overtaken 632m high Shanghai Tower).

It is now only a rank below Burj Khalifa which remains as the world’s tallest building since 2009 at a staggering height of 828m. Merdeka PNB118 Tower is nearly 200m higher than Petronas Twin Towers which are previously Malaysia’s tallest and are still currently the world’s tallest twin buildings.

The current Covid-19 pandemic has delayed the construction progress of the tower multiple times. The tower is now slated to be completed around end of next year. Nevertheless, it has presently already stood tall and proud towering over everything else in the city. It is the peak of Kuala Lumpur’s skyline now.

As mentioned above, the spire is still rising steadily but I do hope that it will not rise up excessively anymore. It will make the spire look extremely tall and not in proportion to the body of the tower. Height should not be the main point (you are already the second tallest in the world!) and the overall aesthetic of the tower is the most important. There are still a lot of works yet to be done (remaining facade installation, interior works, finishing, a lot of remaining works at the podium and the construction of few buildings around it as the next phase of the development).

Hope that the tower will be completed and opened to the public very soon so that I can travel back to Malaysia and visit it personally (and go up to its much anticipated observation deck)! I will be certainly in awe of its spectacular height, design and overall appearance.

(Images in this post are from Styfly Malaysia and other online sources)

Progress update of PNB 118 Tower as of February 2021.

Here’s a Youtube video by Skyrun Malaysia that best summarizes the latest progress of construction of the world’s second tallest building, PNB 118 Tower in Kuala Lumpur. The views of the city skyline together with the tower are already spectacular despite it still being under construction now.

Construction of the central core had completed few months back (hence it is currently structurally topped out officially) while the construction of the full 118 floor plates appear to be nearing completion too as seen at the top portion of the tower from that video. The floor plates at the top appear to reduce as it rises to one edge where the spire will sits on top on that edge. The base of the tower’s massive spire also starts to take shape. It is this massive spire that pushes the tower close to 650m high and becomes the world’s second tallest building (overtaking 632m tall Shanghai Tower).

Sharing similar thought with most others, I felt that the spire is slightly too long. The spire itself is around 150m tall and that is already equivalent to the height of a 40-storey skyscraper. The excessive spire also makes it slightly disproportionate with the tower itself as seen quite obviously from the various elevation drawings of the tower available to the public. It made it more obvious to the world too that Malaysia love to use long spire to ‘cheat’ on the height too (similar situation with Petronas Twin Towers last time on claiming the title of the world’s tallest building from Willis Tower due to the spires).

I’m not against spire but its design must be thoughtful, proportionate and needs to be integrated to an overall tower’s design rather than just appearing like a thin needle from the top of a tower. At least, I’m a bit relieved that the PNB 118’s spire itself has a proper design to it (also shaped in diamond pattern similarly to the tower). Anyway, the spire itself is still excessively long (would look better if it’s only around 100m while the building itself can be more taller with few more floors to add up to that height). Besides that, I do know from somewhere recently that part of inside of the spire is actually accessible to the public (hopefully!) as an additional observatory level. That would be cool (seeing the city from inside the spire). I would love to experience it when it opens.

The tower is expected to be architecturally topped out (means that the spire is completed too) by end of the year and is targeted to complete next year. Then, it looks likely that it will be open only by end of 2022 at the earliest. Currently, the tower stands at a height of slightly over 500m and it is already the tallest building in South East Asia. The final height of the tower still remains a bit of a mystery although official information from CTBUH (Council of Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat) stated that the tower will have a height of 644m.

(Images in this post are from Skyscrapercity Forum)

My long CNY break is coming to an end.

Arrgghh…time passes so quickly when you are enjoying. Today is already the last day of my 7-day long Chinese New Year break. Before the holiday, I thought that 7 days of break would be very much enough. But no…it doesn’t feel enough now. I didn’t even have a lot of activities to fill up the days. And it’s near impossible to be detached from your work when you keep receiving work-related calls, messages, emails and requests during your holiday. It makes me feel doesn’t like an off-day at all.

Nevertheless, I do had a good time throughout the past 7 days (including today). I had a great reunion dinner with my housemates on CNY eve, went to River Hongbao event twice at Gardens by the Bay, visited a friend’s house, had a little luck at Marina Bay Sands casino, done some shopping at Orchard and Bedok Mall, took a stroll at the picturesque Keppel Bay and Chinatown, and had some good meals throughout the CNY break. My CNY celebration this year is so different than what I had in the past years when I would usually travel oversea for a vacation with my parents during this break.

Travel is no longer possible, and even getting back home to KL is not feasible now too. Hence, this was my first CNY celebration here in Singapore away from family and home. By the way, I didn’t hear a single sound of fireworks or firecrackers at all throughout this festival here in Singapore. Rules/laws here are too strict. On the other hand, my dad told me there were quite a lot of fireworks from their neighborhood despite Malaysia still being in the movement control order phase.

As mentioned earlier, I had visited the River Hongbao event twice, once in the afternoon and once in the evening. I have posted some pictures of my visit during the day in my previous post. Now comes some of my pictures taken during my visit in the evening on last Monday. The lanterns look more beautiful in the evening with the lights on.

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Here are some photos I took at Keppel Bay yesterday. Time for me to admire the astonishing architecture of the ‘Reflections at Keppel Bay’ towers, which are designed by a famous architect; Daniel Libeskind.

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Alright. That’s all for my post today. Most have already gone back to work since Monday and I will be back to work officially tomorrow.

Ending the month with an update post on the PNB118 Tower.

Before I begin with that, let me start by taking this opportunity to wish to all my Muslim friends Selamat Hari Raya Haji! Another long weekend for us to enjoy! And that happens for the next weekend too as it coincides with Singapore’s National Day that falls on the next Sunday (hence the following Monday will be a replacement holiday). Wonderful…

It’s so quick that we have reached yet another end of a month. We should have gotten our salary for the month and it is timely; we can spend a little of it during this cool long weekend to treat ourselves. We deserved it.

Let’s get back to the main topic of the post; the currently under-construction PNB118 Tower in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I have been constantly following the progress of its construction these few years (checking on its status like latest images and videos almost once every week). It is currently the tallest building under construction in the world. Previously, the over 1km-tall Jeddah Tower in Saudi Arabia claimed that title but its construction has been put on hold due to financial reason for quite some time already. And now with the authority in China banning construction of skyscrapers taller than 500m, Malaysia is able to take the top spot in the list of tallest buildings currently under construction now. Time for us to be proud a little…

Designed by Australian firm, Fender Katsalidis Architects, PNB118 Tower will be the second tallest building in the world with 644m in height with 118 floors when completed. It will be just right behind the 828m tall Burj Khalifa which has been the record holder of world’s tallest building for over a decade. PNB118 Tower is expected to complete next year and by looking at its current progress, it is highly likely that it will indeed complete in 2021.

The tower has now reached approximate height of over 480m (already the tallest structure in Malaysia) with its core now sits somewhere around 116th floor. There’s only two more core floors to go, and then to be followed by the completion of the remaining floors, facade works, interior works, and the installation of its majestic-looking spire. The spire alone is over 140m tall (equivalent to height of a nearly 40-storey building). It is the spire that helps to push the height of the tower to beyond 600m mark and for it to be qualified to be called a ‘megatall’ (buildng over 600m tall).

 

The tower so far already looks very good (even before it is complete). Its interesting triangulated form (including its spire design) and the full glass cladding that reflects the surrounding sky and buildings are mesmerizing. I also look forward to its podium, linear park, and the lighting design. Can’t wait for it to be completed!

(Images in this post are from various online sources)

 

Checking out the solar eclipse and new supertalls in town; TRX106 and PNB118.

I was very free this morning and doesn’t want to stay at home for most of the day. (I will feel very bored and depressed if stay at home whole day) Besides than checking out the very uncommon annular solar eclipse on today’s afternoon, I also took the opportunity to do the thing that I love the most; check out new skyscrapers in the city.

This solar eclipse (when the moon blocks out the sun) that happens today on Boxing Day is a very rare occurrence. The last time this happened and can be viewed from Malaysia (after a quick research) was way back in 1998. That’s 21 years ago! And the next time this would be visible again from this region will be in 2063. That’s 44 years later! I would be 72 years old by then.

Hence, it is very normal for everyone to look up to the sky today…to catch a glimpse of this ‘Ring of Fire’ phenomenon. I did but I can’t see it very clearly. No worry…my Facebook home page today is literally flooded with hundreds of pictures of the eclipse.

Let’s get back to the two skyscrapers that I checked out today. They are the two latest supertall (over 300m high) buildings in Kuala Lumpur. The first one is the recently completed Exchange 106 (commonly referred as TRX106) Tower at Tun Razak Exchange. The tower stands at 445m tall and is currently the third tallest building in Malaysia (behind the 452m tall Petronas Twin Towers).

The next one is the PNB118 Tower adjacent to the historic Merdeka Stadium (just two MRT stops after the TRX station) and is right opposite my former secondary school (MBSSKL). This megatall skyscraper is currently still under construction. When completed (probably in 2021), it will be the tallest building in Malaysia as well as second tallest building in the world at over 644m. Its core currently is estimated to reach beyond 400m already.

This thing is going to be insanely huge when it is completed. It’s nice to see a lot of constructions going on in the city as it is a sign of growth despite all the recent economic uncertainties. More buildings up will also enhance the city’s skyline. KL will be a lot different when you see it every 5 years.

The Exchange 106 officially becomes the tallest building in Malaysia, dethroning the iconic Petronas Twin Towers.

Petronas Twin Towers are now no longer the tallest buildings in Malaysia. Standing at the height of 451.9 metres, they were also once the world’s tallest buildings too. Another higher sksycraper called The Exchange 106 has taken over the title as Malaysia’s tallest building.

Located at the planned new financial district of Kuala Lumpur, The Exchange 106 tower stands at a height of 453.5 metres tall. That makes it 1.6m taller than the Petronas Twin Towers. What a tiny difference. In the past and even until today, there has been a lot of debates on the building’s height. Some said 492 metres (including some recently published news article regarding the tower’s completion), and some said it is just 445 metres tall.

Around a year ago, there is a sectional drawing of the tower that has been revealed at the skyscrapercity forum. The 492m figure comes from measuring from the top of the tower to the sea level. This is certainly not to be used to measure a building’s height. And then there’s argument on measuring from top to the main podium or the lower secondary entrance which is still above ground. Hence, the 445m figure comes in and is accepted by Council of Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) earlier.

Now, after its official completion and a r0evaluation by CTBUH, the final height of the tower is now confirmed to be 453.5 metres. The news report got it wrong (I don’t blame them since the ones writing the articles are not an expert in sksycraper’s height and I believe they just copy the figure from the developer’s website). Some still insisted it is 492m despite the sectional drawing already proven it is not.

On the other hand, the tower also does not have 106 floors as suggested by its name. It only has 97 floors above ground. The 106 figure is adding in the floors below ground and some technical or unused floors in between. The developer has been over excited on bumping up its figures (both floor numbers and building height) without following the convention of measuring them. They are the culprit behind this misleading information.

Nevertheless, the tower is a magnificent addition to the city skyline of Kuala Lumpur, though certainly not as iconic as the Petronas Twin Towers. The tower’s crown looks impressive but the dull design of the rest of the tower is too hard to be ignored. The lighting of the tower is also poorly designed.

The Exchange 106 will only hold the title for a very short period of time. In about two years time, PNB118 Tower located just a short distance away will be the new tallest building in Malaysia. When completed, the tower will reach around 500m to top of its roof and up to 644m to top of its massive spire. At 644m, it will also be the second tallest building in the world, behind Dubai’s Burj Khalifa (828m).

(Images in this post are from various online sources)

PNB118 Tower started to soar high above the sky of KL.

The future tallest building in Malaysia, PNB118 Tower is currently at the midst of its construction at the city of Kuala Lumpur. With the projected final height of approximately 644 metres, it will easily dwarfs the Petronas Twin Towers by almost 200 metres.

The tower now started to make its presence on the skyline of the city. With the current height of around 330 metres (despite only about half way to go), the tower looks massive and has already making a statement particularly on its area (old district of KL filled with only low-rise buildings).

I think this tower is expected to be completed two years later (2021), and once completed, it will be the second tallest building in the world (only behind the current tallest building record holder, the mighty 828 metres tall Burj Khalifa at Dubai). The rendering of the tower below:

Here are some latest construction photos of the PNB118 Tower, shared from skyscrapercity forum webpage, the site that I always go to to check for recent updates of skyscraper’s construction across the world. I particularly like the last photo below where the highlight is on the contrast between the old (shophouses at the foreground) and the new (modern skyscraper at the background).

Comparing the design of this tower to the Exchange 106 Tower, I prefer the former as it has at least a bit of a design/concept as compared to the latter that is only enhanced by its crown but comes with poor lighting design. The only obvious thing I don’t like on the design of the PNB118 Tower is its massively tall spire that doesn’t quite fit well to the proportion of the building. I would prefer to shorten the spire slightly (we don’t need to further push up the height of the tower for goodness sake) or redesign the roof portion so that it slants up for a smooth transition before ending with the thin spire.

Now, I heard of some unconfirmed news of another supertall skyscraper planned in the city too. The skyscraper is nicknamed ‘Tower M’ currently and is expected to rise above 700 metres tall. Wow…Why we need so many massive skyscrapers when we are facing oversupply of office space in the city currently?

These photos above must have been taken at least a week or two ago. Why? You would not get a clear picture of the city right now due to the current haze.

(Images in this post are from various online sources)