The Petronas Towers

The Seven Forgotten Modern Wonders of the World

It's not often that a single building becomes a status symbol for an entire nation. The Eiffel Tower in France; The Empire State Building in the United States; and now the Petronas Towers in Malaysia. The twin tower rose on the Pacific rim at a time when Asia's economy was booming. The Malaysian national oil company (Peroliam Nasional) needed new quarters to house its expanding operation. What they ended up doing is creating an icon. The towers have been featured in films, television, books, and even video games and are recognized for their distinctive style. A pair of slender shafts rise above the city.

They are slick in appearance because of the glass curtain walls, but still have a pleasant tactile appearance because of the scalloping of the shafts to create high-rent views. Joining the two towers is a sky bridge at the 41st and 42nd floors. It stretches 192 feet across the gap to link the two buildings from 558 feet above ground. It is, unfortunately, supported by a truss structure, rather than something more evocative of the rest of the building. The Petronas Towers footprint is an eight-sided star with rounded nodules - a common symbol in Asian and Islamic religions. And it's a fitting redemption for a piece of land that was once a racetrack. In a building of this scale, moving people around is a major challenge. The designers came up with an interesting way of addressing the problem. At the main entrances, people who are going to even-numbered floors can simply board an elevator. People going to odd-numbered floors must ride an escalator one floor up to board the second level of the very same elevators. This way a single elevator car can serve two floors simultaneously.

But is it the tallest buildings in the world?

That remains a question fiercely debated. If you were to stand on the top floor of the Sears Tower in Chicago, you would be 200 feet higher than the top floor of the Petronas Towers. The highest occupied floor in the Petronas Towers is at 1,242 feet. The rest of the building is an architectural spire. The highest occupied floor in the Sears Tower is 1,450 feet. But the building is topped with an antenna array, taking it to 1,730 feet. Some say that the Petronas Towers are the taller building because it is topped with a spire, not an antenna. But what's to stop the towers' ornamentation from being used for that purpose like the Empire State Building. No one debates that the ESB is 1,472 feet tall, even if 222 of those feet are for communication. And if antennae are allowed, then what about the CN Tower in Toronto? Its primary function is as a telecommunications array, and it is 1,815 feet tall. Many a proud Canadian has argued that his country is home to the real tallest building in the world. However, since the CN Tower is an antenna first, and a tourist attraction second, those who support the Petronas Tower's prominence could argue that the entire structure should be disqualified. Which leads us to this - What do the editors of Glass Steel and Stone consider the tallest building in the world? For our money, it's the KTHI Television tower in Blanchard, North Dakota. At 2,063 feet, it's the tallest man-made structure on the planet. And the way we see it, the height of all structures should be measured by where the lightning hits it.

• The Petronas Towers have 32,000 windows.

• 12 September, 2001 - The Petronas Towers are evacuated because of a bomb threat a day after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York