Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society

Engineering: The Petronas Twin Towers

Author(s): Henry Petroski
Source: American Scientist, Vol. 84, No. 4 (JULY-AUGUST 1996), pp. 322-326
Published by: Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society
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Engineering!

The

Twin

Petronas

Towers

Henry Petroski
two decades, the 110-story Sears Tower
stood as the tallest building in theworld.
Topping out at 1,454 feet above ground lev?
el?almost as tall as a string of five football fields
would be long?the bundle of nine steel tubes
standing just outside Chicago's Loop could be
said to have cast a shadow over all other sky?
scrapers since its completion in 1974.New York's
World Trade Center, the 1,368- and 1,362-foot-tall
twin towers completed only a year earlier, held
the record as tallestbuildings foronly a brief time.
Before that, theEmpire State Building, at 1,250 feet
tall even without itsbroadcasting towers?which,
like those of the Sears Tower, do not count as part
theworld height
of the building proper?held
record forover four decades. Completed in 1931,
the Empire State then surpassed the one-year-old
Chrysler building, which at 1,046 feet tall had
been the firsttobreak themagical 1,000-footmark.
Before then, theWoolworth building, a 792-foot
tallGothic cathedral of commerce paid for in cash
by the profits from its namesake's chain of five
and ten-cent stores, had stood as the world's
tallest building foralmost two decades.
Skyscrapers?so named since the 1880s,when
100-foot-tall buildings were marvels
Chicago's

For

of

structural

contemporary

engineering?seem

to have sprouted up in temporal and spatial clus?

ters,with Chicago and New York proving espe?
cially hospitable to the form and its financing.
Throughout most of the 20th century, the sky?
scraper was considered a particularly American
genre, growing with the economy and optimism
of cities such as Atlanta, Houston, Los Angeles
and Seattle. In the last decade of the century,
however, the frontier of the skyscraper has
moved across the Pacific Ocean to the Far East.
Today, most of the tallest buildings in theworld
are being proposed for locations such as Tokyo,
Taiwan, Hong Kong and mainland China. And
are being
they are not only being proposed; they
built, with the tallest building in theworld re?
cently being topped out at 1,482 feet in Kuala
Lumpur, Malaysia.
is Aleksandar
S. Vesic Professor of Civil
Petroski
and chairman of the Department
of Civil and
Engineering
Environmental Engineering at Duke University. Address: Box

Henry

90287, Durham, NC

322

American

27708-0287.

Scientist, Volume

The Federation ofMalaysia is a southeast Asian

country of about 20million people, thevast major?
located just
ity of whom live inWest Malaysia,
above the equator on theMalay Peninsula, be?
tween Thailand to thenorth and Singapore to the
south. (As established in 1963, the federation in?
cluded Singapore, but it seceded in 1965.) The two
are situated to the east,
states of East Malaysia
across the South China Sea on Borneo, the third
largest island in theworld. Kuala Lumpur, the cap?
is served by a modern North
ital ofMalaysia,
South Expressway that puts Singapore within a
five-hourdrive. The city's Subang Airport has di?
rect flightsthroughout theworld and hourly flights
thatdepart forand arrive fromSingapore, and pas?
sengers get a bird's eye view of lush golf courses
among rubber trees?a sign of the changes that
have been takingplace inMalaysia, which has been
described as ''predominantly aMalay Islamic state
with strongChinese and Indian influences."
A Vision of the Future
In the 1980s, theMalaysian economy was based
on commodities such as palm oil, rubber and tin.
However,

with

the rise

of a

government

headed

by the strong-willed and powerful Prime Minister

Mahathir bin Mohammad, by training a medical
doctor,Malaysia began to assert itselfas a country
on themove. The prime minister is said to have
"reinterpreted Islam as allowing the pursuit of
wealth and technical knowledge," and the gov?
ernment's official objective came to be articulat?
ed, in Bahasa Melayu, the native language of the
ethnic Bumiputra population, asWawasan 2020?
or Vision 2020 inEnglish, the country's accepted
language of commerce and industry. The vision
has Malaysia transformed into a fully developed
industrialized nation by theyear 2020, with man?
ufacturing and construction becoming themain
driving forces of the country's economy. The
Kuala Lumpur City Centre project is helping in a
a reality.
big way tomake theMalaysian vision
Kuala Lumpur City Centre is a 100-acre devel?
opment on the site of a former racetrack, the Se
as among the
langor Turf Club, and is described
estate
real
development projects in the
largest
world. As the result of an international competi?
ideal city
tion held in 1990, a master plan?"an
defined by the U.S. firm of
within-a-city"?was

84

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Klages, Carter, Vail & Associates of Cosa Mesa,

California. It comprises a 50-acre park, which will
include a lake,much ofwhich will be accessible to
thepublic, and a complex of 20 or so surrounding
buildings thatwill contain office space, apart?
ments, hotel rooms, recreational facilities, restau?
rants,

shops,

banks,

a convention

center,

(L

a civic

center, a mosque and a plant to provide chilled

water for cooling all these buildings in the sub?
tropical climate. The firstphase of the $2 billion
project includes the pair of buildings known as
the Petronas Twin Towers, themselves costing ap?
proximately $800 million, most of which was to
be provided by Petroleum Nasional
Berhad,
source
national
oil
and
the
company
Malaysia's
of the towers' name, and the government. As they
have risen tobecome theworld's tallestbuildings,
these striking towers have already become Kuala
Lumpur's most significant landmark.
Back in 1991,with themaster plan in hand, a
separate internationaldesign competitionwas held
to detenrtine exactlywhat kind of structurewould
provide a significant focal point and monumental
entrance toKuala Lumpur City Centre. The com?
petitionwas won by thearchitectCesar Pelli & As?
sociates ofNew Haven, Connecticut. According to
Pelli, the client wanted a Malaysian
image but
could not say exactlywhat thatmeant. Existing tall
buildings inKuala Lumpur were of theboxy inter?
national style.With no indigenous structuralmod?
els to inspire him, Pelli looked to Islamic art and
adopted a multipointed star pattern as a footprint
forhis building design. His early scheme called for
a 12-pointed star layout, but thiswas changed to a
modified 8-pointed floorplan with intermediate
arcswhen theprime minister observed that the for?
mer geometrywas more Arabic thanMalaysian.
Architecture and Engineering
The final design of skyscrapers, especially those
that are to be the tallest in theworld, does not
evolve wholly froman architect's drawings. How a
structurewill stand against the forces of nature?
whether theground motion in an earthquake zone,
thewind at hundreds of feet above the ground or
theheat of the sun beating down on the ground?
requires the insight and calculation of a structural
engineer. (The exposed structureofChicago's John

Figure

2. Building

design

evolved

to incorporate

Islamic

gl!

Set Sjjlsl

I^bsE Bis

^hbee?^

tallest buildings,
the Petronas Towers are in Kuala
City Centre, Kuala
Lumpur, Malaysia.
(Except where noted,
courtesy of Thornton-Tomasetti
photographs
Engineers.)
Figure

1.World's

Lumpur

Hancock Tower, for example, was the result of a

collaboration between architectBruce Graham and
structuralengineer Fazlur Khan of thefirmof Skid
more, Owings and Merrill.) Pelli wished the "cos?
mic pillars" in Kuala Lumpur to be joined by a
a
skybridge to form welcoming portal to Kuala
Centre
and tohave as few structural
Lumpur City
columns as possible blocking the view outward
from the office floors. Such featureswere easy to
render on the drawing board but no small task to

themes.

(Illustration

courtesy

of Cesar

Pelli & Associates.)

1996 July-August 323

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BARRCTTE
KENNYUli?

NCUIPtJQ F0UNDATI0H8
ELEVATION
Figure 3. Foundation
as 400 feet.

Figure 4. Digging
tion barrettes.

American

piles,

machine

Scientist, Volume

or barrettes,

prepared

extend

ground

as deep

for founda?

realize in concrete and steel. For theKuala Lumpur

project, Pelli sought the structural expertise to ac?
complish such objectives in the international engi?
neering design firmof Thornton-Tomasetti Engi?
neers, based inNew York City. Charles Thornton,
chairman and principal in the firm,had longwant?
ed to design the tallestbuilding in theworld, and
had indeed designed with Pelli a 125-storyMiglin
Beitler building forChicago that for financial rea?
sons did not come to fruition.He was thuswell
on thePetronas
prepared towork again with Pelli
Twin Towers, equivalent inheight to 95 stories.
The challenges associated with designing and
building a skyscraper begin in the ground. If the
foundation isnot firm,thebuilding will be suscep?
tible to settling,which, in theworst case, can lead to
are
tilting and collapse. Underground conditions
not often fullyknown, however, until extensive, al?
beit usually still only sampling, exploration takes
place, and thismay not proceed until the design is
defined enough for engineers to set the locations
and types of tests needed. As it turned out, the
Kuala Lumpur master plan had sited the showcase
buildings over an underground cliff.To found piles
in the rock,which sloped very steeply and con?
tained caverns, every pile locationwould have had
to be surveyed before proceeding. Thus the loca?
tion of the towerswas moved about 200 feet to the
southeast, where the generally fissured limestone
was sufficientlydeep so that all piles could termi?
nate in the soil above the rock and therebyensure a
more uniform foundation. This alluvial ground,
known as Kenny Hill, is a weathered sandy shale
that is considered relatively sound. The challenging
foundation conditions necessitated drilling some
more than three times
piles almost 400 feetdeep,
thedepth of the foundation beneath theSears Tow?
er. Even then, the foundation of the buildings are
as three inches under
expected to settle as much
theweight of the completed structure.
Innovative Concrete
Designing the superstructure of the building pre?
sented another set of challenges. Among the first
decisions facing structural consultant Thornton
and his associates at Ranhill Bersekutu inMalaysia
was the choice between steel and concrete. Al?
though the tallest skyscrapers are steel structures,
thatmaterial was not readily available inMalaysia,
where prohibitively high tariffson imported steel
make concrete the constructionmaterial of choice.
Furthermore, steel buildings tend tobe more flexi?
ble than concrete ones and sometimes have to be
fittedwith mechanical devices known as tuned
mass dampers to ameliorate the effects of vibra?
tions induced by thewind. Concrete structures,on
the other hand, although they tend tobe stifferand
have qualities that damp out quickly any vibra?
tions thatdo begin, often are bulkier-looking than
steel. Since the architectwished the Petronas Tow?
ers tobe slender-looking and have columns spaced
rather far apart, conventional concrete columns
would have been too aesthetically broad and struc

84

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an ex?
rurally heavy. To overcome this objection,
was
concrete
developed,
tremely high-strength
with bearing capacities asmuch as three times that
of concrete conventionally used inMalaysia, or
elsewhere for thatmatter. Special concretemixes,
using localmaterials, were developed to produce
compressive strengths as high as 10,000 pounds
per square inch,with quality control provided by
state-of-the-art

computerized

systems.

Being made of high-strength concrete, the

columns around theperiphery of the towers could
be smaller indiameter and lower inmass, thus re?
ducing theirdead weight. Still, at the base of the
towers, the columns are nearly eight feet indiame?
ter.The towers are not purely concrete structures,
however, and the floorbeams spanning between
each building's core and ring of columns aremade
of steel.This was done to speed construction,mini?
mize the floorheight and better accommodate such
mechanical equipment as cooling ducts. The taper?
ing at the top of thebuilding demanded some es?
pecially trickystructuralengineering, and itsgeom?
etrynecessitated the installationof awide variety of
different-sizeglass panels. The record height of the
towers is achieved through the pinnacles at their
tops,which are part of the basic ardhitecture and
structure proper, unlike the broadcast antennas
erected after the facton such buildings as theEm?
pire State Building and the Sears Tower. (The offi?
cial arbiter of skyscraper records, theCouncil on
Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, confirmed at an
executive committeemeeting inApril that theSears
Tower had indeed been surpassed as the tallest
building on Earth.) The pinnacles, with designs
based on minarets rather than Gothic cathedral
spires,were erected by jacking them skyward from
within theuppermost part of thehull of the towers.
The pinnacle design was the result of detailed stud?
ies including many options. The final design is a
scaled-up version of one originally proposed to
provide a more graceful tower top and, coinciden
tally,reach a record-breaking height. Thornton, an
avid sailor, likens the structural support for thepin?
nacles to thatof themast of a sailboat.
Among what makes extremely tallbuildings vi?
able investments is theamount ofusable, rentableor
saleable floor space they contain relative to their
more and more of
height. As buildings grow taller,
theirvolume must be devoted to elevators to trans?
port the tens of thousands of occupants up and
down. In thePetronas Towers, theusable floor space
was increased considerably by theaddition of small?
er 44-story structures, referred to as "bustles," to
each tower.With thebustles,which are tobe topped
by prayer rooms for theMuslim occupants who will
be called to prayer twice each working day, each
towerhas about 2million square feetof officespace.
The internal transportation system thatmoves peo?
ple vertically in the towerswill include double-deck
express elevators to optimize the use of the shafts.
Passengers will transfer to and fromdouble-deck
local elevators in sky lobbies about halfway up the
on the41st and 42nd floors.
buildings,

Figure

5. Pinnacles

atop

towers were

jacked

into place.

The towerswill also be connected to each other

at the level of the sky lobbies by a skybridge, a 190
foot-long steelwalkway thatnot onlywill facilitate
movement between one tower and the other but
also will serve as an alternative escape route in the
event of a fireor other emergency, such as occurred
when the terroristbombing forced the evacuation
of one of the towers of theWorld Trade Center. But
the sky bridge's design presented additional and
unusual structuralproblems. Since the two towers
can sway in thewind both in phase and out of
phase, as well as twist in independent directions,
the sky bridge could not be attached rigidly be?
tween thevertical structures.Thus special bearing
connections had tobe devised to allow forasmuch
as 12 inches of horizontal movement each way at
each end, as well as the twisting. Because such a
long, unsupported sky bridge would have tohave
been of very heavy construction if itwere not to
sag in themiddle, a set of slender steel legswas de?
signed to angle up from supports on each tower
about 160 feetbelow to the center of the skybridge.
To prevent such slender struts from vibrating ex?
cessively in thewind, thuspresenting thepotential
foruncontrollable motion or at least the accelerated
growth of fatigue cracks, tunedmass dampers were
designed tobe installed inside the legs. (Eachmast?
like pinnacle also has a damper in the form of an
energy-absorbing, rubber-sheathed chain.)
The Petronas Twin Towers and all thebuildings
planned for the Kuala Lumpur City Centre will
be what are known as intelligent buildings, em?
ploying automatic controls and communications
systems tominimize energy consumption and
1996

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July-August 325

connects the towers, must accommodate

at
Figure 6. Sky Bridge
(left), which
up to 12 inches of horizontal movement
each end. Tuned mass dampers
in
unwanted
vibrations
the
at left cour?
(right) prevent
supporting
legs. (Photograph
tesy of Cesar Pelli & Associates.)

the comfort of occupants and the con?

of use. The concept of an intelligent
building dates from the 1980s,when costs associ?
ated with installing and retrofittingenvironmental
and communications
systems were escalating.
There also came tobe recognized clear advantages
in incorporating networking capabilities into a
new building, rather than
providing tenantswith
a structural shell that
they themselves have to
wire. In the Petronas Twin Towers, each floor or
pair of floorshas itsown local area network forair
conditioning and lighting, as well as a general
purpose controller forunspecified futureuse.

maximize
venience

Technology Transfer
the record-breaking
Although
height of the
Petronas Twin Towers will be theirmost imme?
diately visible and talked-about feature, that no?
toriety is likely to be short-lived, since taller
buildings already are being planned for Shang?
hai, China, and Melbourne, Australia. Among
the more long-range benefits of the Petronas
Twin Towers to theMalaysian
economy is the
considerable amount of technology transfer that
has accompanied
their design and construction,
with the direction and input of the prime minis?
ter. For example, the development of the high
strength concrete used in the towers has in four
years doubled the strength of concrete now pro?
duced inMalaysia. This means thatbuildings can
be built in less time and for lessmoney.
Another by-product of the Twin Towers project
has been the establishment of new local industries.
The Twin Towers required about a million and a
half square feetof stainless steel cladding and glass,
in the form of 32,000 windows, to form a so-called
curtainwall. This was the largest such job thatHar?
mon Contract, theMinnesota-based
participant in
the cladding contract consortium, had ever tackled,
326

American

Scientist, Volume

and towin the job,Harmon prepared an 800-page

bid tomeet theMalaysian expectation thatpropos?
als be both educational and business instruments.
Furthermore, as a condition of receiving such a
large contract, theAmerican specialistwas required
to set up shops inMalaysia to fabricate the compo?
nents of the curtain wall and thereby introduce a
new industry to the country.
The experience gained by local engineers and
contractors indesigning and building theworld's
tallest buildings has prepared themwell to com?
plete the rest of Kuala Lumpur City Centre by
the year 2020. By demanding local participation
in the project, theMalaysian government, led by
its strong-willed prime minister, has ensured that
the Petronas Twin Towers project will leave a
legacy thatwill serve the local economy and so?
ciety long after taller buildings are erected else?
where in theworld.
Acknowledgment
I am grateful to Charles H. Thornton for his
February 1996 lecture at Duke University on the
Petronas Twin Towers, and to Leonard M. Joseph,
vice president of Thornton-Tomasetti Engineers, for
his comments on themanuscript for thiscolumn.
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