Engineering: the Petronas Twin Towers Author(S): Henry Petroski Source: American Scientist, Vol
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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 Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/29775699 . Accessed: 01/08/2013 20:53 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to American Scientist. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 132.206.27.24 on Thu, 1 Aug 2013 20:53:44 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Engineering! The Petronas Twin Towers Henry Petroski a For two decades, the 110-story Sears Tower The Federation ofMalaysia is southeast Asian stood as the tallest building in theworld. country of about 20million people, the vast major? in located Topping out at 1,454 feet above ground lev? ity of whom live West Malaysia, just on el?almost as tall as a string of five football fields above the equator theMalay Peninsula, be? tween to to the would be long?the bundle of nine steel tubes Thailand the north and Singapore in federation in? standing just outside Chicago's Loop could be south. (As established 1963, the said to have cast a shadow over all other sky? cluded Singapore, but it seceded in 1965.) The two are to scrapers since its completion in 1974. New York's states of East Malaysia situated the east, World Trade Center, the 1,368- and 1,362-foot-tall across the South China Sea on Borneo, the third twin towers completed only a year earlier, held largest island in theworld. Kuala Lumpur, the cap? a North the record as tallestbuildings foronly a brief time. ital ofMalaysia, is served by modern a Before that, theEmpire State Building, at 1,250 feet South Expressway that puts Singapore within di? tall even without itsbroadcasting towers?which, five-hour drive. The city's Subang Airport has like those of the Sears Tower, do not count as part rect flightsthroughout theworld and hourly flights arrive and of the building proper?held theworld height thatdepart forand fromSingapore, pas? a courses record forover four decades. Completed in 1931, sengers get bird's eye view of lush golf rubber trees?a of the that the Empire State then surpassed the one-year-old among sign changes in which has been Chrysler building, which at 1,046 feet tall had have been takingplace Malaysia, as a state been the firstto break themagical 1,000-footmark. described ''predominantly Malay Islamic Before then, theWoolworth building, a 792-foot with strongChinese and Indian influences." tallGothic cathedral of commerce paid for in cash A Vision of the Future by the profits from its namesake's chain of five was and ten-cent stores, had stood as the world's In the 1980s, theMalaysian economy based on as rubber and tin. tallest building for almost two decades. commodities such palm oil, with the rise of a headed Skyscrapers?so named since the 1880s,when However, government were and Prime Minister Chicago's 100-foot-tall buildings marvels by the strong-willed powerful Mahathir bin a medical of contemporary structural engineering?seem Mohammad, by training to assert itselfas a to have sprouted up in temporal and spatial clus? doctor,Malaysia began country on move. The minister is said to have ters,with Chicago and New York proving espe? the prime as the of cially hospitable to the form and its financing. "reinterpreted Islam allowing pursuit and the Throughout most of the 20th century, the sky? wealth and technical knowledge," gov? came to be articulat? scraper was considered a particularly American ernment's official objective native of the genre, growing with the economy and optimism ed, in Bahasa Melayu, the language as of cities such as Atlanta, Houston, Los Angeles ethnic Bumiputra population, Wawasan 2020? and Seattle. In the last decade of the century, or Vision 2020 in English, the country's accepted commerce however, the frontier of the skyscraper has language of and industry. The vision moved across the Pacific Ocean to the Far East. has Malaysia transformed into a fully developed nation with man? Today, most of the tallest buildings in theworld industrialized by theyear 2020, as themain are being proposed for locations such Tokyo, ufacturing and construction becoming The Taiwan, Hong Kong and mainland China. And driving forces of the country's economy. are Centre is in a they are not only being proposed; they being Kuala Lumpur City project helping re? a built, with the tallest building in theworld big way tomake theMalaysian vision reality. Centre is a 100-acre devel? cently being topped out at 1,482 feet in Kuala Kuala Lumpur City on the site of a former the Se Lumpur, Malaysia. opment racetrack, as langor Turf Club, and is described among the real estate in the Henry Petroski is Aleksandar S. Vesic Professor of Civil largest development projects and world. As the result of an international Engineering and chairman of the Department of Civil competi? Box tion held in a master ideal Environmental Engineering at Duke University. Address: 1990, plan?"an city 90287, Durham, NC 27708-0287. within-a-city"?was defined by the U.S. firm of 322 American Scientist, Volume 84 This content downloaded from 132.206.27.24 on Thu, 1 Aug 2013 20:53:44 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 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 (L the public, and a complex of 20 or so surrounding buildings thatwill contain office space, apart? ments, hotel rooms, recreational facilities, restau? a convention a rants, shops, banks, center, 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, gl! Set Sjjlsl Malaysia's national oil company and the source of the towers' name, and the government. As they have risen tobecome theworld's tallestbuildings, I^bsE Bis ^hbee?^ 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 the architectCesar 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 a adopted multipointed star pattern as a footprint forhis building design. His early scheme called for a 12-pointed star layout, but thiswas changed to a Figure 1.World's tallest buildings, the Petronas Towers are in Kuala modified 8-pointed floorplan with intermediate Lumpur City Centre, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. (Except where noted, arcswhen theprime minister observed that the for? photographs courtesy of Thornton-Tomasetti Engineers.) mer geometry was more Arabic thanMalaysian. Architecture and Engineering Hancock Tower, for example, was the result of a The final design of skyscrapers, especially those collaboration between architectBruce Graham and are that to be the tallest in theworld, does not structuralengineer Fazlur Khan of thefirm of Skid evolve wholly from an architect's drawings. How a more, Owings and Merrill.) Pelli wished the "cos? structurewill stand against the forces of nature? mic pillars" in Kuala Lumpur to be joined by a a whether the ground motion in an earthquake zone, skybridge to form welcoming portal to Kuala thewind at hundreds of feet above the ground or Lumpur City Centre and tohave as few structural theheat of the sun beating down on the ground? columns as possible blocking the view outward requires the insight and calculation of a structural from the office floors. Such featureswere easy to engineer. (The exposed structure ofChicago's John render on the drawing board but no small task to Figure 2. Building design evolved to incorporate Islamic themes. (Illustration courtesy of Cesar Pelli & Associates.) 1996 July-August 323 This content downloaded from 132.206.27.24 on Thu, 1 Aug 2013 20:53:44 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 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 tallest building in theworld, and had indeed designed with Pelli a 125-storyMiglin rea? Beitler building forChicago that for financial sons did not come to fruition.He was thuswell on prepared towork again with Pelli the Petronas Twin Towers, equivalent inheight to 95 stories. The challenges associated with designing and building a skyscraper begin in the ground. If the foundation is not firm,the building will be suscep? tible to settling,which, in theworst case, can lead to are tilting and collapse.