Monthly Archives: July 2021

As technology advances and more countries require taller buildings tower construction keeps getting more advanced, taller, and more expensive. And with the world’s tallest building title always up for grabs you can bet that city skylines will keep changing.

Taipei 101, located in Taipei, Malaysia was passed up as the world’s tallest building in 2010 by Burj Khalifa in Dubai. And there are currently fifty other proposed tower projects that would pass these buildings up. The competition is fierce, but some of the richest nations in the world have been passed up in the race, including the United States. But why would these poorer nations see fit to keep building such elaborate buildings and richer nations prefer to stay closer to the ground?

Tower Construction requires a lot of money, time, and innovation. Sophisticated pumping systems are required to get water and concrete to the upper levels, enormous foundations going deep into the ground must be constructed, and cranes tall enough to get beams to the tallest levels must be constructed. It takes thousands of man hours to plan for such an event, and even more are required to get the correct permits, secure the right real estate, gather the funds, and find the company that will get the job done. In a nation like the United States it might not be necessary to build such a tall building when there is plenty of land to be had. Unless the project must take place in Manhattan, a corporation might be able to get a cheaper option building a wider, shorter complex somewhere else. In a smaller principality like Dubai it is easier to justify the expense of building up, since the land will be more in demand and as a result more expensive.

In addition, having the world’s tallest building cannot only be a special distinction for a corporation, but also a nation. For many of the corporations and nations of Europe and the United States that span the globe and employ hundreds of thousands of employees and dominate world politics, it may not be necessary to send any additional message of power to the world. But for Dubai, who wishes to set itself apart as the financial center of the Middle East and an important trading partner for the world, this extreme type of tower construction seemed to be what they were looking for.

Recently, however, due to the unfavorable economic conditions, extreme tower construction has slowed. Even the Burj Khalifa of Dubai has had trouble filling its many floors with tenants. Many nations and corporations just are not willing to shell out the tens of billions of dollars necessary to complete this type of construction when many do not have enough money to stave off unemployment. This type of project is many times much more about prestige than necessity. With so many countries struggling to maintain their economic positions in the world it may not be surprising that many have scaled back. But rest assured as technology advances and world markets recover construction of these buildings will continue, bigger and better than it has ever been.

There are so many skyscrapers in the city of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Most are shopping centers, office and residential buildings and hotels. Among all of the towering structures in the city, there is one building which stand out so well, a basic manifestation of impressive modern architectural aesthetics: the Petronas Twin Towers.

As an icon of Kuala Lumpur and Malaysia, who would not know the Petronas Twin Towers? Once hailed as the world’s tallest building but remains to be the tallest twin towers in the world, it is a constant factor as to why the tourist arrivals in the city are skyrocketing.

Hailed as one of the world’s greatest buildings, it features two 88-storey towers towering to a wobbling height of 452 meters. It is designed with the influence of Islamic architecture, and is remarkable for the spires topping each building. It is connected with a sky bridge on the 41st floor, extending to a length of 58 meters.

Aside from getting awed from afar, people can visit the observation deck of the sky bridge to obtain a very spectacular view of the city of Kuala Lumpur. This attraction is one major factor as to why the Petronas Twin Towers is frequented by locals and foreigners.

This world-famous building fronts the beautiful KLCC Park. Inside, it has the Suria KLCC wherein high-end shops, an aquarium and a Philharmonic theatre can be found.

Aside from being an attraction itself, the Petronas Twin Towers also give home to a few more attractions. One basic attraction inside is the Petrosains. Located in the 4th level of Suria KLCC, it is a 7,000 sq metre science discovery centre which is practically focused on stimulating the interests of people towards the playful and exciting world of Science and Technology.

Petrosains features interactive exhibits which are very informative, interactive and conducive to learning. It presents different things about a variety of topics – from the age of dinosaurs to life in outer space. It also integrates different information about petroleum, and how its discovery has changed the world.

The discovery centre features a lot of highlights. There is the Geotime Diorama which features the pre-historic times; The Petrojaya, which is a high-technology cartoon village depicted with Malaysian art in a shadow play; The Dark Ride, which brings anyone a thrilling adventure of exploring Malaysia’s rainforests, mountain tops, and underwater ecology; And the Flight to the Oil Platform, which allows anyone to manoeuvre a helicopter as it encounters a storm.

It is not just a place for business and leisure, it is also a spot where learning is possible.

The other day, I got to talking to a gentleman who works for a homeowner’s association committee group. He had an interesting job, he went around for the homeowner association’s executive committee and he took pictures of all the homes with a digital camera. He took pictures from all different directions. Then, he gave those digital pictures to the group to look at, to make sure everything was going properly.

This reminded me of an old story about a very large Corporation back in the 80s where the executives sat in a high-rise tower in a major US city, and they ran the command and control of the entire Corporation with all of its offices around the world from that location. They came to work every day, went up into their office, and went home in the evenings. They never went to physically visit the locations of all their business units, retail stores, warehouses, sales departments, or even their manufacturing facilities.

Perhaps this was what the “Dilbert Series” was all about. In the new information age, generally you don’t need to send people out to take pictures or to do videos, as there is so much information technology, that it is almost like being there. Consider if you will Google Earth, closed-circuit TV, enterprise software, and all the rest. There is so much information, that you actually could run your business from an ivory tower. Nevertheless, I wouldn’t recommend that you do that, just as I wouldn’t recommend that any homeowner’s association did.

You see, there is a big difference between going out and talking to homeowners, and just taking pictures of the surrounding facilities. What’s really important is to talk to all the people involved, and take a look for yourself. Too many executives think that they don’t need to visit their operations in China, or walk the factory floors, this is a terrible mistake. The best corporations, their executives are constantly on the go visiting all the locations, and figuring out ways to save money, become more efficient, streamline operations, and keep the customers happy as well.

If you think you can do all that by remote control, you are kidding yourself, and I don’t care what sort of technology you have invested in, or even if you spent tens of millions of dollars developing the ability to do so. It’s not the same as being there, and never will be. There is a big difference between sending robots to Mars to look around, and actually having humans go there and see it for themselves. We just don’t have that level of technology yet, so don’t kid yourself. Indeed I hope you will please consider all this and think on it.