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Thursday, March 29, 2007

SOUTHEAST ASIA'S TALLEST BUILDINGS









Southeast Asia is still the fastest growing economic bloc in the world. *harsh comments and violent reactions are welcome* We comprise of more than 10% of the world population; our GDP is $885 billion; and our purchasing power parity is $2.756 trillion. TAKE THAT!

Listed here are the tallest buildings in Southeast Asia and their corresponding ranks in the world. I was wondering…are really tall buildings a measure of progress? Does it mirror prosperity or it’s all just a big statement?

What about in other parts of the world? Skyscrapers in Europe cannot compete at all with our tall buildings but yet, they are among the richest in the world? Hmmm…

Call it “old school” but still, we can’t deny to ourselves that having tall buildings in our region is our way of saying: “We have arrived”.

Here are The Tallest Buildings in Southeast Asia...is your country included?...

1st. PETRONAS TOWER I (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)
1st. PATRONAS TOWER II (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)

These two towers share the distinction of the tallest buildings in SE Asia. They are both 1,483 ft. high and have 88 floors each. Both towers are connected by a suspended bridge between the 41st and the 42nd floor. Malaysia really surprised the world when they announced the total height back in1998. Both towers rank as the World's 2nd Tallest Buildings (ranked 2&3 slots) and the Tallest Twin Towers in the whole dang world! TAKE THAT!



3rd. MENARA TELEKOM (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)

No, this not the 2nd Tallest because there are 2 Petronas Towers, remember? This architectural beauty on the other side of Kuala Lumpur is 1,017 ft tall (*why did they build it so far from the city center by the way?). It has only 55 floors (too few for a really tall building) and completed in 2001. I don’t know why it didn’t make any noise in Kuala Lumpur or feature it as one of the city’s landmark although it is the 27th Tallest Building in the World and the 3rd tallest in SE Asia. Not bad. Not bad at all.



4th.BAYOKE TOWER II(Bangkok, Thailand)

The 4th Tallest Building in SE Asia is arguably the tallest hotel in Asia as well (so I was told), but of course I know it’s not. The design is just so and so but it does dominate the Bangkok skyline. It is 997 ft with 85 floors completed in 1997. My uncles told me that the construction of this building was almost stopped and abandoned. It was found out halfway that they were building it slightly tilted to the side! Let's hope they corrected it already. But you can still feel the lifts brushing with the building's interior. Scary! It ranks 31st in the world.


5th. OUB CENTER (Singapore)

At 919 ft., this is one of Singapore’s most recognizable land marks. It ranks 50th in the world. But OUB Center only has 63 floors and completed in 1986. Hmmm...1986? This must be the tallest building in Southeast Asia that time, right? Interesting.

5th. UOB PLAZA (Singapore) No, it’s not a typo error. This is also the 5th and the next one below. This building shares the 5th ranking with 2 other Singaporean buildings. I so love the clean and crisp design of this beautiful building! It’s 919 ft tall and has 66 floors. Completed in 1992. World ranked as 50th as well.

5th. REPUBLIC PLAZA (Singapore)

This red graphite building is a real eye candy to me. Love the lines. Love the contour. Love the imposition. It also stands 919 ft tall and has 66 floors and world ranked at 50th as well.








8th. PBCom TOWER (Makati, Philippines)

The tallest building in the Philippines is a glass and steel masterpiece indeed. It’s situated in the country’s financial district, 848 ft tall with 52 floors, completed in 2000. Its simple and plain design makes it rather indistinguishable with other towers in the city, well, aside from it’s height. By the way, rumor has it that they are building the Tallest Building in Southeast Asia? Would they beat the Petronases? (*smiling mischievously). Hmmm…I’ll tell gather more info about it.

In the meantime, they must have to be satisfied as the 8th in SE Asia and 79th in the world. Take that!

9th. CAPITAL TOWER (Singapore)

This building reminds me of the kind of buildings in Gotham City. LOL. Y’know, those really tall towers with a pantheon on top! That’s cool! It’s 833 ft tall and has 52 floors. Ranked 93rd in the whole world.








10th. WISMA 46 (Jakarta, Indonesia)

Surprise, surprise! Jakarta made it to the list as the 10th tallest building in SE Asia. This nicely designed tower is one of Jakarta’s most recognizable land marks. It’s 820 ft tall with 48 floors and completed in 1996. It ranks 99th in the world! Barely made it to 100! Not bad. Not bad at all.






So there it is! The 10 Tallest Buildings in our region. The symbols of progress of our cities. If we would continue the list to 20, it would all be shared by Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore only. TAKE THAT!



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Related article: New Batch of the 10 Tallest Buildings in 2-3 years.

28 Comments:

Anonymous said...

the petronas took my breath the first time i saw it back in 1999. and it's still amazes me even in pictures. the designs si hypnotic really.

Anonymous said...

hello to the author of this...hmmmm probably your just saying that on malaysia singapore and thailand can built a tallest building in Southeast Asia?hmmmm do you think the other cant built on what your saying?hmmmm merely infact Philippines can built a building that can surpass any building tallest here in ASEAN..yeah we know this country your saying can only build a building that is tallest in its kind but do you think the building Petronas tower are being surpass by many building and be left far from the top 10 or top 50 tallest in the world.......I think Petronas will be putted below those building that is currently built by the rich countries like in the middle east europe usa in the east asia and asia pacific countries like australia...hmmm I think malaysia petronas tower are still vacant at all.....so why this country building such big or tall but left empty at all...hmm think maybe this is just useless and for decoration of the country?hmmmppp just a comment

Pisanu for BISEAN said...

To you Anonymous...we deleted your other comments because they ARE OFFENSIVE.

We only tolerate "controversial" comments IF they have a link back.

I suggest you read the article first before commenting. This is NOT A CONTEST BLOG. We DON'T highlight the great things in our region to mock, ridicule or prove who is better than the other. NO! It's all in your mind.

We highlight BROTHERHOOD on this blog for the coming AEC in 2015. Are you even aware what AEC is?

I'm very sorry to delete your other OFFENSIVE comments. BUT I HAVE TO because it paints a bad picture of the Filipinos. Other countries would think that all Filipinos are like you. So deleted it is.

If YOU ARE more literate than us, bakit marunong akong mag-Filipino? Bakit marunong din akong mag-French, Spanish, German? And my other readers -- speaks more than 5 languages. Ikaw? How many languages do you speak, my friend? Can you read this? เมืองไทยน่าอยู่ที่สุดในโลกเลย ... Sino ang illiterate ngayon, kaibigan?

BUT REALLY, I'M VERY SORRY to delete you rude comments. Maybe you're just having a bad day.

Next time, if you really, really have the urge to insult others, you better have a link back. So others can get back to you -- as mature people usually do. I hope you understand and please don't come back here anymore.

Peace.

Pisanu for BISEAN said...

***Anonymous response deleted

Anonymous, I thought I made myself clear? And you still came back to redeem yourself -- with more insults? Have a little dignity; you and your insults to Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore are NOT welcome here. You are disgracing the Philippines.

Please. Have a little dignity for yourself. Get out, dude.

Unknown said...

I am very surprised actually that we made it to this top 10 list. Never thought that we would make it with so many tall buildings in Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia.

I think the rumored tall building you are talking about is one that is proposed to rise at The Fort - not sure if it is 77 or 87 floors up, but either way we are still behind KL and the BKK.

I just hope they build very original buildings in Manila. PB Com Tower is boring.

Anonymous said...

Pogi

Yeah a lot of supertalls have been proposed already. There's a hotel in Fort Bonifacio, a residential/office building in Rockwell, and the Pagcor E-city Tower that's rumored to be the tallest in the world once finished. Some even opted not to disclose the exact number of floors as they are competing against each other. Heheh! I'd have to see the Lopez and Skycity Towers built first before getting excited with the other proposed buildings. But I agree PBCom is one boring building, even the interiors isn't exciting. It's about time another building gets the tile in Pinas.

Anonymous said...

Although there are other taller buildings in the world such as in Taiwan and Dubai, none of them are twin towers (i.e all of them are single buildings). Thats what makes the Petronas towers soo unique. Its going to take a long time before someone else comes up with a twin tower that is taller than the Petronas twin towers.....until then the Petronas twin towers are definitively the tallest twin towers in the world !

Anonymous said...

I LOVEEE THE PETRONAS TWIN TOWERS LOVEEE =))

Anonymous said...

in respect to mr anonymous... i can forgive your bad grammar and syntax if you realize that they are... i am too sometimes commit grammatical errors in my writings...

Anywho, countries make buildings (though they might still yet to be fully filled) not so much on the basis of showing off... if we judge these countries for building these amazing landmarks... then we should judge the supposedly ignorant Pharaoh for the building of the Pyramid and the Sphinx. The Temple of Artemis and Zeus.. "i can imagine you saying this "they no need big tempel because people can pray at house... big tempel is used for showing off only... for what build pyramid? after die also need big building a?"

but yes that would sound like something you could say...

Tall buildings:-

1-make the people proud.. citizens or fellow regionmen
2- shows other country that they are something and they (the country) are ready
3-intrigue investors (no need for elaboration..if you are smart you would know)
4-urbanization

if u don't have big tall buildings, we are not saying that you are incapable of doing that... but building these building means you are putting a large portion of money (that im sure your country owns). but if your country do spend that money for building such building.. what is the direct aftermath for your country's economics? go figure.. countries who have done it have calculated the cost and then only they ventured... there is a reason why these counties could make it.. being able to afford in making and actually making are two different things... i'm babbling...

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...
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PONCE said...

It doesn't mean that if one country has a tallest building in the world symbolizes the richness and strong..definitely NOT........The philippines particularly in Makati still a skyrocketed building is unstoppble but originally we live our country about 1$ dollor a day which is equivalent to more or less 49 pesos.....thats the bad impression of all business leaders...

BUT in the PHilippines theres only one place which I can say all people live there is rich and famous..this CEBU. CEBU is the only city in Asia currently belong to the top ten most progressive city and top 20 all over the world. Why CEBU???

WE just only have 44 storey building which is the Crown Regency Hotel but the standard of living here is highly recommendable unlike Manila you cannot eat the rice and ulam without P100.00

During the Asian Crisis cebu were not affected because of being independently city, this is the city which main commerce of MIndanao and Visayas takes place...if Manila does it.....Cebu does it.....and take note Cebu City is the first city in The Philippines and we are the home ground of Christianity in all Asia's country.........

Yes social life in Manila compare to cebu slightly similar but the way of living cebu is always on the top......we reduces the number of person who suffered the hunger and scarcity but in Metro manila and other provinces still soaring up high of being the World's top of being low standard of living...

Pisanu for BISEAN said...

Thank you, Ponce for sharing. Points taken. But I hope you wouldn't take it against BISEAN posting the tallest buildings in the region. This post is very trivial -- but useful to some students, right?

Thanks again and I hope you'll keep coming back and spread the word of brotherhood among us neighbours =)

Rogin Hudtohan said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Baguio City Boi said...

Nice post, Pisanu.

On a side note, I feel depressed everytime I see or read Filipino comments on blogs and rest of the Net. Not only that the grammar is wrong, my kababayans can't even spell.

The Philippine government has been promoting the country as a nation whose 95% of its people speak English. Hello?

It's time for the Philippine's Department of Education to work on this. We are really behind SG, TH, MY and ID when it comes to quality education.

I am based in SG and my friend's kids study Algebra (x + y = z) in Primary school. This course is taught in High School in the Philippines.

When I was 9 or 10, the Secretary of Education was Mrs. Lourdes Quisumbing. I reached 21 and she was still there. She hasn't done anything right.

Anonymous said...

The Pagcor Tower is near Manila Bay in Manila, Philippines. The tower is expected to be 665 meters high.
wow that's amazing (-_;)

Anonymous said...

So how is it gonna be?
I saw an ad at the CNN and read an ad at TIMES Magazine that the Philippine goverment's plan is final in constructing an eCity and the Observation Tower will rise a ---- whooping "655m". It seems that the Petronases will be washed off from the top... Gramarcy Residences a highrise condominium is also under construction trying to beat PBCom the Philippine's tallest building.

A good place for a vacation this summer... Manila here I come...

Too bad, but I certainly hope Malaysia will build another fantastic architectural breakthrough...

Kudos for everyone...

malaysian girl said...

to anonymous,
have u been to malaysia or to the twin towers? u sound like an empty tin.cause loads of noise but unknowledgeable.the twin towers are very pack with offices now.the towers are full with people and tourist too.well,at least the tourist know how to value incredible things tho.stop being jealous.build your own building then if u are so capable of doing it.ooops,i forgot! u dont even have enough money to build a sandcastle.LOL

let me make it clear here,asian shoud support one another.to all the philiphines,please dont get offended.im a university student and currently staying with a philipine homestay.she's really nice and i like asian.but anonym ous here is condeming malaysia's twin towers and as a malaysian,i got really pissed off.stop talking bout things that u dont really know.

Anonymous said...

hala mg away b??mgpayabangan nlng kayo if your building is still standing after a strong earthquake shaked it...

Anonymous said...

and to the author..
you started it, you may try to consider your reviews... nicely, why do you have to say take that?? and writing that your smiling mischievuosly???
that's offensive!!! its just a rumor...why make it an issue???

just a comment..

rabies said...

as asians all, let's just be proud of our tall buildings. i'm a filipino and i'm very happy that we have petronas, ifc, taipei 101, etc. and good for pbcom to be in the SEA top ten :) have you noticed that the US, who used to have all the top ten tallest buildings in the world only a decade or two ago, is slowly getting out of the picture? keep it coming my asian brothers and sisters. be a united asia for our own good. peace to all .

Anonymous said...

ASEAN Cities are so nice..:)

Anonymous said...

really? manila is building skycrapers? omg... i hope before they even proceed doing so they :

1) train people in living safely in tall buildings; two famous celebrities died from falling down their condos
2) make sure that the fire department --- a most neglected and really pitiful branch of service, will be equally upgraded to match emergency requirements of tall buildings
3) make electricity more available and cost efficient in the city
4) make water pressure be more efficient so as not to deprive 'lower class' areas of this precious commodity by diverting water to these high class areas
5) consider the fact that we located in typhoon belt; earthquake belt and a favorite punching bag of mother nature and terrorists alike.

Nico said...

woohoo!!! I love tall buildings. it seems asian cities, southeast asian cities in particular, are steadily booming and this reflects in the architecture. keep it up Bisean!

Anonymous said...

Im relly sad that jakarta tower (558 m) should be the tallest tower and pagcor tower (665 m) (philipina) had to cancel.I hope warisan merdeka tower (malaysia),unknown tower build in cambodia and pvn tower (vietnam) will not be cancel.:)

Anonymous said...

100 story building warisan merdeka, malaysia is being condemnd by malaysian. Eventhough the motive was good. But we thought, the money should spend elsewhere. Like improving school, medical etc.... but let just see what happen..

Anonymous said...

Brunei is being really humble and down-to-earth! I'm sure they can easily build the tallest building in the region...

As a Malaysia, I totally oppose the construction of the proposed Warisan Tower. It's just absurd! That would be a waste of tax money and not to mention the cost to maintain it!

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