April 11, 20251 yr Sorry guys, not the size you think the title means. There was a programme on tv last night about the construction of the Merdeka Tower 118 in Kuala Lumpur. Malaysia proudly tells everyone that this is the second tallest building in the world at 678.9 meters above ground. Yet, in my view, it is nowhere near that! Opened in 2024, it boasts a spire of 160.7 meters. True, some people can go up into it to access a small observation deck. But take away that spire and the height of the building is actually only 515 meters. The top habitable floor is 485 meters up. The Shanghai Tower which has no spire is 632 meters high and has 10 floors of habitable space more than the Merdeka 118. Merdeka 118 is actually the 10th highest in the world. Presently New York's World Trade Centre sits at No. 10 but it has a spire of 124.3 meters - so it slips further down the list. It reminds me of a feud between two of Hong Kong's top commercial banks. When HSBC opened its then new Norman Forster-designed headquarters in 1985, it was regarded as an iconic building in terms of the way it was constructed. Its height is 180 meters. Next door is the Standard Chartered Bank sitting on a vastly smaller land footprint. When it opened its own new HQ redesign in 1990, its tapered design reached 191 meters. Pure one-upmanship! (In the photo you can see the tiny stepped building next to the very large HSBC HQ.) One wonders when skyscrapers will boast ever larger spires. What sort of bragging rights does having the 2nd largest skyscraper in the world give to Malaysia when it is not even true?
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