Skyscrapers - Petronas Towers

Aah, the Petronas Towers. Named for the Malaysian petroleum company Petronas, the main occupier of the buildings, these two interesting structures once held the title of the World's Tallest Building, overtaking Chicago's Sears Tower in 1998, and being overtook by Taipei 101 in 2003. Situated in Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia, the Petronas Towers are smartly designed to blend modern efficiency and comfort with a design based on Malaysia's Muslim heritage. They are linked by a skybridge over 200 metres in the air, which is used both as an attraction for tourists and as an escape route in emergencies.
The buildings themselves are very modern, with over 32,000 windows between them. They both reach the height of 452 metres, with 88 floors to occupy that space. There are 395,000 square metres of floor space between them, and 78 elevators. The buildings are a symbol of Malaysian business success, and are hard to miss on the fast-growing skyline of Kuala Lumpur.

For speed and efficiency of construction, the two towers were built by two different contractors, which instigated a "height war", to see who could finish quicker. The plan worked. If only that were done on all towers around the world (there has been about as much progress on the Freedom Tower in New York as there was before 9/11).