9. Petronas Twin Towers, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

 

Height: 452 meters
Cost to build: US$1.6 billion
Completion date: June 1996
Fast fact: National poet laureate A. Samad Said was commissioned to write a poem for the towers, which can be read

"These towers changed the skyline of Kuala Lumpur, and jumped the existing scale there dramatically. Petronas was also an attempt to relate a tall building to a country’s culture and history, and to make a statement about its power and desire to replace Hong Kong as a financial capital.” -- A. Eugene Kohn. Employing the repetitive geometric principle of Muslim architecture and Islamic arabesques, architect César Pelli wanted the Petronas Twin Towers to exude Malaysian culture and heritage; and he succeeded. Although nothing in Kuala Lumpur is nearly as colossal, the world’s tallest twin towers somehow feel at home amid the capital’s otherwise unassuming cityscape. Completed in 1996, the sky bridge that connects the two towers symbolizes “a gateway to the future” and Malaysia’s sky-high ambition entering the millennium. Since completion, this 451-meter skyscraper has become Malaysia’s unmistakable icon.