Posted on 12/31/2004 7:15:54 PM PST by aculeus
It resembles a giant bamboo shoot, can carry people more than a kilometre skyward in less than 40 seconds, and yesterday it was officially declared the world's tallest building.
The 508 metre tall building in Taipei's Hsinyi district is 56 metres taller than the previous record holder, the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur.
The opening of Taipei 101 - a reference to the number of floors - was attended by local dignitaries keen to bask in the glory of one of Asia's most ambitious engineering projects ever. As an opera company entertained the crowd, the world's fastest passenger lifts whisked VIPs 1,010 metres to the 89th floor observation deck in just 39 seconds.
The building, which took six years to complete, is designed to withstand earthquakes of more than magnitude 7 on the Richter scale and storms so fierce they occur, on average, only once every 100 years.
Made from concrete and steel, and wrapped in a double layer of heat-reducing glass, the structure houses a five-storey shopping mall and offices for 12,000 people.
More than 30% of the 198,000 square metres of office space has been bought.
The $1.8bn (£938m) skyscraper has become a matter of local pride. At yesterday's opening ceremony, Taiwan's president, Chen Shui-bian, called it one of the most successful examples of construction the island had ever seen.
"The glory and success of Taipei doesn't belong to one single mayor but all of the citizens," said Mr Chen, who launched the project as mayor of Taipei in 1998.
But rivals for the title of world's tallest building - provided spires are excluded - are under construction. They include the Shanghai World Financial Centre, due for completion in 2007, which will stand 541 metres tall from floor to roof, beating Taipei 101 by 54 metres.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
NIce! Would like to go back and see it. But my favorite skyline is Hong King. Awesome architecture.
So what happens when another 9.0 quake hits.....?
Something don't jive with these figures. The building is 508 meters tall, with 101 floors. Yet, the 89th floor observation deck is reached by 1,010 meters of elevator travel.
Taipei 101 either has the worlds most ineffecient elevators. Or the 89th floor exists in the 5th dimension.
Hong Kong's Lippo Center
A towering achievement indeed. But I have heard there is really no compelling economic rationale for super-duper skyscrapers. Rather they are real-estate white elephants. The revelations in the wake of 9/11 proved similar things about the World Trade center (basically the ego-child of the brothers Rockefeller) which took years to fill up. New York City and State had to take up a third of it's vacancies with state and city offices, even as it disrupted the New York real estate market with an Ossa and Pelion of artificially taxpayer-subsidized square footage.
The Petronas Towers is essentially a double-pronged extension of Mohammed Mahathir's lingnam (wanger). That and being the backdrop of that cute caper movie with Sean Connery and his granddaughter Cathy Z.
I like the Petronas Towers much better.
When another 9.0 quake hits, in Taiwan (hopefully not I don't wish them any ill will), its likely to collapse.
Hong Kong's Lippo Center
So that's what happened to me old LEGO set. I shall sue for damages.
The same LIppo of this 1996 news release?
LIPPO-CLINTON-VIETNAM Connection October 24, 1996
CONGRESSIONAL PROBE FINDS SCANDALOUS
LIPPO-CLINTON-VIETNAM CONNECTION:
(Garden Grove, California) -- News accounts about questionable donations from the Indonesian Lippo Group Ltd, to the President through the Democratic National Committee (DNC) have stunned the nation in recent weeks.Yet the intent behind these shady donations has not been apparent until now.
That's them.
Yeah, I ate at a Burger Kong there once. :-)
maybe the buildings got "Lippo - suction"
LOL Precisely. Whenever I can't remember Lippo I call it the Lego Tower. In fact, that's how I Googled it tonight ;)
Thanks the name Lippo rang a bell, just another part of the Clinton Legacy that is still with us and the rest of the world.
oooooooooooooooooooohhhhhh!!! Tell me that isn't a WALKWAY between those two skyscrapers!!
I can't really fault Lippo. (I can fault Clinton.) Lippo is in business to make money. If I was in their position, I would do the same.
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