The Exchange 106 (TRX Signature Tower) Facts and Information

The Exchange 106 is a supertall skyscraper being developed by Mulia Group in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The building will become the tallest building in Malaysia by roof height. Below are facts about the building and the related information.

Name: The Exchange 106
"Exchange" is taken from the name of the place where the tower is built in--"Tun Razak Exchange", as its name suggests, the place is being primed as Malaysia’s financial and banking district.
The words "Tun Razak" is originated from the name of Current Prime Minister of Malaysia Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak's father Tun Abdul Razak, The Exchange 106 will form the centerpiece of this new district.
And 106 refers to the floors count of the tower.
The tower was formerly known as TRX Signature Tower, other names of the tower include Menara Platinum, Platinum Tower and Signature Tower.

Location:
The Exchange 106 is located in Kuala Lumpur's planned new financial district Tun Razak Exchange, briefly known as TRX, the district is a 70-acre (28-hectare) site at the southern edge of downtown Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.

A render of Tun Razak Exchange
A render of Tun Razak Exchange with The Exchange 106 in the foreground, the KL Tower and the Petronas Towers at the background.

The tower is situated by a street called Jalan Selatan. As the the district is still under construction, no detailed street address is given.

Aerial view of the construction site of Tun Razak Exchange
Aerial view of the construction site of Tun Razak Exchange

TRX houses Kuala Lumpur's largest underground Mass Rapid Transit station. The Exchange 106 can be accessed by taking Sungai Buloh-Kajang Line, and the future Sungai Buloh-Serdang-Putrajaya Line.

Height: 446 meters (1461 feet)--height of the building itself; 492.3 meters (1,614 feet)--If the elevation of the site of the building is counted
The building on the site was initially proposed to be 380 meters, in 2015, the height was changed to 430 meters with a change on design, in 2016, the final design for the building was chosen, with a planned height of 439 meters. And the planned height got increased to 492 meters in 2017, however this height include the elevation of the building's site.

If 492.3m is the building's real height as was widely believed before, the Exchange 106 will be the tallest building in Malaysia and Southeast Asia, the tower will keep this crown for a few years, until the 644-meter Merdeka PNB 118 surpasses it.

However, architectural height doesn't count the elevation of buildings' sites, so the building is the second tallest building in Malaysia, after the Petronas Towers, which are built on a site with similar elevation as the Exchange 106, the twin towers are taller than the Exchange 106 by both vertical rise and altitude, but they are shorter if the height is measured to roof since Exchange 106 has no spire or antenna atop on the building, the building will be topped with a 48 meter high crown, it will be the tallest building in Malaysia by roof height and hold this title for a few years until be overtaken by Merdaka PNB 118, the roof height of which will be somewhere around 500 meters and contains a long spire on the top, which will make it the tallest building in Southeast Asia.

Globally The Exchange 106 will be one of the top 25 tallest buildings in the world.

Uses: Office, Retail
The Exchange 106 is an office building, with the bottom 5 floors reserved for retail space, there are about 300,000 square feet of retail space.

The office level begins from the sixth floor of the tower.
Mulia Property Development positions their building as the most luxurious office skyscraper in the world, the rental price of its office space is RM17 (approximately 4.3 USD) per square feet a month, or 50 USD per sq ft a year, it's considered the highest in Malaysia, globally it's not as high as some skyscrapers in western countries, for comparison, the rental price of The Shard in London is 121 USD per sq ft a year, One World Trade Center is 75 USD per sq ft a year.

Design:
The Exchange 106 is being developed by Mulia Group and was designed by Mulia's in-house team of designers, as opposed to be like some other developers that ask some architectural firms like SOM or KPF.

However they did ask some international architectural firms to design the tower before the final design was chosen, below are two of its former design:

A previous design for The Exchange 106
A previous design for The Exchange 106
The previous design for The Exchange 106
The previous design for The Exchange 106 in 2015

The final design was chosen in 2016.

Final design of The Exchange 106
Final design of The Exchange 106

Exchange 106 will feature high ceilings finished in English Burlwood, and the floors and walls in the lobbies and common areas are made with marble of the highest quality.
The tower will have 92 column-free office floors that are designed for flexible layouts, each averaging 34,000 square feet, for column-free floor spaces this floor plate is the largest in Malaysia.
The Exchange 106 has 106 floors above the ground, the gross floor area of the tower is 53,835 square meters (4,885,000 square feet), the lettable floor area is 2650,000 square feet.
The ceiling in the entrance lobby is 15 meters high.
The tower will also have a sky lobby at 57th floor.
Apart from 106 floors above ground there are also six floors underground, providing parking lot that capable of 2116 cars.

The tower will be topped off with a LED-illuminated glass crown at its peak, the crown itself is 48 meters and contains 12 stories.

Development:
The supertall project on the site of The Exchange 106 was first proposed by 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB, a Malaysia finance ministry company, now its name has been changed to TRX City Sdn Bhd) in 2012 when the company was controlling the TRX district. However 1MDB encountered severe debt problems not long after that, hence it was unable to develop the project.
Now The Exchange 106 is being developed by Mulia Property Development Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of Indonesia's Mulia Group.
In May 2015, Mulia Group spent RM665 million(equals to 170 million USD) to purchase the 3.42 acre site on which The Exchange 106 is located.

The main contractor for The Exchange 106 is China State Construction Engineering Corporation, the corporation has built lots of supertall or megatall skyscrapers in China before, it is also going to build many other supertall skyscrapers out of China in recent years, none of them is as tall as The Exchange 106, upon the completion The Exchange 106 will become the tallest building built by Chinese company outside China.

The construction work for the tower began in May 2016 with a mat foundation concrete pour, the pour took place continuously over a weekend, it is recognized as the second largest continuous concrete pour in the world.The concrete pour involved 8.5 million kg of cement, 16 million kg of sand and 19 million kg of aggregate.
With the advanced building technology of China State Construction Engineering, the construction speed of Exchange 106 is surprisingly fast, on average it takes them only three days to complete one floor, sometimes, it takes only two days to complete.


Normally the contractors only build the structure itself and the internal decoration will be handed over to another team, but the Chinese contractor is doing it with a new method, they are completing the exterior and interior of the building simultaneously, this also greatly reduce the duration of the project.
As of December 2017, its reinforced concrete core wall has been completed, reaching an altitude of 450 meters, it took only 19 months to achieve this since the construction began.

As of January 2018, The Exchange 106 has been built to a height that almost as tall as Petronas Towers.

The construction illumination of The Exchange 106
The construction illumination of The Exchange 106

The Exchange 106 was due for completion in mid 2018 and tenants were expected to move in by the third quarter of 2018.

However, as of August, the crown of the tower is still not completed, it looks the tower will not complete until October or so.

The Exchange 106 seen in late August 2018
The Exchange 106 seen in late August 2018

Tourism and Sightseeing:
The tower will have a sky lobby, however, judged from the render of the sky lobby, it is more likely only open to the tenants, not a normal public observation deck.

And the sky lobby is only at 57th floor. To enjoy the aerial cityscape of Kuala Lumpur, Petronas Towers and the KL Tower are still the best and the only choices.

Share this: