Merdeka PNB 118 or KL118 which is its formerly used name, is a 118 floors megatall skyscraper currently being built in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Below are some facts and information of the skyscraper.
Name: The official name of the tower is Merdeka PNB 118 or simply Merdeka 118. Merdeka means Independence Day in Malaysian, the name of the tower commemorates the independence of Malaysia, additionally the tower will be built on the site of the former Merdeka Park. PNB is abbreviation of Permodalan Nasional Berhad, which is Malaysia's biggest fund management company and the owner of the tower.
The tower was formerly known as KL 118 for it is located in Kuala Lumpur and will have 118 floors, some other ever used names are Menara Warisan Merdeka, which means Heritage of Independence in English, and PNB Headquarters, as the tower will become the new headquarters of PNB Group.
Location and Transportation:
Merdeka PNB 118 is being built on a site in the vicinity of the Merdeka Stadium in Jalan Hang Jebat, Kuala Lumpur, it's only about 100 meters north of the stadium.
The Merdeka Stadium is a historic landmark of Kuala Lumpur, it is where the independence of the Federation of Malaya formally declared, and was once the principal venue in Kuala Lumpur for celebrations and sport events, the stadium also hosted numerous major concerts, including two concerts of History World Tour held by Michael Jackson in October 1996, the two sold-out concerts attracted a total of 110,000 people to watch on site.
Recent years the Merdeka Stadium is still holding many major concerts, many popular singers such as Avril Lavigne, Jennifer Lopez, Justin Bieber, Mariah Carey, A.R. Rahman had held the concerts in the stadium.
When Merdeka PNB 118 is built, the tower along with other two landmarks, the KL Tower and Petronas Towers will be roughly standing on a same line, with KL Tower standing near the middle point of the line.
The best way to access to the Merdeka PNB 118 Tower is by metro, visitors can take Sungai Buloh-Kajang Line and stop at Merdeka MRT station, after get out the station just walk towards the site of the tower for just one or two minutes.
Height:
The architectural height of Merdeka PNB 118 is 678.9 meters (2227 feet), this is measured from the ground to the tip of spire, this height was only unveiled on November 30 2021 when the tower topped out at its full height.
The top of the crown is estimated at about 570 meters above mean sea level, the altitude of the site of the tower is 55 meters, so without the spire the tower is 515 meters high above the ground. The roof is 555 meters above mean sea level, or 500 meters above the ground. The highest occupied floor is at 485 meters high above the ground.
The diagram below shows the comparison of Merdeka PNB 118, Petronas Towers, and New York's Empire State Building in height.
If the tower is built in 2022 as expected, it will surpass the renowned Petronas Towers and The Exchange 106 to become the tallest building in Malaysia, and the 2nd tallest building in the world.
Below is a video showing the height difference between Merdeka 118 and other tallest buildings in the world.
Owner:
The owner of Merdeka PNB 118 is as its name suggests, the Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB) group, the group owns the tower via one of its wholly-owned subsidiaries known as PNB Merdeka Ventures Sdn Bhd.
Uses: Office, Hotel, Residential, Retail, Observation
KL 118 Tower will have 118 floors, the podium floors are occupied by retail stores or a shopping mall, above it the 80 floors of the building will be used as office space, 60 out of these 80 floors of office floors will be reserved to be served as the headquarters of Permodalan Nasional Berhad (PNB), which is the building's owner and developer, and also the company the tower named after.
The upper floors will contain 12 stories of hotel rooms, 5 stories of hotel residences. The hotel will be operated by Park Hyatt.
The 113th floor will have a restaurant, the 114th to 117th floors will be occupied by a multi-story observation deck, which will become one of the world's highest observation decks. The top floor (118th floor) will be reserved for a VIP lounge.
A parking lot at basement will space for up to 5,000 cars.
Design:
KL 118 was designed by the local architectural firm RSP Architects Sdn Bhd joint with Fender Katsalidis, a Melbourne based architectural firm, one of its best known works is Eureka Tower, which is the tallest building in Melbourne.
The appearance of KL 118 shares the similarity with Uptown Dubai Tower in Dubai, another megatall skyscraper, which set to become the tallest commercial building in the world, Merdeka PNB 118 was designed earlier.
The Merdeka PNB 118 will be topped with a spire about 150 meters long.
The tower's off-center spire is inspired by the raised right hand of Tunku Abdul Rahman (who is regarded as the founding father of Malaysia) seen during the Merdeka Proclamation, representing the nation's independence.
The featuring of off-center spire can also be found on the former design of Freedom Tower (Current One World Trade Center) in New York City, and similarly it's inspired by the raised arm of the Statue of Liberty, which is also a symbol of independence.
The total floor area of the Merdeka PNB 118 will be 292,000 square meters or 3,143,062 square feet.
Development:
Merdeka PNB 118 was proposed in 2010, it went through several changes on design. Below is the former design of Merdeka PNB 118:
And here is the final design of the tower:
Construction on the tower started in 2014, Pintaras Geotechnics Sdn Bhd was chosen to do the piling and foundation work.
By Dec 2014, more than a half of the foundation work had been completed.
Piling work was completed in September 2016, and the above-ground construction began shortly.
The local company UEM Group and South Korea's Samsung C & T were chosen by Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB) as the major contractors for the above-ground construction of the tower.
UEM Group is one of the largest construction companies in Malaysia.
Samsung C & T is a subsidiary of Samsung Group, which best known for its electronic products, the company has had experience participating in the construction of many of tallest skyscrapers, including the Petronas Twin Towers, which were the World's Tallest Buildings from 1998 to 2004, the buildings are located just miles away from the Merdeka PNB118, and the Taipei 101 which surpassed them as World's Tallest Building was also built by Samsung C & T, and most notably they built Burj Khalifa in Dubai, which is currently the tallest building in the world at 828 m.
In Sep 2016, the developer PNB Merdeka Ventures said the project is progressing within budget, on schedule and on track for completion by 2020.
As of mid-March in 2019, the core of the tower had reached 50th floor, while the complete floors had surpassed 40 floors.
According to the president of PNB, the core of the tower had reached 91st floor as of December 2019.
On January 21, 2020, the concrete core of the tower reached 100th floor, at a height of 473 meters above the sea level, or 418 meters from the street level.
The construction was temporarily on hold from mid March 2020 to mid May 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In July 2020, the tower surpassed the Vincom Landmark 81 in Vietnam as the tallest building in Southeast Asia.
The concrete core of the tower reached the top in early August 2020, making the tower structurally topped out.
On October 12 2021, the tower reached 644 meters above the ground, this height was widely believed to be the final height of the tower, and the aircraft warning light was installed on the spire, so it was reported that the tower had topped out. However, the spire kept growing taller.
On November 30 2021, the tower architecturally topped out, and the height was finally revealed to be 678.9 meters above the ground.
The construction of Merdeka PNB 118 Tower is estimated to cost RM5 billion, approximately equals to US $1.5 billion.
Tourism and sightseeing:
Once built, a multi-story observatory will be included on Merdeka PNB 118, the observatory will occupy 114th, 115th, 116th, and 117th floors of the tower, the heights of these observation floors range from 468 meters to 481 meters, it will become the 6th highest observation deck in the world. In addition, a secondary observation deck will be added on the spire at 566 meters high, that will make it the world's highest observation deck. Currently no more details about the observatory is released. As of now, observation deck on Petronas Towers and KL Tower are still the only places for enjoying the city views from the sky.
And since KL Tower is located closer to Merdeka PNB 118, it will become the best place to enjoy the aerial view of Merdaka PNB 118, enthusiasts of construction progress can also go up to the observation deck on KL Tower to take pictures of the construction site from high above. The KL Tower has long been one of the most popular tourist attractions in Kuala Lumpur, as it provides one of the best views of Petronas Towers and the views of the whole city.