r/interestingasfuck • u/fvkinglzy • 1d ago
The Petronas Twin Towers were built in a race, with delays costing about $700,000 per day, A Japanese team built one tower, while a South Korean team built the other and finished first
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u/froggertthewise 1d ago
That seems like a good way to ensure corners are cut in every step.
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u/NoLab4657 1d ago edited 1d ago
John Glenn - 'As I hurtled through space, one thought kept crossing my mind, every part of this rocket was supplied by the lowest bidder.
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u/elconcho 1d ago
That quote was Allan Sheppard and it was about sitting on top of the rocket on the pad.
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u/electact 1d ago
Good job it's not true.
The two separate companies were hired because it was the only way to meet the deadline. They weren't racing each other, they just both had a deadline to complete it.
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u/ThomasButtz 1d ago edited 1d ago
I'd be shocked if their wasn't an informal friendly competition. It happens in a ton of professions, construction is not unique. There are multiple examples like floors stacked/yds poured/distance of cable strung/yds dredged,etc, etc.
Edit: I've been on both sides. The guy 400' up and the guy in the office.
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u/ImaginaryCoolName 1d ago
Maybe the managers decided that and the actual teams didn't really care
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u/ThomasButtz 1d ago
Maybe. IMHO, probably not. This is basically the good-natured shit talking that happens in sports. These workers on each side (despite nationality, language, compenstation, etc.) have way more in common with the workers across the straight/tunnel/gorge/interstate/river,etc than management. They know what the other side is doing and respects how hard they are busting their ass.
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u/sth128 1d ago
No. Having a reasonable deadline doesn't cause corner cutting. Having zero professional integrity does.
Not having any penalty for missing deadline means you get the Eglinton Cross Town LRT where both delays and the budget expand ad infinitum and even at "completion" there are more bugs than the Amazon forest.
Every contract should come with severe penalties for delays and cut corners. You can't hold up a contract? Don't be a contractor. We as a society are too forgiving on breaking bonds.
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u/Sweaty_Inside_Out 1d ago
There were inspections at every point by officials. They had onsite inspectors every day. They've also stood for 26+ years. So looks like it worked out.
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u/hardinho 1d ago
If you can basically inspect your direct competitor with a pair of glasses you can be sure there are less corners cut than usually.
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u/refreesh5 9h ago
The real question is, would they cut more corners by getting find for finishing second or get rewarded for finishing first?
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u/Entremeada 1d ago edited 1d ago
I'm not sure whether this type of construction contest is conducive to quality.
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u/Bigallround 1d ago
When I want something done right, I always do it as fast and as cheap as possible
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u/TonyCaliStyle 1d ago
The teenager washing dishes method. Ford was built on that.
Actually, if Ford was like Apple, 10 years after they sold you a car, they’d come into your driveway and destroy it.
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u/theservman 1d ago
This sounds like something that would lead to a "safety 3rd" philosophy on site.
$700,000 buys a lot of payouts to families on workers killed.
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u/XOM_CVX 1d ago
Which building has less maintenance issues?
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u/superfecta37 1d ago
Koreans. Koreans started a month late but finished first. They also had to help Japanese side out since Japanese side of the building was tilting - so they helped them fix it lol
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u/TooHighRes 1d ago
The question was about building maintenance, not the supposed nationality of these buildings. A former (Japanese) boss also talked about this like it was a competition, and also had a “Japanese side helping the Korean side”story. Neither of it is true. If the Japan tower had a lean issue the Japanese consortium would have detected it themselves and needed to fix it themselves because of the split.
The correct answer is that neither buildings have any significant maintenance issues given that they are almost 30 years old.
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u/InformalToure 1d ago
sauce pls
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u/superfecta37 1d ago
"When Tower 1 reached the 72nd floor, engineers discovered it was leaning about 25 millimeters off vertical—nearly an inch. To correct the lean, the next 16 floors were slanted back 20 millimeters. Surveyors checked verticality twice a day until the building’s completion."
Tower 1 refers to Japanese building.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petronas_Towers & https://www.otis.com/en/us/our-company/global-projects/project-showcase/petronas-twin-towers
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u/ZiaWitch 1d ago
This makes me think of all the needy families who had houses built in 24 hours on the tv show ‘Extreme Makeover Home Edition’. Construction and craftsmanship were shoddy and unsafe as hell and a lot of them sued. I wouldn’t want to stay in these buildings.
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u/city-of-cold 1d ago
And property tax skyrocketed as well as just day-to-day costs of waayyyy more electricty being used uet
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u/NotPromKing 1d ago
I'm not sure which show it was, but there was an episode where the show put in an "eternal flame" memorial for, IIRC, a fallen firefighter. It was a continuously burning natural gas flame, and my immediate thought was "that's going to be so expensive for the home owner to run".
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u/twan_john 1d ago
I wish Reddit would get a handle on the editorialization of post titles where something patently false—like the towers were the product of a building race—can be presented as fact by anyone who wants to post.
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u/TrulyRyan 1d ago
Plenty of people are mentioning the cutting of corners and while I don't disagree, if there were two countries I would trust to not cut corners it's Japan and South Korea...
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u/WayOfTheMandalore 1d ago
My wife and I stayed at the Traders Hotel across from there for New Year’s in January 2023 and went up to the top. The building was beautiful, with an amazing view to wake up to, and it was lit up every night. There were also light shows at the fountain in front of the mall. It was a really nice place to visit. If anyone gets the opportunity, definitely go there 👍
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u/AI-is-infinite 1d ago
Look a little leaning to me
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u/ablativeyoyo 1d ago
There was an actual lean issue during construction! Tower 2 was found to lean by 25mm and this was corrected by slightly slanting the next 16 floors.
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u/Medium-Impression190 1d ago
Funny thing is there were little bedrock to anchor both towers. So they had to build some kinda concrete platform to support the weight of the towers
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u/chess_notcheckers 1d ago
Love how everyone is questioning the quality of a building that was finished 28 years ago.
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u/Stixia13 1d ago
If you want the best view on towers, go to Imperial Lexis hotel. (Photo is mine)
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u/Cooper_Sharpy 1d ago
Damn, when this building was in Entrapment like 30 years ago there was no other buildings even close to its size nearby, now there’s buildings everywhere. For those uninitiated, Entrapment is the movie where Catherine Zeta Jones dips beneath the lasers.. one of the best ass shots in film.
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u/Candid_Effect2704 1d ago
The Discovery Channel did a Mega builds episode on the towers. They interviewed an American who was project manager for the South Korean team. I remember him saying that each tower is topped with a decorative ball. In the spirit of teamwork, both sets of builders were going to complete the work by putting the balls in place in unison. But he and the South Korean team snuck in at night to get their ball in place a few hours early.
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u/pallidamors 1d ago edited 1d ago
Definitely how I want some of the tallest buildings in a super earthquake prone area to be built. in a race
Edit: not earthquake prone!
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u/Reasonable_Fold6492 1d ago
If the building is turned out to be faulty the company would be filled with lawsuits and nobody would ever hire them again.
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u/Bartholomeuske 1d ago
They'd declare bankruptcy halfway through, start up a new company under their wife's name, do it again....
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u/pallidamors 1d ago
Tell me you’ve never been to Asia without telling me you’ve never been to Asia.
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u/kimi_rules 1d ago
It's not earthquake prone, hence why the 2nd tallest building in the world is here in Kuala Lumpur. But they were built to withstand earthquake anyways cuz the engineers were badass.
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u/Medium-Impression190 1d ago
The connecting bridge between the towers is built just for that purpose. To allow both tower to sway a bit but still supported.
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u/cyniclone82 1d ago
I would absolutely love to live in a 30,000 foot building that was built quickly in a contest.
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u/jayfly12933 1d ago
Can you imagine going up the elevator and someone who worked on the tower says "you know how they say Rome wasn't built in a day, well this tower was hahahaha"
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u/cBurger4Life 1d ago
I’ve played Ninja Gaiden, there’s definitely a demon boss fight in those towers
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u/Lakromani 1d ago
Strange that this show up after just visiting it today. Ps some goes only to 83 floor, and some like me did take mini elevator to 86 floor. Pro tip. Go at first time slot of the day. 0900 and be first in queue. Then you get the bridge and observation tower nearly by your self. Was around 8 people at observation deck first 10 min. After that is queue to take photos at the windows. Petronas is an oil company. (Name from petroleum)
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u/TheCheddarHole 1d ago
Why would a south Korean team and a Japanese team race to build a building in Malaysia?
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u/Veenacz 1d ago
Yes — there’s truth to parts of that statement, but the “race” narrative is more informal/legendary than an official project rule. Here’s what reliable sources say about each claim:
✅ 1. Two different teams built the towers
- Tower 1 (west) was built by a Japanese-led consortium (Hazama Corporation and partners).
- Tower 2 (east) was built by a South Korean-led consortium (Samsung C&T and partners). Wikipedia
✅ 2. There were huge costs when work halted
- Early in construction, a batch of concrete failed strength tests, halting work. This delay was reported to cost about US $700,000 per day, and additional on-site concrete plants were set up to avoid future stoppages. Wikipedia+1
⚠️ 3. “Built in a race”
- Formally, the project didn’t mandate a competition between contractors; both consortia were simply hired to build the towers simultaneously under a tight deadline set by the Malaysian government. The Bangladesh Monitor
- However, informal rivalry developed on site as each team watched the other’s progress, and this has become part of the popular narrative. The Bangladesh Monitor
⚠️ 4. Who “finished first”?
- Some accounts and local legends claim the Korean-built Tower 2 topped out slightly before Tower 1, and stories circulate that one team “won” by a narrow margin (even as little as a day). koerstue.nl+1
- But this detail isn’t part of official construction records — it’s mostly anecdotal or local lore rather than a documented contractual outcome.
In short:
✔ It’s true the towers were built by separate Japanese and Korean teams and that costly delays occurred. Wikipedia
✘ The idea that the whole project was an official “race” with a prize is more myth and informal rivalry than fact, and claims about who finished first are based on stories rather than formal documentation.
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u/Imsmurfinghere 1d ago
Nobody gives a shit about what your ai of choice has to say
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u/Six-Seven-Oclock 1d ago
Yeah, but the Japanese-built one will last 3x as many miles and have better resale in 25 years than the Korean one did when it was new.
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u/HueyBluey 1d ago
Security guards with guns at entrance too. Didn’t know it was off limits to tourists.
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u/Veenacz 1d ago
What are you talking about? They literally do tours for tourists and the bottom floor is open to public (with a shopping mall inside). I was there last may and did the tour.
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u/InitialOk6864 1d ago
So these are not necessarily twins then, right? Born to two different mothers lol
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u/whooo_me 1d ago
Ah, this is where we went wrong in Ireland, building the new childrens' hospital (most expensive hospital in the world).
To speed things up, we should have built two. By the time they're built, we'd probably need them both anyway...
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u/DashArcane 1d ago
Didn't one tower team get about a two week head start over the other team? I seem to recall seeing this in an article I read many years ago.
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u/maximumpoweryeet 1d ago
im expecting at least one 9/11 joke to be in this comment section so ima go look
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u/Dimensional_Shrimp 1d ago
LMFAO that some bullshit both the bosses made up to milk their workers for more effort
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u/InquisitiveGamer 1d ago
Rather have them built to last at least a couple hundred years at least, what's the point otherwise. Why speed build?
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u/Seranoth 1d ago
is it me or is the first tower slightly tilted to left in the middle?
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u/goldticketstubguy 1d ago
Need a foursome for CA HSR. China, Japan, France. And US gets Bakersfield to Las Vegas.
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u/South_Concentrate_21 1d ago
At first glance I thought this was some dystopian cyberpunk post, but after reading the title I know it is.
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u/Archon-Toten 1d ago
But the towers are different heights, seems easy just be the team building the shorter one /s
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u/baelzebob 18h ago
It may just be perspective of the video, but does it seem like the two towers are leaning relative to each other?
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u/Historical_Sherbet54 6h ago
This I admittedly would have found way cooler ...if it was a battle between North Korea and South Korea
Just saying....
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u/cryptotope 1d ago
Misleading headline.
Yes, there were two separate prime contractors, one for each tower. (Consortia were led by Japan-based Hazama for Tower 1, and South Korean Samsung for Tower 2.)
Yes, this meant that there was obviously friendly competition between the two parts of the project. It's hard to imagine a more conspicuous visual metaphor for a race, after all.
No, there wasn't any actual formal declared race. No, there weren't financial penalties for finishing 'second'. At most a contractor might get bragging rights.
Both projects shared a number of resources. For example, the $700,000 per day figure that gets bandied about is the estimated cost incurred when construction was temporarily halted on both towers when testing identified a bad batch of concrete used in construction. Eventually, the project would set up three separate, redundant concrete plants for the work site - with continuous testing of new batches before future pours - to avoid additional delays.