Wikipedia
KOMTAR Tower, or Menara KOMTAR Complex is Penang's tallest building and the sixth tallest building in Malaysia located in the heart of George Town, dominating the island's skyline. KOMTAR is an acronym for Kompleks Tun Abdul Razak. When the skyscraper topped out (reached full height during construction phase), it was the second tallest building in Asia after Sunshine 60 in Tokyo. KOMTAR was still Malaysia's tallest building for 3 years before it was surpassed by Menara Maybank in Kuala Lumpur in 1988. It remains as Penang's tallest building since 1985 at a height of .
KOMTAR is a multipurpose complex consisting of retail outlets, transportation hub and administrative offices for the Penang State Government. An acronym for Kompleks Tun Abdul Razak, KOMTAR was named after Tun Abdul Razak bin Hussein Al-Haj, the second prime minister of Malaysia, who officiated in the piling of Phase 1 on 1 January 1974. It bears the same name as Kompleks Tun Abdul Razak in Johor Bahru, built about the same time but on a smaller scale. The Johor Bahru KOMTAR only has 25 storeys.
The 65-storey tower is a 12-sided geometric block atop a 4-storey podium. The complex comprises office and retail commercial space as well as public and recreational facilities. It was designed by Architects Team 3 (AT3) of Singapore. and designed and constructed with local expertise, also a geodesic dome of Buckminster Fuller's design. The architect involved in the design of the building was Datuk Seri Lim Chong Keat, the younger brother of Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu.
KOMTAR is a reminder of Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu’s vision for Penang. It is cutting-edge in its concepts and design, as never before had such a massive urban regeneration project of this type been undertaken in Malaysia, which placed social and administrative benefits at the heart of its planning. Penang was in a state of decline when Dr Lim became the Chief Minister of Penang, whose home state was stripped of its entreport status years earlier. The Robert Nathan report that was commissioned before Dr Lim took office was completed during his tenure. Whilst the report did not include any physical plans, it alluded to the need for urban renewal.
As Datuk Seri Lim Chong Keat, the principal architect and director of the KOMTAR development consortium, recounted in 2016, Dr Lim Chong Eu saw that it was his responsibility to ensure that the appointed consultants were competent and of the national and international standing necessary to undertake it. The original documents show that the project was not just about urban development but heritage conservation and the revitalisation of George Town, of the real residual people of the city. The Central Area Planning Unit (CAPU) was formed to integrate the input of the consultants and staff from the city and the state. Although Team 3 carried the major thrust, other experts including social researchers from University of Science, Malaysia (USM) and a traffic consultant were brought into the group. It was a fairly total planning package, done at a time prior to Malaysia adopting the Town and Country Act that was promulgated only in 1976. These pioneered recommendations for urban revitalisation and conservation led to proposals for the Penang Urban Centre, later called KOMTAR.
KOMTAR occupies an 11-hectare site and is the single most ambitious urban renewal project undertaken by Penang Development Corporation, the development arm of the Penang state government. The master plan is divided into five phases for implementation.