César Pelli, architect who designed Petronas Towers in Malaysia, dies, aged 92

Pelli and his firm’s best-known work is Kuala Lumpur’s Petronas Towers, twin 88-story skyscrapers linked by a 41st-floor sky bridge. Built in 1998 and standing at 452 meters, the glass, steel and reinforced-concrete structure had been one of the world’s tallest buildings. Petronas kept the honour until 2004 and remains a national icon.

“Building a tall skyscraper is one of the best ways for an emerging society to prove it has arrived because not everybody can do it,” Pelli told the New York Times in 2001. “It takes money, political stability and an economy big enough to fill the building when it’s finished.”

The American Institute of Architects in 1991 named Pelli one of the 10 most influential living American architects. His other works include Hong Kong’s International Finance Center complex; several skyscrapers in London’s Canary Wharf business district; and the Pacific Design Center in Los Angeles.

Many of Pelli’s buildings feature colourful or reflective glass and round edges, a deliberate departure from the boxy, straight-edge skyscrapers designed by the previous generation of modern architects. Click here to read more.