25 July 2024

towering in the city

Three very different towers for today's Thursday Postcard Hunt, each, in their own way helping you to orientate yourself in their respective cities

First up is in Kuala Lumpur,  the Petronas Twin Towers (aka KLCC - Kuala Lumpur City Centre - Twin Towers), an interlinked pair of 88 storey skyscrapers which are visible from many places in the city.  Completed in 1996 in a Postmodern Islamist style.  As well as offices, a shopping mall, an oceanarium and a park inside the towers, there is that double decker skybridge at levels 41 and 42.

Contrast that with this Munttoren, part of one of the original gates in the medieval city wall of Amsterdam.  Built in the late 1400s, much of it was destroyed in a fire in 1618, and rebuilt in Amsterdam Renaissance style in 1620 with four clockfaces and a carillon of bells.  The bells chime every quarter hour.
Fun fact, when I lived in Amsterdam and still getting used to the horseshoe shaped streets and canals, I would often get disoriented and only realize it when I was back at the Munt for the nth time.  It was my first time living in a city that was not laid out in a grid pattern and it took me a looong time to get used to it!


Lastly, there is the CN Tower in Toronto.  The land it stands on was reclaimed from Lake Ontario, so while you can see it for miles you know that there is not much south of the tower except the lake.  It opened in 1976.  Today it is not so isolated as it appears in this 1980s postcard and many, many super tall buildings have gone up on the waterfront.  It is hard to remember that those two black buildings just to the right were once the tallest buildings when they were built in the late 1960s!

5 comments:

  1. I’ve only had the chance to see the Petronas Twin Towers in person so far! I was lucky enough to have a hotel room with an amazing view of them during a work conference in KL. Just like you said, they're incredible landmarks. They definitely helped me find my way around the bustling shopping and food scene nearby.

    Towers of Enigmatic Smiles

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  2. I can empathize with your unintended circular walk in Amsterdam as I have no sense of direction.
    My towers are here

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  3. Towers are certainly impressive, but I would not go up in ones as tall as the Petronas ones!

    My more humble towers are here:

    https://lisasgardenadventureinoregon.blogspot.com/2024/07/thursday-postcard-hunt-towers.html

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  4. Woah, the Petronas Twin Towers are impressive but scary to me: too high. The Amsterdam tower is more like my kind of tower :-)

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  5. Very impressive towers, and certainly waymarks when you get lost!

    My tower is different, but I hope you will find it interesting as well. See it here.

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