The Tun Abdul Razak Complex ( ) is a civic complex of five buildings within the central business district of George Town, Penang. It first opened on 2 December 1976. At the time of its completion in 1985, the central skyscraper of the complex, Komtar Tower, at , was the tallest skyscraper in Southeast Asia. The complex contains of office and retail space on a superblock. It is a major bus terminal for Rapid Penang, and the seat of the Penang state government and the chief minister of Penang.
The modernist complex was built between 1974 and 1986 at an initial cost of RM279.5 million (equivalent to RM642.5 million in 2023). The complex was proposed by chief minister Lim Chong Eu in 1969, while his brother Chong Keat designed the complex. It was planned to be built in five phases, although only two were completed in their original form. The remaining three phases were repurposed as Prangin Mall, 1st Avenue, and the Sia Boey Urban Archaeological Park and were built between 1996 and 2019. Renovations in 2015 extended the height of KOMTAR Tower to .
Described as a "city within a city", the design of the complex was radical and utopian for its time, and was the largest urban regeneration project in Malaysian history. However, it ultimately failed to achieve its objective of rejuvenating George Town's city centre. The construction of the complex was also criticised for demolishing a portion of the city's heritage quarters which displaced thousands of residents. Starting from the late-1990s, the complex was neglected due to insufficient maintenance. Despite these circumstances, KOMTAR is Penang's most famous landmark and is seen as a symbol of the state's post-industrialisation prosperity.
Background
Site
The site Komtar now occupies was a stretch of the Prangin River, which ran through a swamp. In 1804, the construction of the Prangin Canal began under directions from the British East India Company. The canal was built for agricultural and commercial uses, and marked the furthest boundaries of George Town at the time. Due to its location, the Malays referred to it as Ujong Pasir, while the Chinese called it Sia Boey, both carrying the same meaning of the "end of the village". In 1806, a marketplace was set up at Sia Boey, which evolved into the Sia Boey Market. Since the 1880s, the market centered around an iron market hall, which operated until 2004.
Adjacent to Sia Boey was Magazine Circus, a roundabout converging on a junction of six major roads. The Malays named it Simpang Enam ("the six-way junction"), while the Chinese called it Go Pha Teng ("the five lamps"), referencing street lamps set up at the junction. In 1928, the first traffic lights in Penang were set up at the roundabout. Sia Boey was severely bombed during Japanese raids during the start of the Malayan campaign, killing hundreds.
Creation of Komtar George Town was established as a free port in 1786 and served as a major entrepôt in British Malaya, trading spices and tin. It was also the first port of call east of the Indian subcontinent. After Malayan independence, the federal government shifted commercial and trading activities to Kuala Lumpur, intending to focus on the development of Port Klang. In 1966, federal amendments to customs made the free port status redundant, and in 1969 the status was formally revoked. These policy changes led to massive unemployment and brain drain within the city, creating a period of recession and urban decay in Penang throughout the 1960s.
Amidst rising discontent, during the 1969 general elections, the ruling Alliance Party led by chief minister Wong Pow Nee was voted out in Penang and replaced by the opposition Malaysian People's Movement Party (Gerakan), with Lim Chong Eu sworn in as chief minister. To address these challenges, Lim established the Penang Development Corporation (PDC) in November 1969 as a development arm of the state government.
As early as 1962, the Penang state government proposed to develop a hawker centre in an area around Prangin Road. Malayan architecture firm Malayan Architects Co-Partnership was contracted for the project, but it stalled within months. PDC designated four sites within George Town in late-1969 as "comprehensive development areas" for urban redevelopment, which included the construction of low-cost flats on reclaimed land and urban renewal programmes. It then created a "central area planning unit" (CAPU) for monitoring residential and highway infrastructural projects in the city, which redesignated the 1962 hawker centre proposal into a civic centre known as the Central Area Redevelopment Plan, the precursor project of Komtar.
History
Design
Komtar was conceived to be a step in 1970s "progressive" urban planning of the Penang state government. It was expected to ease congestion and remove urban slums from George Town's city centre which appeared after the 1960s recession.
According to Lim Chong Eu, the complex was a "sign of collaboration" between the federal government and Penang. It was given priority in the New Economic Policy championed under the administration of Abdul Razak Hussein, who said that this project "will change the outlook of George Town from a colonial heritage to a city reflecting a Malaysian society".
Plans for a civic centre in central George Town were announced publicly as early as 18 November 1970 as the Penang Urban Centre. The state government selected Singaporean architectural firm Architects Team Three (AT3) for the CAPU, with Lim Chong Eu's brother Chong Keat as its lead architect. Ove Arup was selected as the civil and structural engineer.
Although Lim Chong Keat established his reputation in Singapore through the Jurong Town Hall and the DBS Building, the selection was accused of being nepotistic. Consultation fees for all development firms in the CAPU including AT3 amounted to RM4.8 million in 1974, a figure disputed by opposition politicians who alleged that RM10 million was paid to AT3 alone. Throughout 1971, the CAPU conducted extensive planning studies for the project. A report dated August 1972 noted that the project should be located on a site bounded by Penang Road, Prangin Road, Magazine Road and Beach Street, with parking for 3,000 vehicles. Academics from the University of Penang and a traffic consultant provided additional input for the project.
Lim Chong Keat designed the entire complex in five phases, where the main structure occupies the first two. Location-wise, it was designed to link with a then-proposed coastal highway system that leads southwards to a cross-strait linkage and the Penang International Airport. Construction of the first phase was projected to raise the total revenue in the region from RM114,000 in 1974 to RM3 million in 1984, which was planned as funds for maintenance and upkeep for the complex's amenities.
Phase one
Phase one involves the construction of a four-storey podium, a geodesic dome, and a 60-storey central skyscraper covering an area of .
The complex's podium was designed to rejuvenate George Town's declining inner-city economy with a Western-style shopping mall for middle-class residents from the city's outer suburbs. The shopping mall contained of retail space. Elsewhere, the podium houses a bus terminal, a public theater, a national archives, a police and fire station, and a rooftop indoor orchid garden with a reflective pool. A hotel for travelers was planned at the third floor. Six pairs of escalators are installed in the podium.
The geodesic dome, influenced by the designs of Buckminster Fuller, a special consultant of the CAPU, is positioned above the podium directly adjacent to the reflective pool. The dome is in diameter, and contains a multipurpose hall with 1,875 seats. It was designed as a column-free structure made from aluminum prefabricated from computer designs. The interior of the dome is covered with K-13 spray foam for better indoor acoustics.
Initial plans for the skyscraper involved a 12-sided cylinder column 45 or 47 stories tall in two stages. It contained of office space. The foundations of the skyscraper are designed to support 60 storeys for potential extensions, which became the actual height reported in promotional materials as early as 1975. Thirty-two high speed lifts are fitted in the complex, including 24 in the skyscraper, each capable of travelling at per minute.
Phase two Phase two involves the extension of phase one's retail podium with of retail space and several civic amenities. To accommodate the displaced residents from the construction site, three 17-storey apartment blocks were allocated for the two phases. The first block, with 194 flats, is designed as a "controlled social programme" planned and sold for selected families of mixed races. In total, the three apartment blocks can house 800 households, with an emphasis on accommodating lower-income groups. These communities would link to a clubhouse, a library, communal swimming pools, and several cafes, where access corridors between them are thought of as "streets". All three residential blocks are connected with enclosed bridges on the ninth floor.
Preparations
In 1972, PDC began preparations for phase one. The City Council and state government owned of land for its construction. Between 1972 and 1973, the state government acquired the necessary land available, predominantly from inherited landlords of the Straits Chinese elite. The total cost of land and property acquisitions was estimated at RM26.2 million in 1977 (RM100.6 million in 2023 value).
Demolition works at acquired sites involved 769 houses, 304 shops, 14 factories, four cinemas, three schools, a vehicles' office, a post station and a fire station. The process evicted 3,175 residents to the city's outer suburbs, including Jelutong, Bayan Baru and the PDC-funded Macallum Street Ghaut. The Magazine Circus and most of Gladstone Road was removed. By 1973, the state government projected the total cost of the entire complex at RM200 million (RM1.04 billion in 2023 value); phase one at RM77.6 million, with RM40.8 million allocated for the skyscraper. The call of tender for the project's construction concluded in December 1973.
Construction Komtar is supported by a three-metre thick reinforced concrete raft foundation, with 860 composite piles up to deep. These enabled the complex to be resistant to tremors up to four on the Modified Mercalli scale. Piling works of the complex concluded at the end of 1973. Construction of the complex began on 1 January 1974 in a ceremony officiated by Abdul Razak Hussein. It took place on a site, which involves 70 units of retail and office space, where 34 per cent of the total area was reserved to bumiputeras. A two-week exhibition regarding the urban scheme was held near the construction site from 10 to 24 January 1974. In May 1974, work progressed to the skyscraper.
Construction of phase one was carried out in four stages (phases 1AD). Phase 1A, the four-storey retail podium, was planned to be completed by October 1976. It received a soft opening on 2 December 1976. Piling works for phase 1B, an extension of the podium and the central skyscraper began in November 1975. It was initially expected that the next three stages would be completed by September 1978, 1979, and 1980 respectively, with the skyscraper topping out in 1981. However, the complex suffered repeated delays, with phase 1B delayed to July 1979 and again to June 1980. Starting from late-1975, hampered by delays, building costs inflated dramatically, with costs rising almost 15 per cent annually as delays progressed. The initial budget for phase one had risen to RM136.2 million by May 1975, and to RM151.8 million by September 1979. Similarly, construction of the central skyscraper was delayed, as stage one (up to the 29th storey) was scheduled for completion by September 1981, and stage two (29th47th storey) by February 1983.