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By Himanshu Bhatt. SOME time in the 1880s, the city of Paris saw angry protests after authorities approved a shocking design for a super-tall iron structure to grace the entrance of a world fair the city was hosting. When the Eiffel Tower was completed in 1889 for the Exposition Universelle, it was viewed by many locals with disgust; it was regarded as an eyesore, an ugly metallic mesh that rose rudely above, intruding into the beautiful architectural vistas of their beloved city. It was, in the words of the writer Leon Bloy, a "truly tragic street lamp". But within just a few decades, opposition against the structure – the tallest in the world at that time – faded and was largely forgotten, as it quickly grew in stature to become an engineering marvel and a pride of France.
How we wish this was also true in Malaysia, of another structure built smack in the middle of the beautiful city of George Town. When the 65-storey Komtar Tower was envisaged in the 1980s, it was greeted with howls of protest from heritage conservationists and NGOs. But the Penang government insisted that the building – the tallest in Asia when it was topped up, only to be overtaken very soon by the Korean Life Insurance Building in Seoul – would herald a modern turning point for the state. Indeed, completed in 1986, Komtar was meticulously thought out in its design, and till today it is probably one of the finest examples of functional architecture for skyscrapers. Conceived in a tubular format, with its habitation spaces and circulation pathways conceived around elevator shafts that zip up and down through the centre of the building, the design provides an ease of mobility within the tower proper that is not seen in many other tall buildings; even as it gives its occupants an abiding circular panorama of the landscape of Penang. With its shopping podium block, a giant geodesic dome (designed by the revered architect Buckminster Fuller) as a multi-purpose hall, and an auditorium with acoustics splendidly designed to house a chamber orchestra, Komtar was supposed to mark a fresh beginning in the socio-economic and cultural character of the state. But now, some 25 years after it came up, there are many who say the tower has not lived up fully to what it was envisaged to be. Many blame poor maintenance culture and shoddy upkeep policies. Some insist that the aesthetics of the giant structure could have been more symbolic or inspiring due to its iconic visibility above the island’s skyline. Others point to the loss of the many heritage buildings that were forced to be demolished, and the eviction of long-time residents, to make way for the structure. Many rue the disappearance of cultural landmarks; three popular theatres – Paramount, Royal and Eastern – used to stand around the site of the Prangin Mall which was built as a new phase of the Komtar project in the 1990s. And only recently, the century-old Prangin market further away was demolished for the latest phase, taking away a historic life-blood of the inner-city’s inhabitants. But there has been an interesting development of late. The Penang government has put into motion a bid to revive Komtar to the iconic glory it was intended to exude, and the cultural and economic hive that it was meant to be. The plan has got eyeballs rolling in all directions; it has been greeted with both scepticism and guarded hope. It features an ambitious facelift that includes, among other things, a spectacular outdoor bubble-lift, to transport visitors from the fifth storey directly to the uppermost floors. Added to that is a plan for an open-air viewing deck on the tower’s flat rooftop which was originally designed as a helipad. At the heart of the new plan is a desire to rejuvenate accessibility and invigorate the geodesic dome, and the vast open spaces of the complex that are now idle. Komtar certainly makes an intriguing specimen for architectural and urban studies; of how the old has been made to live with the aspiring new, of how an original vision espoused to be noble has been sullied by an improper management culture and a marked absence of continuity of spirit. The state has now strutted its dreams; that the skyscraper would now be truly made a landmark, in the same vein as the Burj Khalifa is for Dubai, Taipei 101 for Taiwan or the Shanghai World Financial Centre is for China. But it remains to be seen if the Komtar Tower does indeed achieve such an enviable stature, or is simply left to become – unlike the Eiffel which shook off all initial disdain towards it – a "truly tragic street lamp". ** Republished with permission. This article first appeared in the August 19, 2010, issue of theSun. Himanshu is the theSun's bureau chief.
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