122
72
ALUMINIUM SUN SCRE
RISING 197 feet 3 inches above
ground level, the main office tower of the American International Assurance Company Ltd. building, now going up in Ampang Road, Kuala Lumpur, will dominate the many new projects under construc- tion in this bustling capital of the Federation of Malaya.
This $M10,000.000 project stands on a site of nearly three acres where once stood two mansions belonging to the pioneer business family of the late Mr. Loke Yew. In one of the mansions Mr. Alan Loke, a son of the late Mr. Loke Yew, once en- tertained the Duke of Gloucester and the late Duke of Kent.
This site covers 122,436 square feet and has a frontage of ap- proximately 300 feet to Ampang Road, overlooking the central de- velopment area across the Klang River. Basically the design, carried out by John Graham and Co., of Seattle and New York, in asso- ciation with Palmer and Turner, of Kuala Lumpur, is for two buildings on the site.
K. L. OFFICE T
One is a tower block rising 15 storeys and the other is of a two- storey shopping arcade, one adjoin- ing the other, the ground floor giv- The ing access to both buildings. tower block will have 92,000 square feet of rentable office space and the shop space will give 25,000 square feet of rentable area.
Construction of the whole is in reinforced concrete. The tower block rests on a foundation of 637 piles. each with a working load of 60 tons.
Novel feature of the layout is that there will be parking space for 220 cars on the roof of the shopping arcades, allowing room for cars for tenants of the office block and for shoppers. Between the shopping ar- cades and the main tower a water- fall wil cascade down broad steps into a pool at the Ampang Road level.
For access between the road and concourse levels two escalators will be installed, with a capacity of 5,000 people an hour. For the tower blocks three group controlled pas-
sanger lifts, travelling at 700 feet per second, the fastest ever used in Malaya, and one automatic ser vice lift will be installed.
The whole complex of buildings will be airconditioned from three centrifugal compressors.
Another novel feature in the de sign of the American International Building is the use of an aluminium sun screen something like a gigan tic egg crate placed on the outside of the building.
The need has become pressing in latitudes like Malaya and Hong Kong to devise some method of keeping out the rays of the sun now that the trend in architectural de sign is to eliminate solid walls and replace them with glass. This solu tion not only meets the utilitarian need but can also add to the aes- thetic appeal of the new buildings. This same solution has already been adopted in Kuala Lumpur for the Employees Provident Fund head- quarters, but has not yet been used in Hong Kong.
A/C DUCT
TYPICAL FLOOR
PLAN
DN
LAV.
LAV.
LIFTS
NO
S
DN
A/C DUCT
SCALETOFT
16
48
THE HONG KONG & FAR EAST BUILDER VOLUME 17, NUMBER 2