Borneo’s tallest building

snapshot

Standing tall and proud right at the edge of a section of coastline like a beacon for all to see is the newly renamed – as of August 26, 2021 – Menara Kinabalu (Kinabalu Tower). Impossible to miss, this silent sentinel oversees all within its jurisdictional purview literally and figuratively, in its role as the administrative centre for the Malaysian state of Sabah. With a single tower that stretches 33-storeys skywards, and flanked on both sides by accompanying 9-storey office buildings, this structure in tandem with its renaming was formally recognised as the tallest work of architecture on the Island of Borneo, claiming the title over the previous holder, Sarawak’s Wisma Sanyan in Sibu. Housing the offices of the state’s chief minister and other members of his cabinet, the building resides by the blue waters and coral-fringed coast of the Likas Bay, and is just an 8.5-kilometre drive from the capital city of Kota Kinabalu.

Alan Thien