Cesar Pelli, creator of Malaysia’s Petronas Towers, dies at 92

Buenos Aires, July 20

Cesar Pelli, the Argentine architect and creator of Malaysia’s Petronas Towers and New York’s One World Financial Center, died Friday at the age of 92, his family said.

“I want to send my condolences to the family and friends of the talented Cesar Pelli,” President Mauricio Macri wrote on Twitter.

“The works he leaves throughout the world as a legacy are a pride for all Argentines.”   

After graduating from the University of Tucuman, Pelli left for the US in 1952, where he studied on a scholarship.

He was dean of Yale’s architecture faculty from 1977 to 1984, and counted the American Institute of Architects Gold Medal among his many accolades.

His most high-profile achievement was the Petronas Towers in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur—a 452-metre high structure that was the world’s tallest building when it was completed in 1998.

Pelli’s legacy also includes dozens of theatres and cultural centres across the world, and he oversaw the expansion of New York’s Museum of Modern Art in 1984.

He also designed the International Financial Centre that towers over Hong Kong’s waterfront and the Gran Torre Santiago in Chile.

His last project was the Salesforce Transit Center in San Francisco, a transport hub that lies beneath the city’s tallest skyscraper and blends green space and shopping areas. — AFP