Menara IMC Tower
Menara IMC Tower
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
The Menara IMC Tower, a corporate headquarters in Malaysia, demonstrates that office buildings can foremost be places for people. This 30 story tower is distinctive not only for its architecture, but for amenities that foster health and harmony in the workplace.
Tsao & McKown initiated and recommended a range of amenities for the project such as day care and employee dining, which were ultimately incorporated. As Malaysia has a predominantly Muslim population, Tsao & McKown also suggested accommodations not previously considered, such as creating small prayer rooms out of secondary spaces in the core, and integrating designs in the carpeting and stone paving to indicate the direction of Mecca, obviating the need for the typical solution at that time: arrows painted in ad hoc fashion on ceilings.
In the eyes of many, the project’s most important accomplishment was the development of a workable design concept to preserve a storied 100 year-old banyan tree that occupied nearly a quarter of the site. The owner, local architects, and even the authorities had all maintained that the tree would need to come down. The tree’s preservation, and moreover the integration of its massive trunk and canopy into the building’s entry sequence, was a triumphant symbol of environmental conservation, and has resulted in a place of beauty that tenants and city alike can share.
