Komtar

The Tun Abdul Razak Complex (abbrev. Komtar), formerly the Penang Urban Centre, is a civic complex within the central business district of George Town in the Malaysian state of Penang. At the time of its completion in 1985, Komtar Tower, at 231.7 metres (760 ft), was the second tallest building in Asia and the tallest in Southeast Asia until 1986 when it was surpassed by One Raffles Place in Singapore. Other buildings in the complex include a hotel building, four shopping malls, an urban park, and a central transportation hub. The complex contains 1,420,000 square feet (132,000 m²) of office and retail space on a 27-acre (11 ha) superblock. It currently houses the administrative offices of the Penang state government and the chief minister of Penang.

The main complex was built between 1974 and 1986, at an initial cost of RM279.5 million (equivalent to RM642.5 million in 2023). Plans for a civic and commercial complex within central George Town were first proposed by the state government in 1962 and were approved in 1969 by Chief Minister Lim Chong Eu. The project was extensively studied in 1971 and was implemented by the Penang Development Corporation in 1972. The modernist complex and skyscraper were designed by Lim Chong Keat, and were to be built in five phases, although only two were completed in their original form. The three phases were later repurposed and built in separate periods between 1996 and 2019. Renovations of the main complex in 2015 extended the height of the building to 249 metres (817 ft).

Receptions of Komtar's construction are mixed. Described as a "city within a city", the complex was seen as ahead of its time, and was the largest urban regeneration project in Malaysian history. Despite this, it ultimately failed to achieve its aims of rejuvenation. Komtar was also controversial for causing mass urban displacements and the demolition of a portion of the city's heritage quarter, leading to a rise of opposition that indirectly led to the creation of the heritage preservation movement in Penang. In its later years, the complex was plagued by neglect and dilapidation from insufficient maintenance. Despite its controversial status, Komtar has come to symbolise Penang's post-industrialisation prosperity and is one of the most recognised landmarks of George Town. It is also hailed as the last "great national symbols of the 1970s".