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T&C Tower

The T & C Tower (the Tuntex & Chien-Tai Tower) is the tallest building in Kaohsiung (and until the construction of Taipei 101 in all of Taiwan) and one of the tallest in the world. It is also known as the Tuntex Sky Tower and the Tuntex 85 Sky tower.

Situated in the downtown Ling Ya district the structure is 347 m (1140 feet) high and has 85 floors. Constructed from 1994 to 1996 and opened in 1997 the skyscraper has an unusual 'prong' design with two separate 35-floor lower towers merging into a single central tower rising to a spire, leaving a substantial space below the central tower, the design was inspired by the Chinese character kao from the city name. An antenna pushes the building height to 378 m.

The building is owned by the Tuntex Group (Chien-Tai is a subsidiary) and is mainly offices, but includes residential space, a department store and the Splendor Kaohsiung hotel occupies the 37th to 80th floors. The observation deck is fed by high speed elevators, capable of 600 m/min.

The building was deisgned by C.Y. Lee & Partners and Hellmuth, Obata & Kassabaum