(FORTUNE Magazine) – In architecture, as in all things, human beings have been forever trying to outdo one another. But it was the arrival of steel near the end of the 19th century that let the game begin in earnest. In a way that brick or stone was not, steel was the perfect tool for getting over on the next guy--and since 1885, when William Le Baron Jenney finished the ten-story Home Insurance Co. building in Chicago, the drive to build the tallest tower has been the architectural expression of man's greediest, club-banging instincts. That's nothing to be proud of--it's clannish, tribal. But proud we are. For much of the century, the duel was between Chicago and New York (although the 1,000-foot Eiffel Tower, completed in 1889, was the world's tallest structure until 1929). By this decade, the playing field had moved east. Way east. At 88 stories, or 1,483 feet, the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur are the tallest on earth--and perfectly adapted to Malaysian soil. "Skyscrapers were born in cold climates, so the walls were glassy and taut to maximize light," explains architect Cesar Pelli. "But in the tropics the sun is less welcome." Pelli therefore designed the towers' glass-and-stainless-steel exteriors as a kind of crenelated skin that would break up the sun. In cross section, each building takes the form of an eight-pointed star, one of the ancient symbols of Islam.

When construction began in 1991, the towers symbolized the sky's-the-limit confidence of booming Southeast Asia. Today they stand as a reminder of how quickly things can change. One of the twins remains more than half empty, and the $1.6 billion megaproject was rescued only when Petronas, the state-owned oil giant, opted to colonize one entire tower. Other firms, McKinsey and Reuters to name two, are slowly following suit--drawn less perhaps by the concert hall in the lobby than by the introductory rent-free holidays. In any case, it's a nice address. Look for more tall buildings in upcoming issues of FORTUNE.