Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur
KLCC Park is the 50-acre (20-hectare) garden at the foot of the Petronas Twin Towers, opened on 29 August 1998 by Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad on land that had been the Selangor Turf Club racecourse from 1896 to 1992. It was the final major work of celebrated Brazilian landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx, who died in 1994 before its completion, and his only project in Asia. Designed as a green counterweight to the towers, the park combines a 1.3-kilometre jogging track, a two-acre children's playground and wading pool, and Lake Symphony, a 10,000-square-metre lake whose fountains stage nightly light-and-water shows.
Taman KLCC
Official Malay name
1896
The Selangor Turf Club opens its racecourse on the site, which hosts horse racing at the edge of central Kuala Lumpur for nearly a century.
1992
Racing ends as the turf club makes way for the Kuala Lumpur City Centre master plan, which reserves roughly half of the 100-acre site for a public park rather than buildings.
1993
Roberto Burle Marx, the Brazilian modernist regarded as the father of tropical landscape architecture, designs the park, insisting on native Malaysian trees and sinuous, painterly ground patterns. It becomes his only commission in Asia and his last major work; he dies in June 1994 before it is built.
29 August 1998
Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad officially opens KLCC Park, completing the first phase of the KLCC development alongside the Petronas Twin Towers and Suria KLCC.
1990s
Masjid Asy-Syakirin is built within the park grounds, giving the precinct its own mosque steps from the towers.
Today
The park's canopy has matured into a shaded urban forest of around 1,900 trees from dozens of native species, and Lake Symphony's nightly fountain shows have become one of Kuala Lumpur's most photographed free attractions.
Burle Marx design
The swirling paths, biomorphic lawns, and bold planting are signatures of Roberto Burle Marx, whose park designs treated landscape as abstract painting. KLCC Park was his final major work and sole Asian project.
Lake Symphony
A 10,000-square-metre man-made lake in front of Suria KLCC whose fountains fire water up to 42 metres high, choreographed to music and lights in free evening shows.
Native tree collection
Burle Marx specified indigenous Malaysian species; around 1,900 trees were planted, conceived partly as a living conservation collection in the middle of the new financial district.
Jogging track and playground
A 1.3-kilometre rubberised loop circles the park beneath the towers, alongside a two-acre children's playground and a public wading pool.
Masjid Asy-Syakirin
The KLCC precinct's mosque sits within the park's greenery, its dome framed against the Twin Towers.
Racecourse heritage
For almost a century this was the Selangor Turf Club's track; the decision to return half the racecourse land to the public as parkland shaped the entire KLCC master plan.
Brazilian landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx, widely regarded as the father of modern tropical landscape design. KLCC Park was his only project in Asia and his final major work; he died in June 1994, four years before the park opened.
It was officially opened on 29 August 1998 by Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, as part of the first completed phase of the Kuala Lumpur City Centre development.
The land was the Selangor Turf Club's horse racing course from 1896 until 1992. When the racecourse was redeveloped into the KLCC project, roughly half of the site was deliberately set aside as public parkland.
It is the 10,000-square-metre artificial lake between the park and Suria KLCC. Its fountain system can shoot water up to 42 metres and performs free choreographed water, light, and music shows each evening.
Largely yes. Burle Marx planned the planting around indigenous Malaysian species, and around 1,900 trees were planted so the park would double as a conservation collection of native flora in the heart of the city.
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