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Komtar

The Tun Abdul Razak Complex (abbrev. ), 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 m, 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 1420000 sqft of office and retail space on a 27 acre 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 m.

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".

Site
The site from which Komtar now occupies was originally a stretch of the Prangin River, which ran through a swamp. Upon the outbreak of the Napoleonic Wars, the construction of a defensive stone canal began under probable directions from the British East India Company in 1804. The canal was approximately 50 to 80 ft wide. Its base was constructed with bakau pillars and shorewood and was filled with granite blocks. The canal was meant for agricultural and commercial uses, and marked the furthest boundaries of George Town at the time.

The location of the canal, being at the very end of the town, was first noted by the Malay population under the name Ujong Pasir, and was later remarked by the local Chinese population in Hokkien as Sia Boey, both coincidentally carrying the same meaning of the "end of the village" (other historians suggested that the term Sia Boey might also mean "a place to sell scrap, or cheap sundry"). In 1806, a marketplace was set up at Sia Boey, which evolved into the Sia Boey Market. Since the 1880s, the market centered around an iron market hall, before closing down permanently in 2004. The canal was narrowed in the 1890s to a width of 20 ft and a depth of 5 ft. In the 1930s, the area witnessed an economic boom where new businesses were established along the canal.

Adjacent to the site was the Magazine Circus, a roundabout converging on a junction of six roads – Macalister, Dato' Keramat, Penang, Magazine, Brick Kiln, and Gladstone Road. The Malays named it Simpang Enam ("the six-way junction"), while the Chinese called it Go Pha Teng ("the five lamps"), as a reference to street lamps set up at the junction. In 1928, the first traffic lights in Penang were set up at the roundabout. During the Japanese bombing of Penang in December 1941, Sia Boey Market received a direct hit from a bomb, killing hundreds of market-goers.

Creation of Komtar
In 1962, the Penang state government proposed to develop a hawker centre in an area around Prangin Road. Malayan architecture firm Malayan Architects Co-Partnership was contracted for the project, but it stalled within months.

When Lim Chong Eu took up the position of chief minister in 1969, he was immediately confronted with the rescindment by the Malaysian federal government of George Town's free port status, which sparked massive unemployment, brain drain, and urban decay in the city. As a means to address these challenges, Lim ordered the establishment of the Penang Development Corporation (PDC) as a development arm of the state government. The PDC focused on resolving urban overcrowding by constructing inexpensive multi-storey apartment blocks. Four sites within George Town were designated by the PDC as "Comprehensive Development Areas" for urban redevelopment, which included the construction of low-cost flats on reclaimed land and urban renewal programmes.

In 1969, the PDC approved a "central area planning unit" (CAPU) for monitoring residential and highway infrastructural projects in George Town. Between 1969 and 1970, the original hawker centre proposal around Prangin Road was redesignated by the CAPU as the Central Area Redevelopment Plan, a precursor of Komtar.

Design
In 1970, the state government selected Singaporean architectural firm Architects Team Three (AT3) for the CAPU, with Lim Chong Keat as the lead architect. Ove Arup was selected as the civil and structural engineer for the project. Plans for a new urban centre was first announced publicly on 18 November 1970. The CAPU conducted extensive planning studies of the Urban Centre in 1971. It was concluded in August 1972 that the recommended site of the urban centre should be bounded by the Penang, Prangin, Magazine Roads and Beach Street, on a site 22.4 acre in area, with parking for 3,000 vehicles. Additional input from CAPU were made from experts in the University of Penang and a traffic consultant.

Planning of the complex is divided into five different phases; the main complex occupies the first two phases. Phase one, with 301000 sqft in land area, involved a four-storey retail podium, a geodesic dome, and a central skyscraper. It was aimed at combating against the declining inner-city trade after the 1960s, by integrating a commercial district into the civic centre with a Western-style shopping arcade, where emerging middle-class shoppers living in the city's suburbs can shop in. The shopping arcade, which occupies three out of four-storeys of the podium, contains 460000 sqft of retail space. The podium also houses a bus terminal, a public theater, national archives, police and fire stations, and a rooftop indoor orchid garden with a reflective pool. A hotel for travelers, known as the Hotel De Jour, would be within the third floor of the podium.

A geodesic dome is positioned above the podium. The geodesic dome, positioned directly adjacent to the reflective pool, was originally 48 m in diameter and designed as a multipurpose hall with 1,875 seats. It was designed as an all-aluminium, column-free structure, entirely prefabricated from computer designs. The interior of the structure was covered with K-13 spray foam for better indoor acoustics. The dome was influenced by the designs of Buckminster Fuller – a special consultant of the CAPU who supervised its construction. The skyscraper carries in the form of a 45 or 47 storey 12-sided cylinder column divided into two stages, and was designed with 640000 sqft of office space. The foundations of the tower block are capable of supporting 65 storeys for future developments. Thirty-two high speed lifts are fitted in the complex, with 24 in the tower, each capable of travelling at 1200 ft per minute; while six pairs of escalators are installed in the podium.

The second phase involves the extension of the podium, with 2000000 sqft of retail space and several civic amenities. To accommodate the displaced residents from the construction site, three 17-storey apartment blocks were allocated for the two phases. The first block, with 194 flats, is designed as a "controlled social programme", planned and sold for selected families of mixed races; these blocks also house several amenities, where access corridors between them are thought of as "streets". The three apartment blocks would house 800 households, with an emphasis on accommodating lower-income groups. These communities would be linked to a clubhouse, a library, communal swimming pools, and several cafes. All three residential blocks are connected with enclosed bridges on the ninth floor. Under Lim Chong Eu's vision, the Urban Centre is conceived to be a step in "progressive" urban planning on behalf of the Penang state government. The centre was expected to ease congestion and clear the slums from George Town's city centre which sprung up after the 1960s recession. The complex was described by Lim as a "sign of collaboration" between the federal government and the Penang state government, and "marks a new era for the city of George Town". It was given priority in the New Economic Policy championed under Prime Minister Abdul Razak's administration, who stated that the success of this project "will change the outlook of George Town from a colonial heritage to a city reflecting a Malaysian society".

Location-wise, it was designed to link with a new coastal highway system that leads to a cross-strait linkage and the Penang International Airport. Construction of phase one was projected to raise the total revenue in the region from RM114,000 in 1974 to RM3 million in 1984, which would be used as funds for maintenance and upkeep for the civic centre's amenities.

Construction (1972–1986)
In 1972, the PDC began the implementation of phase one of the master plan. 182516 sqft of land was owned by the City Council and state government for the construction of phase one. Between 1972 and 1973, the state government acquired the necessary land for construction, predominantly from inherited landlords of the Straits Chinese elite. The total cost of the land and property acquisition was estimated at RM26.2 million in 1977.

Before the construction, an estimated 769 residential units, 304 shops, 14 industries, four cinemas, three schools, a vehicles' office, a post station and a fire station around the site were demolished. The demolition displaced 3,175 residents to other parts of the city, including Jelutong, Bayan Baru and the PDC-funded Macallum Street Ghaut neighbourhood. The Magazine Circus and a huge section of Gladstone Road was removed as well. By 1973, the state government projected the total cost of the entire complex at RM200 million (RM1.04 billion in 2023 value); phase one at RM77.6 million, with RM40.8 million allocated for the skyscraper. The call of tender for the project's construction concluded in December that year.Piling works of the complex concluded at the end of 1973. Groundwork of the complex was supported by a three-metre thick reinforced concrete raft foundation, with 860 composite piles up to 54 m deep. These enabled the complex to be resistant to tremors up to four on the Modified Mercalli scale. Actual construction began on 1 January 1974, in a ceremony officiated by Malaysian prime minister Abdul Razak Hussein. It took place on a 0.4 ha site, which involves 70 units of retail and office space, where 34 per cent of the total area was reserved to bumiputeras. A two-week exhibition regarding the urban scheme was held near the construction site between 10 and 24 January 1974. In May 1974, work progressed to the main tower block. Construction of phase one was divided into four stages (phases 1A, 1B, 1C, and 1D). Phase 1A, a four-storey retail podium, was planned to be completed by October 1976. It received a soft opening on 2 December 1976. Piling works for phase 1B, which consists of an extension of the four-storey podium and a skyscraper, began in November 1975. Initially, it was expected that the next three stages would be completed by September 1978, 1979, and 1980 respectively, while the skyscraper would top out in 1981. However, the complex was plagued by repeated delays, with phase 1B delayed to July 1979 and later to June 1980. Starting from late-1975, hampered by delays, building costs inflated dramatically, with costs rising almost 15 per cent annually as delays progressed. The initial budget for phase one had risen to RM136.2 million by May 1975, and to RM151.8 million by September 1979. Construction of the tower block was delayed as well, with stage one (up to the 29th storey) scheduled for completion by September 1981, and stage two (29th to 47th storey) for February 1983. In January 1983, construction moved to phase two, which was subdivided into five stages; an electric substation (phase 2A), a department complex (phase 2B), an 11-storey car park with 750 parking spaces (phase 2C), the geodesic dome (phase 2D) and an 11 acre rooftop garden above the main podium (phase 2E). The total cost of the second phase was estimated at RM110 million. A further RM7 million was allocated for the geodesic dome. However, work was abruptly halted when a major fire broke out on the tower between 23 and 24 January, which gutted the 41st to 47th floors. The fire was reportedly visible across the Penang Strait at Perai, and required the mobilisation of fire fighting units as far as Nibong Tebal. Investigations determined that it was likely caused by welding sparks.

Construction resumed by mid-1983, reaching the 60th floor by 1984. The skyscraper structurally topped out at the 65th floor on 1 January 1985. In May 1985, plans for the apartment blocks were scrapped and replaced with a single hotel building. The hotel opened as the Shangri-La Inn in 1986. The main framework for the geodesic dome was completed and inaugurated in July by Tunku Abdul Rahman. A pedestrian mall was constructed in mid-1990 as the final adjoining part of phase two, occupying half of Maxwell Road and the Prangin Canal, forcing the remnants of the adjacent Prangin Road to merge into a one road. By 1990 the total cost of the first two phases rose to RM279.5 million (RM642.5 million in 2023 value), even though the state government only collected RM185 million (RM425 million in 2023 value) in revenue from the entire project.

Expansion (1990–2001)
Plans for phases 2E, three, and four were first drafted in 1990–1991. As early as 1989, a parcel of land situated at the junction of Prangin Road and Penang Road, designated phase 2E of the complex, was put up for sale. In 1991, Malaysian retail chain Metrojaya submitted plans for Metro Plaza, a six-storey department complex for phase 2E. The complex was to cost RM47 million with 340000 sqft of retail space. Metrojaya would acquire parcels of land necessary within that year.

In early-1992, the project was scaled down to a five-storey department complex with 312000 sqft of built-up area, with parking for 240 cars and a staff of 650. Preparation of Metro Plaza began in 1992 with the demolition of the Capitol Theatre and ten other businesses which sat at the site, while construction was projected to complete within three years. The site remained dormant as of 1995 and it was only in 1996 that talks of construction resumed.

For phase three, Japanese retail group Yaohan proposed to build a nine-storey RM129 million department complex, which was to be completed by 1993. The project sat on an 84000 sqft plot of land running largely parallel to the Prangin Canal, next to phase 2E, and was to be built by Kumagai Gumi. In 1992, citing its inability to allow majority local participation of the project as required, Yaohan rescinded the 1990 agreement, which led to a private takeover of the site by Lion Group. Demolition works for the site, which began in 1992, involved twelve shophouses, which became a "temporary" parking lot until December 1996. In November 1996, the state government issued a construction ban of all structures beyond five storeys within the city-centre, threatening phase three's cancellation. Eventually, Lion Group submitted an updated proposal in 1997, featuring a RM170 million 10-storey shopping complex named Mutiara Parade, which was approved with construction slated to start later that year and expected to finish by 1999.

Phase four was an extension of the pedestrian mall, stretching 100 m beyond Carnavon Street while removing the remnants of the partially cleared Maxwell Road. In 1990, 155 traders along Prangin Road were relocated to within Komtar and Chowrasta Market in preparation for phase four. Subsequently, the extension was cancelled in favour of Prangin Mall, a 1500000 sqft shopping complex at a cost of RM200 million. The complex was proposed to equip 73 escalators, two "bubble" lifts, an international food centre, six Parisian cafés, a garden mall and four cinemas with a combined total of 1,800 seats. Excavation works for Prangin Mall began in 1996. In December, while piling works were undertaken at the site, nearby residents lodged a police report, disclosing that cracks began to surface on over a hundred houses in surrounding areas and that ground subsidence was sighted. Komtar reported similar occurrences, even though officials stated that the complex was not under danger. Investigations by the Malaysian Public Works Institute (Ikram) and Penang state government concluded that excavation and piling works at the Prangin Mall site led to the migration of underground water away from the city centre, leading to subsidence of the surrounding soil. As a response, the state government requested Prangin Mall's developers to submit a geotechnical report on the flaw, although the report did not reach state officials until February 1997. On 30 January, citing the developers' failure of compliance, Ikram issued a stop work order on Prangin Mall. Ikram later expanded the stop work order to phase three, noting similar circumstances.

By March 1997, there were over three hundred reports of houses with cracks. Following this, the developers submitted three mitigation measures to the state government which was approved. Mitigation works began in April and lasted for 53 days, costing the developers RM6 million. Ultimately, after mitigation works were complete, the state government lifted the stop work order for Prangin Mall in June under a 20-point agreement. The incident has since been described as a "crisis" or a "disaster". The Asian financial crisis which began in late-1997 led to the cancellation of Metro Plaza and Mutiara Parade. Only Prangin Mall was complete by mid-2000, which finally opened in 2001.

Second expansion (2002–present)
The cancellation of Mutiara Parade suspended any construction on phase three until October 2007, when construction began on 1st Avenue, an 11-storey 430000 sqft shopping mall. The development, costing RM300 million, was modeled after Raffles City Singapore. Construction was completed in June 2010 and opened on 25 November 2010.

Phase five, which occupied Sia Boey Market, was first planned in 1991 as a mixed retail, office, and residential development. The land was sold in July 1991 at RM31 million to a private developer for potential development scheduled for 1995 or 1996 but was never built. In 2002, it was planned as a centralised transportation hub, featuring a main interchange terminal of the Bayan Lepas line, a proposed light rail transit line running along Penang Island. In anticipation of future construction, Sia Boey Market closed in 2004, even though the site remained vacated for years due to uncertainties in the light rail transit project.

In 2012, phase five was proposed to become an arts district known as the Penang Heritage Square, which featured the complete restoration of heritage shophouses at the site and the construction of a five-storey cultural centre. This project was relocated to Macallum Street Ghaut in 2016 due to plans for an integrated transport hub at Sia Boey. An urban park was later included within the phase, becoming the Sia Boey Urban Archaeological Park. The 2.53 acre park, which occupied a disused section of the Prangin Canal, began construction in 2015 and was completed in 2019, costing RM29.1 million. The park opened on 9 November 2019. In May 2023, the Malaysian federal government would announce a revival in the light rail transit project, subsequently rebranding the Bayan Lepas line as the Mutiara line, which includes a terminal at Komtar as the receiving end of an elevated rail bridge across the Penang Strait towards Seberang Perai. Construction of the station was originally planned for early-2024, but was later delayed to September or October 2024, with an expected completion date of 2030.

Criticisms
During its planning and initial construction, the project was described as unnecessary by opposition politicians from the Democratic Action Party and Pekemas. Both parties vowed to scrap the entire masterplan if they gained control of the state government in the 1974 general elections. After its construction, opposition came from its expansion through the Prangin Mall and Mutiara Parade projects, and the failure of the complex in achieving its desired objectives, which was to replace dilapidating city slums that sprung up after the 1960s recession in Penang with modernised city blocks.

Lim Chong Keat, the complex's principal architect, was the younger brother of chief minister Lim Chong Eu, which generated accusations of nepotism over the former's selection for the position. Yeap Ghim Guan alleged that the state government paid RM10 million to AT3 for their involvement in the CAPU in 1974, which had been the firm Lim Chong Keat was leading. This figure was argued to be much lower at RM4.8 million, which includes consultation fees from all development firms.

The project's actual cost was also disputed. While the entire masterplan was given an RM200 million budget, government sources in September 1975 suggested that between 1973 and 1975, the cost for phase one had already surpassed RM300 million (RM1.18 billion in 2023 value). In an article from the February–March 1976 issue of the Asian Statist magazine, it was alleged that the cost of construction of the megacomplex had inflated to RM500 million (RM1.91 billion in 2023 value), putting doubts on the state's capabilities to finance the entire project. It was also argued that the compensation provided by the state government to displaced residents in the project was vastly insufficient.

After its completion, criticisms shifted to accusations of gentrification. Kampong Kolam state representative Ooi Ean Kwong said in 1979 that "most people at Komtar go there to pay their electricity bills, not shopping." American architect Victor Papanek predicted in 1981 that Komtar would fail and become an "eyesore", creating congestion and pollution. Veerappen Veerathan described the project "will only bring RM200 million of misery". Karpal Singh remarked in 1985 that Komtar is a "personal monument of Lim Chong Eu", calling it "his Taj Mahal". The initial occupancy rates in the offices have led Lim Kit Siang to describe Komtar and the contemporary Dayabumi Complex as "white elephants". This was reflected by poor sales of office space in Komtar, which was impacted by severe office space gluts in 1984. While local, state, and federal offices occupied the "low-zones" (10th to 28th floor) and "mid-zones" (29th to 43rd floor) of the skyscraper, the sale of "high-zone" office space to private sectors was reportedly "not encouraging".

Furthermore, the controversy over Prangin Mall's construction which resulted in subsidence and damages to the city's heritage quarters has led to calls for the project's cancellation by residents. It was also feared that the debacle would have created irreversible damages to a substantial portion of the area.

Decline and revitalisation efforts
While Komtar was one of the most popular shopping complexes in Penang in the late 1980s and early 1990s, its status as a premier retail hub declined dramatically in the late 1990s. Starting from the 1970s, the city centre suffered from mass depopulation from displacements of entire neighbourhoods and businesses directly caused by Komtar's construction. Furthermore, by the 1990s, a combination of factors such as economic decline after the Asian financial crisis in 1997 and rising competition from newer and upscale shopping complexes in the outer suburbs such as Gurney Plaza and Penang Times Square exacerbated the decline. The complex was also poorly maintained and generally disliked by tenants due to its cramped and confusing interior layouts.

Attempts of renovation were difficult as the Penang state government only owned one-third of all retail units in the complex, while the rest were bought and owned by private businesses, leading to serious disagreements on rental rates and occupancies. In 2005, the two largest anchor tenants of the complex, Super Komtar and Parkson, ceased operations in rapid succession, which decimated foot traffic in the complex. At the turn of 2008, it was estimated that 40 per cent of retailers in the complex had closed down. With reduced local presence, the complex received an influx of migrant workers, primarily from Nepal, Myanmar, the Philippines, and Indonesia, drawing similarities with Lucky Plaza in Singapore and Victoria Park in Hong Kong. Different floors of the complex housed individually segmented groups of immigrants of different nationalities, functioning as an agora for the diaspora. Komtar is also host to numerous social issues such as homelessness, drug usage, and vandalism. These factors have caused the complex to develop a reputation of being "creepy and unsafe". Other developments such as Komtar Walk, launched in 2009 as a pedestrian mall, was plagued by legal disputes and was demolished and rebuilt in 2019.

As early as 2001, the Penang state government initiated a programme to shift all government functions at Komtar to a new location at Seberang Perai described as a "mini Putrajaya". It was proposed that Komtar would become a hotel or a commercial centre once the relocation was complete, but the project never took off and was put on hold indefinitely in May 2003. The project was canceled in 2008 under the newly elected government of Lim Guan Eng due to cost issues. The stalemate over Komtar's development had led to Komtar state assemblyman Lim Gim Soon to propose to convert the complex into a Chinese secondary school.

Several renovations were undertaken during this period, including one in October 2007 which cost RM10 million, and an RM15 million renovation project in April 2008 aiming at refurbishing the podium. In 2010, the Penang state government launched plans to renovate the upper sections of the skyscraper. The revitalisation effort, known as The Top, was launched in December 2012, costing RM180 million. As part of the effort, three new floors were constructed, increasing the skyscraper's height to 248.9 m. A 16 m skywalk, three bubble lifts, and a 90 m rope course was added in subsequent renovations in 2018.

Complex
After is completion in late-1985, Komtar stood at 231.7 m tall, and became the second-tallest skyscraper in Asia, behind Sunshine 60. It was also the tallest skyscraper in Southeast Asia until 10 November 1986, and in Malaysia until 10 June 1988, when it was surpassed by One Raffles Place and Maybank Tower respectively. With 65 floors, it had the highest floor count of any building in Asia until the completion of the Bank of China Tower in January 1990. Upon its opening, it was advertised as the premier commercial district of George Town. It was among the most popular places of congregation for teenagers in the city in the 1980s. Typically, 5,000 people work in the complex daily, including 1,800 workers from state departments. It was projected that 600,000 to a million visitors visit the skyscraper's observation deck annually.

Offices
Komtar Tower, which topped out on 1 January 1985, is 248.9 m tall with 68 storeys. Currently, the skyscraper houses the offices of the Penang state government (level 3, 7–58, and 61–64), the chief minister of Penang (level 28) and the mayor of George Town (level 17). Other office tenants include the Penang Island City Council, Public Services Commission, the Immigration Department of Malaysia, the Malaysian Inland Revenue Board, Tenaga Nasional, Maybank, Pos Malaysia, and the National Higher Education Fund Corporation.

In July 1980, the federal government bought 91000 sqft of office space at Komtar. Between December 1982 and January 1984, the Penang state government spent RM45.04 million buying 210600 sqft of office space at Komtar, occupying 17 storeys of the skyscraper. In 1983, the Penang Municipal Council was reportedly forced to move to Komtar by the state government even though its offices at City Hall were sufficient, leading to opposition within the council. This decision, costing RM20 million, would relocate the council's offices to 100000 sqft of office space between the 12th and 17th floors. In 1984, chief minister Lim Chong Eu moved his offices into the 28th floor of the skyscraper. By February 1985, occupancy reached the 33rd floor. In 1986, the offices of the Penang state government, which had been located in Downing Street since 1961, moved to Komtar permanently. It was estimated in 1990 that RM162.7 million worth of office space in Komtar had been sold.

In July 1992, an indoor golf club, reputedly the first in Malaysia, opened at the 56th floor. In 2008, Telekom Malaysia moved into the 58th floor as a call centre. Similarly, before 2015 the 64th floor had been rented by telecommunication companies to install their equipment. In 2020, nine federal agencies moved into Komtar under the Urban Transformation Centre at the second and third floors, occupying 42000 sqft of office space.

Observatory deck
The first publicly accessible observatory decks at Komtar were between the 57th to 60th floors of the skyscraper. On 15 November 1989, the main observatory deck, the Tower Tourist Centre, was inaugurated at the 58th floor. A duty-free shop, the Metropolitan Duty-Free Shop, opened at the 57th floor in mid-February 1990. The 59th and 60th floors housed a Chinese restaurant known as the Tower Palace. Other attractions include a video room and an amphitheatre for cultural shows. The actual top floor, the 65th floor, was used as a helipad.

Between 2014 and 2016, the top floors of the skyscraper were rebuilt in an extension program known as The Top, which includes the addition of three upper stories and a complete overhaul of all publicly accessible portions of the complex. A new observatory deck known as Window of the Top was constructed at the 65th floor while an open-air deck was built at the 68th floor. Window of the Top, which stood at a height of 239 m, was only accessible through an express lift on the 5th floor. Visitors could view up to 150 km away from the deck, which includes parts of Seberang Perai and Kedah across the Penang Strait. Other attractions on Window of the Top include a souvenir store and an outdoor rope course. The 68th floor, standing at a height of 246.3 m, featured a restaurant called Top View and a semi-circle skywalk which extends beyond the main building.

Podium
The podium at Komtar, which encompasses the 1st to 4th floor, contains a shopping complex that opened in 1976. Komtar had enjoyed the status of northern Malaysia's only shopping complex, creating a retail monopoly with high rental returns, comparable to the Sungei Wang Plaza in Kuala Lumpur in the late-1970s. This situation, which persisted throughout the 1980s, was described as a "shopping centre vacuum".

The Dalit Cinema, operated by BFO, opened on 8 August 1981 as Komtar's first anchor tenant. Super Komtar opened on 6 December 1986 as the first department store in the complex. At the end of the 1980s, it became one of the most profitable and popular department stores in the country. Japanese retail group Yaohan opened at Komtar in November 1988, becoming its first major foreign tenant. It had a staff of 350 and occupied an area of 130000 sqft. The first Pizza Hut and White Castle outside of Kuala Lumpur opened at Komtar in January 1989 and on 14 June 1989 respectively. Singaporean bookstore chain Popular opened at the complex on 7 August 1991, which operated until 28 November 2021. In 1992, both Yaohan and Metrojaya mooted the idea of building separate department complexes under phase 2E and phase three of the complex, but were never built.

On 30 December 1997, Yaohan rebranded itself as Aktif Lifestyle after its Japanese parent company went bankrupt. Aktif Lifestyle would face financial difficulties and in 2004 the store was bought out by Parkson, becoming Parkson Aktif. The department store closed in 2005. It was replaced by the ICT Digital Mall, which opened on 1 September 2010 as a "tech plaza". Super Komtar would cease operations on 9 March 2005, remaining abandoned for two years before re-opening as Pacific on 17 December 2008. In 2009, a large section of the podium was renovated into a pedestrian mall known as Komtar Walk, but failed to attract visitors and was abandoned in 2019 due to legal disputes between its operator and state authorities. The mall was demolished and rebuilt in January 2023.

Transportation
Komtar is served by the Komtar Bus Terminal, which functions as the main interchange station for Rapid Penang, the sole public transport operator in George Town. The terminal is jointly owned by the Penang state government, the Penang Island City Council, and Rapid Penang.

Previously, the main interchange station at the city was the Prangin Road Bus Station, which had been the bus terminal for private bus companies, such as the Hin Company (Tanjung Bungah–Batu Ferringhi), the Lim Seng Seng Company (Ayer Itam), and the Yellow Bus Company (Jelutong–Bayan Lepas). However, the bus terminal shut down in 1990 for the construction of Prangin Mall. Throughout the late-1980s and 1990s, the Komtar Bus Terminal was consistently criticised for poor cleanliness and maintenance, with a reputation of being a hot spot for mugging and robberies. These criticisms were part of a wider negative sentiment against the state of public transport in Penang at the time.

The introduction of state operator Rapid Penang in July 2007 gradually superseded the private bus companies, eventually occupying the entire terminal. For decades, the bus terminal had been a place of congregation for vagabonds and the homeless, but since September 2023 they have been relocated to nearby state-funded homeless shelters under the directives of the Penang state government. Currently, the terminal serves the 11, 12, 101, 102, 103, 104, 201, 202, 203, 204, 206, 301, 302, 303, 304, 401, 401E, 502, CAT and CT14 bus routes of Rapid Penang.

Since the early 2000s, Komtar has been proposed to contain a terminal station of potential light rail transit and monorail lines, such as the Mutiara line, the Tanjong Tokong line, and the Ayer Itam line. It is proposed that construction of the station would start in September or October 2024, with an expected completion date of 2030. Komtar is also the terminal station for the proposed George Town tram line.

Other buildings
Besides the main complex, three other structures stood at the site. The oldest was a 470-suite, 17-storey hotel block that opened as the Shangri-La Hotel on 2 April 1986. It was rebranded as the Traders Hotel on 1 April 2006, and as Hotel Jen in late 2014. An auditorium in the shape of a geodesic dome, known as the Tunku Hall, was built at the roof of the podium in July 1986. Inspired by The Tech in San Jose, the auditorium was repurposed as a science museum in 2016. Two further shopping malls were constructed east of the complex; Prangin Mall (phase 4) opened in 2001, while 1st Avenue (phase 3) opened in 2010.

Logo and branding
The original design of Komtar's logo was a minimalistic outline of the complex resembling the letters "TAR" – an abbreviation of the complex's name. In 2015, a new logo was introduced featuring the words "Komtar" in red to symbolise ong, the Hokkien word for auspicious, with the letter "T" as a hand-drawn image of the tower.

On the city centre and future developments
The construction of Komtar resulted in the destruction of a huge section of the heritage quarters along Penang Road and the Prangin Canal, which had been an important enclave of the Chinese riverine settlement in George Town. Over three hundred historic landmarks were demolished in the process, including the former Jinricksha Office, the former campus of Li Tek Primary School, and the Capitol and Oriental Emporium. Gladstone Road, which ran from the Magazine Circus to the west and Carnavon Street to the east, was built over and disappeared under the complex, leaving a remnant at its eastern end that was removed in 2000.

With the rise of the service industry in Penang after its industrialisation in the 1980s, Komtar's status as a large centralised financial district decimated smaller, traditional businesses in the city centre. The irreversible changes towards the city centre following Komtar's completion were cited as one of the main factors leading to a rise of heritage preservation movements in Penang. In 1986, the Penang Heritage Trust was founded, and in 1989 the first heritage conservation enactments were passed in the state legislature. These efforts culminated in the establishment of a conservation zone, involving a 269 acre "heritage core zone" and a 390 acre "buffer zone" inscribed by UNESCO in 2008, which banned any alterations to all historic structures in George Town's urban core.

Komtar was a centrepiece under the ideal Wawasan 2020, which encouraged urban construction and renewal throughout Malaysian cities, leading to a development boom. Private development applications in Penang peaked in the mid-1990s, which made the heritage quarters susceptible to demolition like those of Komtar, a trend that was only halted after the Asian financial crisis in 1997. Despite this, following the complex's completion in 1985, the Penang state government would never again undertake any urban redevelopment programmes within the heritage quarters, instead opting for land reclamation. This strategy, first employed in the expansion of the Bayan Lepas Free Industrial Zone in the late 1970s, allowed state authorities to skip negotiations and avoid overly complicated resettlement agreements, thereby reducing acquisition costs. From 1980 to 2000, almost all of George Town's east coast was reclaimed, and by 2015 total reclaimed land in the city was estimated to be 9.5 km2 in area.

Architectural and cultural importance
Komtar is regarded as an icon of Penang, and is seen as the state's most famous landmark. It is also an important hub for Penang's public bus system, and is the administrative centre of George Town and Penang. It is described as a "city within a city", and was hailed as one of the last "great national symbols of the 1970s". Architecture-wise, Komtar was Penang's first major modernist structure and served as an important example of modernist architecture in Southeast Asia. The complex was reflective of Malaysia's post-independence period in the 1960s with the construction of modernist landmarks such as the Houses of Parliament (1959–1962), the National Mosque (1963–1965), and the National Stadium (1960–1962) which intended to replace traditional architectural styles with bold and modern designs. The geodesic dome was noted as Buckminster Fuller's last significant architectural contribution in Southeast Asia.

Komtar's layout and design were radical and utopian for its time. However, while modernist structures in Malaysia were built to expel and erase the country's colonial past, Komtar was built as a unique expression of critical regionalism, where its modernist elements were incorporated in a way to resonate with George Town's entrenched colonial history. Despite this, Komtar lacked enough local appreciation for its regionalist characteristics, and was rejected by the populace for being too radical and impractical. Komtar's failure to revitalise George Town has become a notable case study for failed architectural experiments.

Government hansards

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title: Komtar


text:
User talk:Soph

Welcome to the Wikipedia
I noticed you were new, and wanted to share some links I thought useful:

 * Tutorial
 * Help desk
 * Foundation issues
 * Policy Library

For more information click  here . You can sign your name by typing 4 tildes, like this: ~.

Sam Spade 06:31, 12 Apr 2005 (UTC)

link addition
Hello, I've replied on my talk page to your comment. This is just to let you know in case you're not watching my talk page! Talrias (t | e | c) 17:14, 16 Apr 2005 (UTC)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: User talk:Soph


text:
Senzan Line

The Senzan Line (仙山線) is a railway line in Japan. Part of the East Japan Railway Company (JR East) system, it runs from Sendai Station in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture to Uzen-Chitose Station in Yamagata, Yamagata Prefecture, acting as a connector between the Tōhoku Main Line/Tōhoku Shinkansen and the Ōu Main Line in southern Tōhoku. It also provides access to western Miyagi Prefecture and eastern Yamagata Prefecture. It connects with the Tōhoku Shinkansen, Tōhoku Main Line and Senseki Line at Sendai Station, the Ōu Main Line at Uzen-Chitose, Kita-Yamagata, and Yamagata Stations in Yamagata, Yamagata, the Aterazawa Line at Kita-Yamagata and Yamagata Stations, and the Yamagata Shinkansen at Yamagata Station.

History

 * September 29, 1929: Senzan East Line begins operation (Sendai — Ayashi). Kita-Sendai, Rikuzen-Ochiai, and Ayashi Stations open.
 * August 30, 1931: Ayashi — Sakunami connection opens. Rikuzen-Shirasawa, Kumagane, and Sakunami Stations open.
 * October 17, 1933: Senzan West Line begins operation (Uzen-Chitose — Yamadera). Yamadera Station opens.
 * November 10, 1937: Sakunami — Yamadera connection opens. Senzan Line connects Sendai and Uzen-Chitose Stations. Sakunami — Yamadera tracks are electrified (1,500 V DC). Oku-Nikkawa Station opens. Omoshiroyama signal box begins operation. Temporary stations Yatsumori and Omoshiroyama open.
 * July 1, 1950: Takase Station opens.
 * August 10, 1955: Rikuzen-Ochiai — Kumagane tracks are electrified (20 kV 50 Hz AC).
 * September 5, 1957: Sendai — Rikuzen-Ochiai, Kumagane — Sakunami tracks are electrified (20 kV 50 Hz AC). ED45 (ED91) electric locomotive enters service.
 * November 1, 1960: Yamadera — Uzen-Chitose (— Yamagata) is electrified (1,500 V DC). "Asahi" and "Gassan" semi-expresses begin operation.
 * October 1, 1963: "Senzan" semi-express begins operation.
 * March 5, 1966: "Asahi" and "Gassan" become expresses.
 * September 8, 1968: Sakunami — Uzen-Chitose (— Yamagata) switched to 20 kV 50 Hz AC electrification. ED78 electric locomotive begins operation
 * October 1, 1968: "Senzan" semi-express becomes an express.
 * 1971: Kumagane Station becomes unmanned.
 * October 2, 1978: "Senzan" express begins making stops at Ayashi station.
 * May 1, 1982: "Asahi" express becomes "Benibana".
 * November 15, 1982: "Senzan" express becomes a rapid train. "Gassan" ceases operations within the Senzan Line.
 * February 1, 1984: Kitayama and Kunimi Stations open. Third platform built at Ayashi Station.
 * March 14, 1985: Senzan Line utilizes CTC. Rikuzen-Ochiai, Rikuzen-Shirasawa, Sakunami, Oku-Nikkawa, and Tateyama Stations become unmanned.
 * March 1, 1987: Some staff from Sendai Station are transferred to Kitayama and Rikuzen-Ochiai Stations.
 * March 20, 1987: Some staff from Sendai Station are transferred to Kunimi Station.
 * March 21, 1987: Nishi-Sendai Hi-Land Station opens as a temporary station.
 * April 1, 1987: Senzan Line becomes part of JR East and JR Freight.
 * June 20, 1987: Train exchange equipment service is started at Kunimi Station.
 * March 13, 1988: Omoshiroyama Temporary Station becomes a station and is renamed Omoshiroyama-Kōgen Station.
 * November 18, 1988: Tōshōgū Station opens.
 * March 10, 1990: 719 series EMUs enter service on the Senzan Line.
 * September 1, 1990: The "Tsugaru" express continues operations on the Senzan Line due to construction of the Yamagata Shinkansen.
 * March 16, 1991: Kuzuoka Station opens.
 * August 27, 1991: "Tsubasa" express is diverted over the Senzan Line due to construction of the Yamagata Shinkansen.
 * July 1, 1992: Diversion of the "Tsubasa" express over the Senzan Line ceases with the completion of the Yamagata Shinkansen.
 * December 1, 1993: "Tsugaru" express ceases operations.
 * October 1998: Freight services temporarily stop.
 * December 1999: The Senzan Line up to Uzen-Chitose is converted to double-track with the expansion of the Yamagata Shinkansen.
 * April 1, 2001: The "Senzan" Weekend Rapid becomes the "Holiday Senzan". 455 series EMUs are replaced by 719 series trains formerly used on the Tōhoku Main Line.
 * December 1, 2001: ATS-Ps emergency train stop system is introduced in the Sendai — Ayashi area.
 * April 1, 2002: Freight services cease on the Senzan Line.
 * October 16, 2004: The names "Senzan" and "Holiday Senzan" for the rapid trains are discontinued. Rapid trains make more frequent stops at Kunimi, Rikuzen-Ochiai, and Uzen-Chitose.

Former connecting lines

 * Toshogu station - A 762mm (2'6") gauge line, ultimately extending 44 km between Tori-Machi and Nishi-Furukawa station on the Rikuu East Line, was opened by the Sendai City Council between 1922 and 1929. It closed in sections between 1937 and 1960.

Services
All trains which are bound for Yamagata Station run through to Yamagata Station via Ou Main Line between Uzen-Chitose and Yamagata Stations.

Rapid
Some Senzan Line trains run as rapid trains. All trains stop at the following stations:
 * Sendai
 * Kita-Sendai
 * Kunimi
 * Rikuzen-Ochiai
 * Ayashi
 * Yamadera
 * Uzen-Chitose
 * Kita-Yamagata
 * Yamagata

In addition to these stops, the various Rapid trains will stop at all stations in between:
 * Rapid A: N/A
 * Rapid B: Yamagata ー Yamadera (Past: Oku-Nikkawa — Yamagata)
 * Rapid C: Sendai — Ayashi
 * Rapid D: Rikuzen-Ochiai — Sakunami
 * Rapid E: Ayashi — Yamagata

At one point, there was a G-Rapid that stopped at the most stations out of all rapid trains, but was considered too confusing by passengers and soon put out of service. Instead, the number of Local Trains were increased. Until 2004, there were only three types of rapids (A, B, C). Also, until September 30, 2003, there was a Special Rapid "Holiday Senzan" that used to run on Saturdays and weekends.

With the opening of the Sendai Airport Line (established in 2006), the Senzan Line was expected to have Sendai Airport-bound trains. But they have not connected with the direct train of lapid service.

Local
There are three types of local train service: Sendai — Yamagata, Sendai — Sakunami and Sendai — Ayashi.

Sendai ー Sakunami local trains run only in the morning, two Sendai-bound trains and one Sakunami-bound train.

Sendai — Ayashi
Since this part of the line is located in the central suburban area of Sendai, there are many commuters, and there are typically 2-4 Sendai — Ayashi trains every hour. Although there were fewer trains going from Ayashi to Sendai, the numbers have increased in recent years. The section is double-track and the interchange stations are Kita-Sendai, Kunimi, and Rikuzen-Ochiai. Presently, parts of the track are being elevated and there are plans to build a new station near the Shin-Ishinomaki Highway railroad crossing.

Ayashi — Yamagata
Before the abolition of the Saturday/weekend schedule, there was one Saturday/weekend return train from Sakunami that stopped at Nishi-Sendai Hi-Land, however, there have been no stops at Nishi-Sendai Hi-Land Station since 2004.

Local trains are scheduled around the rapid train schedules. However, trips to the Sakunami Hot Springs as well as the Yamadera temple well known from Matsuo Bashō's Oku no Hosomichi are popular. Also, during the ski-season, the only way to get to places such as Omoshiroyama is the train and there are a great number of passengers during the tourist season.

There are two temporary stations, but as there have been no stops at Nishi-Sendai Hi-Land and Yatsumori since October 2004 and June 2003, respectively. These two stations are abolished on March 14, 2014.

Tōhoku Main Line
There are only two trains that share both the Senzan and Tōhoku Main Lines' tracks: Senzan Line 2832M, which runs from Sakunami Station to Sendai where it becomes 1428M and continues on the Tōhoku Main Line tracks until Iwanuma, and Tōhoku Main Line 425M, which originates in Shiroishi, changes to 1831M at Sendai, and continues on the Senzan Line tracks to Ayashi. The Sakunami — Iwanuma train runs only on Saturdays and weekends.

There used to be many more trains that utilized the Tōhoku Main Line's tracks, but the numbers have decreased in recent years. Past trains went to such places as Fukushima, Matsushima, and Kogota. After 2001, the numbers began going down until they reached two trains, which is the number. It was expected that that number would increase in 2006, though, when the Sendai Airport Line opens.

And now, no train runs through to Tohoku Main Line or Sendai Airport Access Line.

title: Senzan Line


text:
Extended Hückel method

The extended Hückel method is a semiempirical quantum chemistry method, developed by Roald Hoffmann since 1963. It is based on the Hückel method but, while the original Hückel method only considers pi orbitals, the extended method also includes the sigma orbitals.

The extended Hückel method can be used for determining the molecular orbitals, but it is not very successful in determining the structural geometry of an organic molecule. It can however determine the relative energy of different geometrical configurations. It involves calculations of the electronic interactions in a rather simple way for which the electron-electron repulsions are not explicitly included and the total energy is just a sum of terms for each electron in the molecule. The off-diagonal Hamiltonian matrix elements are given by an approximation due to Wolfsberg and Helmholz that relates them to the diagonal elements and the overlap matrix element.

H_{ij} = KS_{ij} \dfrac{H_{ii} + H_{jj}}{2} $$

K is the Wolfsberg–Helmholz constant, and is usually given a value of 1.75. In the extended Hückel method, only valence electrons are considered; the core electron energies and functions are supposed to be more or less constant between atoms of the same type. The method uses a series of parametrized energies calculated from atomic ionization potentials or theoretical methods to fill the diagonal of the Fock matrix. After filling the non-diagonal elements and diagonalizing the resulting Fock matrix, the energies (eigenvalues) and wavefunctions (eigenvectors) of the valence orbitals are found.

It is common in many theoretical studies to use the extended Hückel molecular orbitals as a preliminary step to determining the molecular orbitals by a more sophisticated method such as the CNDO/2 method and ab initio quantum chemistry methods. Since the extended Hückel basis set is fixed, the monoparticle calculated wavefunctions must be projected to the basis set where the accurate calculation is to be done. One usually does this by adjusting the orbitals in the new basis to the old ones by least squares method. As only valence electron wavefunctions are found by this method, one must fill the core electron functions by orthonormalizing the rest of the basis set with the calculated orbitals and then selecting the ones with less energy. This leads to the determination of more accurate structures and electronic properties, or in the case of ab initio methods, to somewhat faster convergence.

The method was first used by Roald Hoffmann who developed, with Robert Burns Woodward, rules for elucidating reaction mechanisms (the Woodward–Hoffmann rules). He used pictures of the molecular orbitals from extended Hückel theory to work out the orbital interactions in these cycloaddition reactions.

A closely similar method was used earlier by Hoffmann and William Lipscomb for studies of boron hydrides. The off-diagonal Hamiltonian matrix elements were given as proportional to the overlap integral.

H_{ij} = K S_{ij} $$

This simplification of the Wolfsberg and Helmholz approximation is reasonable for boron hydrides as the diagonal elements are reasonably similar due to the small difference in electronegativity between boron and hydrogen.

The method works poorly for molecules that contain atoms of very different electronegativity. To overcome this weakness, several groups have suggested iterative schemes that depend on the atomic charge. One such method, that is still widely used in inorganic and organometallic chemistry is the Fenske-Hall method.

A program for the extended Hückel method is YAeHMOP which stands for "yet another extended Hückel molecular orbital package". YAeHMOP has also been merged with the Avogadro open-source molecular editor and visualizer to enable calculations directly from the Avogadro graphical user interface for materials that are periodic in one, two, or three dimensions. This integration also enables visualization of band structures, total and projected density of states, and crystal orbital overlap/Hamilton populations (COOPs/COHPs).

title: Extended Hückel method


text: User talk:202.6.86.1

title: User talk:202.6.86.1


text:
Makoto (Street Fighter)

Makoto (まこと) is a character in Capcom's Street Fighter fighting game series, designed by Keigo Chimoto and first appearing in 1999's Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike. In the series, she is a young Japanese woman who utilizes her family's dojo teachings of Rindo-kan karate as her fighting style, seeking to restore glory to her deceased father's dojo. She has since appeared in UDON Entertainment's Street Fighter comic series, and due to her overwhelming popularity was included in Street Fighter IV's first upgrade, Super Street Fighter IV. Makoto is voiced by Makoto Tsumura in Japanese for both of her appearances, and Jessica D. Stone in English for Street Fighter IV.

The character has been positively received, in both location tests for the original game and a later official poll in which she placed second out of all the characters. 1UP.com staff declared her as one of the key reasons they prefer 3rd Strike over the preceding Street Fighter III titles. Several outlets have declared her their favorite character in the franchise, and others have praised her design and character heavily in contrast of other series characters.

Conception and design
During development of Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact, the development team was tasked to create a character based around the karate concept of ikken hissatsu, which they summed up as "simple, direct and powerful". Feeling other Street Fighter characters Ryu and Ken use a more "American" form of karate, they focused on Makoto having a more Japanese style, with a secondary focus to illustrate her determination to fix up her rundown dojo. Designed by Keigo Chimoto, Developer Hidetoshi Ishizawa noted that due to them running out of time to properly implement her, they were unable to add her to 2nd Impact before release and instead added her to its followup title, Street Fighter III: Third Strike. Chimoto would later praise Ishizawa's "ability to adjust", feeling it benefited her development. In order to give a "hot-blooded" tone to her character, her dialogue in-game is spoken with a Japanese Tosa dialect.

Makoto stands 160 cm tall (5 ft 2 in) and has measurements of 80-61-87 cm (32-24-34 in). During development many designs were proposed with a guideline to include a loose fitting karate gi though the amount of the outfit sometimes varied drastically from one design to the next. The gi was intended to be the oversized and loose fitting on her due to it being her deceased father's. According to the book All About Capcom Fighting Games 1987-2000, due to her behavior and attire she is commonly confused by players to be "Ryu's little sister". Her finalized design consists of a barefoot muscular woman with short black hair wearing a white loose gi, a red halter top underneath her gi resting at her cleavage, a long flowing yellow ribbon around her neck. The ribbon in particular was added by 3rd Strike's development team to demonstrate her speed and trajectory, as well as telegraph to the opponent certain moves Makoto performs.

Years later, she was included in Street Fighter IV's first upgrade, Super Street Fighter IV, which game director Taisaku Okada attributed to her wide popularity at Street Fighter III tournaments and Okada's own desire to include characters from that franchise. While her outfit was carried over to game, so was the behavior of her neck ribbon, which necessitated the development team to create new code to handle the 'flutter' effect. She was also given four alternate outfits in the game, including a gardening outfit with gloves and apron and a schoolgirl outfit with a bandaged thigh, none of these retained the ribbon and were noted in developer comments as particularly hard to design. Her dialect also caused issues, causing Capcom to hire a professional in country dialects to oversee the sound recording team. This resulted in countless retakes, and the development team expressed their gratitude to her voice actor for not giving up.

Appearances
Makoto was introduced in the 1999 video game Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike, inheriting her father's Rindōkan karate dojo which has fallen into disrepair and lost students. She enters the game's tournament to showcase and spread word of her fighting style, and by the conclusion of her story many people travel to try and join her dojo, much to the delight of her family. In Street Fighter IV, a precursor to Street Fighter III, she discovers the rundown state of the dojo, and after reading about the Worldwide Fighting Tournament, decides to enter to use the prize money and repair it. However Makoto walks away with nothing due to the tournament secretly being a trap by its organizer, and while repairing the dojo she considers making a name for herself may bring students, leading to her story in 3rd Strike. In all appearances, Makoto's Japanese voice is provided by Makoto Tsumura, while Jessica D. Stone provides her English voice for Street Fighter IV.

Outside of fighting games, she is an available character Capcom's mobile game Street Fighter Battle Combination as well as TOPJOY's mobile roleplaying game Street Fighter: Duel, the latter of which features an alternate version called "Kimono Makoto" exclusive to the Chinese version. The game SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters Clash and its Nintendo DS counterpart also feature her as an available card, as does GungHo Online Entertainment's mobile game TEPPEN. In physical trading card media she appears in Versus TCG, a card game based on Card Fighters Clash, and Jasco Games' Universal Fighting System.

In print media, Makoto is featured in UDON Entertainment's Street FIghter comic series, in which she is first introduced in issue eleven of Street Fighter II Turbo as the heir to her father's fighting dojo. Abandoned by his former students due to her age and gender, she challenges other dojos to try and restore glory to her own. She later appears in UDON's Street Fighter Legends: Ibuki series, attending a school as a new student and immediately declares her intention to fight anyone to demonstrate the superiority of her fighting style. After discovering another student, Ibuki, is a martial artist she challenges her, though they later come to an arrangement to postpone the fight after Makoto discovers she is a ninja and trying to keep it a secret. Afterwards Ibuki helps keep Makoto in line while the latter helps train the former. After helping her fight off a rival ninja clan, Makoto requests they have their duel and the comic ends as the two begin to spar. In Street Fighter Unlimited, both her and Ibuki are invited to self-proclaimed god Gill's fighting tournament, joining in on an impromptu dance party prior to said tournament. After Gill reveals himself to be a villain, she fights alongside the other participants to take him down. She later appears in a smaller role in the Street Fighter: Back to School Special comic, in which after wrestling with fellow Street Fighter III character Elena, they ponder what college to attend.

Gameplay
Described as a rushdown character, Makoto's gameplay revolves around closing the distance between herself and the opponent and quickly delivering fast blows. According to Capcom developers, unlike other characters in Street Fighter III she lacked the ability to produce large combos, forcing the player to consider each move and making it harder for beginners to use her. Her walking speed is slower than average, however to compensate her dashes are faster and farther while several of her moves give her forward momentum, specifically her "Hayate" attack which consists of a high speed dashing punch that allows her to cross a large part of the screen instantly and can be followed up with another attack if it connects. Her "Karakusa" grab attack is unique, in that unlike other grabs instead of instantly knocking down the opponent it leaves them standing a moment, allowing for a follow up attack. The developers noted an intention to reference actual karate techniques with her gameplay, something that caused some difficulty for the development team.

The development team for Street Fighter IV commented that characters from III were harder to implement due to that game's parry system, a game mechanic that allows the user to negate an attack and counterattack in a brief window, which is not present in IV. This was particularly problematic in the case of Makoto. Moves such as her "Tanden Renki", a power up super attack that greatly increases her strength for a short period of time, but prevents her from being able to block attacks when using it had to be modified, allowing her to block attacks while reducing the increase in the strength of the power up. Several other moves were also changed with the intention of giving her more variety, such as her anti-air attack "Fukiage" which now has her stepping forward in all variations of the move and allows for easier follow up attacks. However, the lack of parry in the game leaves her more vulnerable to projectile attacks, something that Okada did by design and feels makes her a harder character for beginners to use.

Promotion and reception
Capcom noted Makoto as the most popular character in location tests of 3rd Strike in both North America and Japan, and in their 2018 worldwide poll, she was voted second most popular Street Fighter character. She has been also featured through many figures and other merchandise items, such as a bust by F-Toys to celebrate the 15th Anniversary of the Street Fighter series. A stationary miniature was also released by Jasco Games, as part of a Street Fighter III character pack.

Makoto was met with mostly positive reception. Martin Robinson of IGN described her as one of the two characters were salvaging from Street Fighter III, adding that it wasn't until her introduction that "Capcom's bold vision for its prize series found its real star," and called her possibly his favorite character from the whole series. Basim Usmani of DualShockers praised her design, stating "Her character design, which is focused on realism, is quite forward-looking for a game from the 1990s," and described her reliance on straightfoward, physical attacks as "timeless and without gimmicks". The staff of 1UP.com, in their Retronauts podcast, heavily emphasized Makoto's inclusion in 3rd Strike as one of the game's best aspects, with Ryan Scott stating "You have some weird characters, then you have characters like Makoto, who are basically like...this is pure Street Fighter right here." The other hosts agreed, with Jeremy Parish stating it was one of the reasons people preferred the game over the preceding Street Fighter III titles.

Further praise was given to her personality and storyline. Paste stated her "brash, intense fighting style perfectly suits a teenager trying to make her mark on the world", comparing her to fellow Street Fighter character Sakura in that regard. They further described Makoto as her polar opposite due to her being "someone who dreams not of finding a mentor and emulating them, but of forging her own path", adding that her story was "as motivating as Ryu's globe-trotting adventures, and it doesn't get the play it deserves in the series' storyline." Becky Chambers and Amanda LaPergola of The Mary Sue both heavily praised Makoto, namely her story in light of other characters in the series such as Ibuki, with LaPergola stating "I will forgive Street Fighter III all its flaws because they introduced Makoto to the world." Chambers in turn complimented her practical outfit, with LaPergola adding her belief that "she is the only female Street Fighter character who was not designed to appeal to the testosterone brigade. Makoto don't care if you thinks she looks like a boy. Makoto will stomp you all the same." Den of Geek's Gavin Jasper however felt that when her fighting style was removed from consideration she was somewhat tame compared to the rest of the Street Fighter III cast, stating unlike the other characters she was just "a girl in a karate gi", and in regards to her storyline "at the end of the day, she's like Dan played straight(er), and that doesn't measure up."

title: Makoto (Street Fighter)


text:
Twenty-cent piece (United States coin)

The American twenty-cent piece is a coin struck from 1875 to 1878, but only for collectors in the final two years. Proposed by Nevada Senator John P. Jones, it proved a failure due to confusion with the quarter, to which it was close in both size and value.

In 1874, the newly elected Jones began pressing for a twenty-cent piece, which he stated would alleviate the shortage of small change in the Far West. The bill passed Congress, and Mint Director Henry Linderman ordered pattern coins struck. Linderman eventually decided on an obverse and reverse similar to that of other silver coins.

Although the coins have a smooth edge, rather than reeded as with other silver coins, the new piece was close to the size of, and immediately confused with, the quarter. Adding to the bewilderment, the obverse, or "heads", sides of both coins were almost identical. After the first year, in which over a million were minted, there was little demand, and the denomination was abolished in 1878. At least a third of the total mintage was later melted by the government. Numismatist Mark Benvenuto called the twenty-cent piece "a chapter of U.S. coinage history that closed almost before it began".

Inception and authorization
A twenty-cent piece had been proposed as early as 1791, and again in 1806, but had been rejected. The 1806 bill, introduced by Connecticut Senator Uriah Tracy, sought both a two-cent piece and a "double dime". It was opposed by mint director Robert Patterson, though his opposition was more to the two-cent piece, which Tracy proposed be struck in billon, low-grade silver that would be difficult to recover when melting the coins. The bill passed the Senate twice, in 1806 and 1807, but did not pass the House of Representatives. No twenty-cent piece was issued prior to the 1870s, but Americans were familiar with the denomination as the two reales piece struck in Spain, known as a "pistareen" in the United States, passed for twenty cents (its Spanish colonial equivalent passed for a quarter).

Several factors converged to make possible a twenty-cent piece in the 1870s. The first was a shortage of small change in the far West, where base-metal coins did not circulate. Government payments in silver and gold had been suspended during the economic chaos caused by the Civil War—coins containing precious metal were hoarded except on the Pacific Coast, and did not pass at face value in trade. Although the base-metal nickel was not widely accepted in the far West, the silver half dime had been struck in increasing numbers at the San Francisco Mint until the silver coin, which did not circulate in the East, was abolished by Congress in 1873. A shortage of small change resulted, especially as half dimes were used in the jewelry trade; customers complained they could not get full change for an item costing ten cents for which they paid with a quarter. Prices in the West were sometimes in bits (12$1/2$ cents, based on the old Spanish colonial real, although those pieces no longer circulated), adding to the change problem. Numismatist David Lange states that a shipment of nickels out West could have solved everything, but that they might not have been accepted due to the prejudice against money which did not contain precious metal.

A second factor was the anxiety of Congress to see more silver made into coin. This was due to pressure from mining and other interests. The Coinage Act of 1873 ended the practice of allowing silver producers to have their bullion struck into silver dollars and returned to them. Although producers had not deposited much silver in the years before 1873 due to high market prices, former mint director Henry Linderman foresaw that those prices would fall as mines became accessible due to the completion of the transcontinental railroad across the United States, and that the resultant coinage would inflate the currency. He quietly urged Congress to end the practice, which it did. Within a year, silver prices had dropped, and producers tried vainly to deposit bullion at the mints for conversion into legal tender. Mining interests sought other means of selling silver to the government.

The third was American interest in aligning its currency with the Latin Monetary Union and to bring its weights for coinage into the metric system. Several times in the 1860s and 1870s, the United States Mint struck pattern coins that were to be used if America joined, in some cases with the equivalent in foreign money struck as part of the design. The twenty-cent piece was to be equivalent to one French franc in that system, and if in proportion to the smaller silver coins being struck, would weigh five grams, a fact which appealed to advocates of the metric system in Congress. Another purpose for a large issue of silver coins, regardless of denomination, was to retire the fractional currency—low-value paper money or "shinplasters". Congress passed legislation in 1875 and 1876 for large quantities of silver coins for this purpose.

The father of the twenty-cent piece was Nevada Senator John P. Jones. Part-owner of the Crown Point Mine, he had been elected to the Senate in 1873; on February 10, 1874, he introduced a bill to authorize a twenty-cent piece, one of his first legislative endeavors. In advocating for the proposal, he cited the lack of small change in the West. It was endorsed by mint director Linderman; according to numismatic historian Walter Breen, "other legislators went along with it, largely as a favor to Sen. Jones". The bill was signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant on March 3, 1875. Like other denominations of silver coin, the twenty-cent piece was made legal tender up to five dollars.

Preparation and design
In anticipation of the approval of the legislation, Linderman had pattern coins prepared. In August 1874, Philadelphia Mint superintendent James Pollock sent him patterns with an obverse showing a seated Liberty by Philadelphia sculptor Joseph A. Bailly with a reverse by chief engraver William Barber. Pollock did not approve Bailly's proposal, deeming it too similar to the Seated Liberty design which was then on all domestic silver coinage, and so the new coin would too closely resemble the quarter. On March 31, 1875, after the enactment of Jones's bill, Pollock sent Linderman additional patterns, all by Barber, and even more on April 12. Pollock deprecated a reverse design with a shield, but Linderman liked it and stated that it would have been adopted but for the law requiring an eagle to appear on silver pieces larger than the dime. Linderman selected an obverse design near-identical to the other silver coinage (until 1916, the silver coins were given similar appearances). That design, by the late chief engraver, Christian Gobrecht, following a concept by Thomas Sully and Titian Peale, was first used in 1836 and by 1840 was on all denominations of silver coins then being struck. The right-facing eagle is near-identical to the one which Barber had rendered for the trade dollar, which had debuted in 1873. Linderman had realized that the difference in size between the new coin and quarter was small, and thought a scaled-down version of the trade dollar suitable for the twenty-cent piece; he got his way on the reverse. The eagle carries the arrows of war in its right, or dominant claw, and the olive branch of peace in the left, in heraldry preferring war over peace.

Art historian Cornelius Vermeule described the twenty-cent piece's obverse as "a pleasing synthesis of traditional elements". He was less complimentary about the eagle on the reverse, calling it awkward and a fatter version of the eagle on 18th-century American coinage. Vermeule admired the pattern designs made by Barber, especially the "Liberty by the Seashore" motif, which the historian believes owes a debt to the British copper coins of that period depicting Britannia—Barber was an Englishman by birth. He deemed it appropriate that the ship that is visible is powered by steam.

Numismatist Yancey Rayburn, in his 1970 article, wrote that the twenty-cent piece is bare of much of the lettering common on US coins: neither "In God We Trust" nor "E Pluribus Unum" appears on it. At the time, "E Pluribus Unum" was required on American coins under the 1873 act; "In God We Trust" was included on different coins at the discretion of the secretary of the treasury. The mottos were excluded as the coin was considered too small to contain them. The act creating the twenty-cent piece did not dictate its design, but provided that the new coin was to be subject to the terms of the 1873 act. Rayburn also admired that the full denomination, "twenty cents", was spelled out; at that time the quarter and fifty-cent piece had the word "dollar" abbreviated as "dol."

Production, aftermath, and collecting
The design for the twenty-cent piece was approved on April 12, 1875. It was, however, immediately revised to better define the olive leaves at the right end of the branch (over the N and the T in "cents"); on the original design, the leaves overlapped with each other. An amended approval was given on April 15. Production began at Philadelphia on May 19, on June 1 at the Carson City Mint in Jones's home state of Nevada, and between June 1 and 17 at the San Francisco Mint. Only about 40,000 were struck at Philadelphia; the bulk was at the two Western mints with 133,290 minted at Carson City, and 1,155,000 at San Francisco. The price of silver had not dropped to the point where Congress was willing to authorize redemption of paper money with silver coin, and would not until April 1876, lowering the need to strike the pieces at Philadelphia. Additionally, the coin was principally intended for circulation in the West, another reason for a low mintage at Philadelphia. Mint officials had overestimated the need for the piece at San Francisco, where it saw some public acceptance and the large mintage satisfied the modest public demand until treasury officials ordered stocks melted in 1877.

Although the mint had given the twenty-cent piece a smooth rim, rather than the reeded one on the quarter, the two pieces were immediately confused. At 22 mm, the twenty-cent piece was only slightly smaller than the quarter at 24.3 mm, and the two pieces had near-identical obverses. Mistakes in change-making were widespread, and the twenty-cent piece quickly became extremely unpopular. In April 1876, when Congress began to allow the redemption of fractional currency with coin, the twenty-cent piece was listed as among the denominations that could be exchanged for the low-denomination paper. Nevertheless, in July, legislation was introduced to abolish the twenty-cent piece. Although the bill did not pass immediately, according to numismatist Vernon Brown in his article on the piece, the pendency of the bill convinced the mint that there was no point in striking further twenty-cent pieces. The mintage for 1876 was low (coining took place at Philadelphia and Carson City), and only proof specimens were coined in 1877 and 1878, at Philadelphia. Most of the 1876 Philadelphia mintage were sold as souvenirs at the Centennial Exposition.

In March 1877, Linderman authorized the melting of 12,359 twenty-cent pieces at Carson City. This included almost the entire mintage from 1876 (about 10,000) and created one of the great American numismatic rarities, the 1876-CC twenty-cent piece. Fewer than two dozen are known; one sold at auction for $564,000 in 2013, making it the record-holder for the denomination. In her 2003 article, numismatist Michele Orzano suggests that the few survivors were souvenirs obtained by visitors to the mint.

Congress abolished the twenty-cent piece on May 2, 1878. The previous day, Linderman had ordered the mints to melt down twenty-cent pieces on hand, for recoinage into other denominations. By then, forces for silver coinage had been victorious in passing the Bland–Allison Act, requiring the government to purchase large quantities of silver bullion, and strike it into dollars. The piece continued to circulate in the West for a few years, but by 1890 was rarely seen. Of the 1,351,540 twenty-cent pieces minted for circulation, over a third were melted by the government between 1895 and 1954, most heavily in 1933. The least expensive twenty-cent piece, according to the 2014 edition of R. S. Yeoman's A Guide Book of United States Coins (the Red Book), is the 1875-S, listed at $110 in good-4 condition. According to commentary in the Red Book, the twenty-cent piece failed because "the public was confused over the coin's similarity to the quarter dollar, which was better established as a foundation of American commerce", that fractional currency satisfied the need for small change in the East, and because "the twenty-cent piece was essentially just a substitute for two dimes".

Mintages
The mint mark letters indicate which mint produced the coin (parentheses indicate lack of a mint mark). The mint mark appears under the eagle on the reverse.
 * P (Philadelphia Mint)
 * CC (Carson City Mint)
 * S (San Francisco Mint)

title: Twenty-cent piece (United States coin)


text:
Churchill Bowl

The Sir Winston Churchill Bowl was one of two semi-final bowl games played in Canadian Interuniversity Sport football that would determine a participant in the Vanier Cup national championship. The trophy was originally donated and managed by McGill University to serve as an annual, often pre-season, invitational football contest between the sister universities of McGill and UBC in aid of the Canadian Paraplegic Association. The Churchill Bowl was retired in 2003 and replaced by the Mitchell Bowl.

History
The Churchill Bowl was originally created for Canadian University football invitational competition in 1953. The trophy was a sculpture created by R. Tait McKenzie entitled "The Onslaught".

Many of the games were regarded as an unofficial national championship of Canada, although three other university football leagues were not invited to play and disputed this claim. From 1953 through 1958 the game was a pre-season interconference exhibition. In 1959 and 1960, the Churchill Bowl was switched to a post-season game, pitting the Yates Cup and Hardy Trophy champions against each other in the first attempt in an unofficial national championship. There were eleven unofficial national championship or challenge games played between 1953 and 1964.

Staging games could prove to be difficult at times. In 1961 the Queen's Golden Gaels were the Yates Cup champions scheduled to play the Western Canadian Hardy Cup champion Alberta Golden Bears. However, the Ontario Intercollegiate Football Conference champion McMaster Marauders challenged Queen's to a post-season match which the Gaels were forced to play. With no game scheduled, the McGill Redmen hosted the Jewett Trophy champion St. Francis Xavier X-Men.

In 1963, the Hardy and Yates champions again faced off in the "Golden Bowl" between the Alberta Golden Bears and Queen's Golden Gaels, but McGill chose to hold onto to Churchill Bowl and play the Atlantic champion St. FX for a third consecutive year. Alberta's 25-7 victory marked the first major western victory over an eastern team, with McGill also losing to the X-Men in the Churchill. These events spurred an effort to create an official national championship.

When the Vanier Cup was staged as an official national championship in 1965, the trophy was retired. From 1968 to 1988 one of the national semi-final games was variously named Western Bowl, Forest City Bowl and Central Bowl.

In 1989, the CIAU requested and were given permission by the trustees of the trophy to reinstate the award for annual presentation to the winner of the National semi-final game, the Churchill Bowl. The trophy was taken out of storage at McGill and presented as the winner of this game. The winner of the Atlantic Bowl would meet the winner of the Churchill Bowl for the Vanier Cup. In 2003, the Churchill Bowl game was renamed the Uteck Bowl in honour of Larry Uteck. The trophy was retired for the second time.

Churchill Bowl Games
(*) Note: The Ottawa Gee-Gees were forced to forfeit all of their post-season titles in 1997 because they had ineligible players on their roster.

title: Churchill Bowl


text:
User talk:Grim22

Hello, welcome to Wikipedia. You might like to start by reading the tutorial and introducing yourself at the new users page. If you have any questions, you can ask at the help desk or on my talk page. Two useful tips are that you can sign your name using four tildes ( ~ ) and you can preview your changes before you save using the show preview button. You can regularly find new tips on the Community Portal. I look forward to reading your great articles and I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian. :) Willmcw 06:38, Apr 12, 2005 (UTC)

title: User talk:Grim22


text:
USS Tennessee (1865)

USS Tennessee, originally USS Madawaska, was a screw frigate built of wood at the New York Navy Yard in Brooklyn, New York, and launched as Madawaska on 8 July 1865. Powered by two Ericsson vibrating-lever engines, Madawaska departed New York City for sea trials 14 January 1867, Commander Francis A. Roe in command. Remaining at sea for one week, she steamed nearly 1,000 nautical miles (1,150 statute miles; 1,852 km) before returning when her supply of coal was exhausted.

She was renamed Tennessee 15 May 1869 and timbered up to the necessary height to allow a spar deck to be installed. She was fitted with new compound back‑acting engines capable of developing 3200 hp. She carried 380 tons of coal but was also rigged for sail, the area of her 10 principal sails being 22500 sqft.

Her duties included service as flagship of the Asiatic Squadron under Rear Admiral William Reynolds, with Captain William W. Low in command. By 1879 she was flagship of the North Atlantic Squadron under Rear Admiral Robert W. Wyman, with Captain David B. Harmony in command. On 15 February 1881 at New Orleans, Louisiana, Seaman George Low jumped overboard and rescued a fellow sailor from drowning, for which he was awarded the Medal of Honor.

In The Steam Navy of the United States, Frank M. Bennet relates that during the time Tennessee was flagship of the North Atlantic Squadron she was "the largest vessel then in commission in the American Navy, and the era of mastless steel cruisers was yet so far away that she was not suspected, by the youngsters at least, of being obsolete and stood as the type of all that was excellent and majestic in ship construction." Her spaciousness and the comfort of her quarters as well as her handling characteristics made her a favorite duty station.

Tennessee was sold on 15 September 1886 to Burdett Pond of Meriden, Connecticut.

title: USS Tennessee (1865)