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Site
0.8 hectares, in Hong Kong's central business district

Index to Projects in China

Hong Kong

Gross Floor Area
130,000m
2

Client
Bank of China /
Hong Kong

Time Frame
Planning: 12/82–
Construction: 4/85–
Completion: 3/90

Bank of China Tower

Hong Kong
Completed 1989

 

Lead Designers:
 

 

 

I. M. Pei
L.C. Pei

 

Regional bank headquarters with tenant offices and water gardens
 

Click on image to enlarge

On a difficult inland site, the client requested a distinctive regional headquarters with an imposing banking hall and 130,000m2 of office space, 40% for BOC's operations and the remainder for tenant leasing. The challenge was to execute the necessarily tall building in a typhoon zone within a firm budget of HK$1 billion (US$130 million).

The solution, integrating architecture and engineering inseparably, involves an asymmetrical tower that addresses both skyline and street. Comprised of four vertical shafts, the incremental tower emerges from a 52-meter cube and diminishes its mass, quadrant by quadrant, until a single triangular prism remains. The faceted prism is clad in reflective glass that mirrors the changing sky, anchoring the expanding business district and providing a distinctive vertical axis to Hong Kong's towering skyline. The whole is supported by an innovative composite structural system that not only resists high-velocity winds, but does so with significant savings of construction time and materials.

At ground level, the tower is pulled back from the street to create a welcoming pedestrian environment that is fully accessible yet secluded from urban congestion.  It is surrounded by a broad promenade, and flanked by cooling water gardens that muffle the activity and noise of surrounding traffic.

 

Major Components

55,700m2 offices on 51 floors; 1,580m2 banking hall; 17-story bank atrium; 1,700m2 executive dining / 17th fl. lounge; 1,280m2 employee cafeteria (19th fl.); 420m2 executive dining / 68th fl.; 460m2 VIP apartment suites; 600m2 penthouse lounge; commissioned art (Ming Ju bronze); 1,300m2 gardens; 370-car underground garage

 

Awards

1992

Internazionale Marmi e Machine Carrara, S. P. A.: Marble Architectural Award, East Asia

 

1991

R. S. Reynolds Memorial Award

 

1990

l'Association des Ingénieurs,
Conseils du Canada: Prix d'Excellence

 

1989

New York Association of Consulting Engineers: Award for Engineering Excellence

 

1989

American Consulting Engineering Council:
Grand Award

 

1989

Structural Engineers Association of Illinois:
Best Structure Award


 

Pei Cobb Freed & Partners services

Architectural Design; Construction Documents; coordination with associate architect on construction administration

 

Associate Architect

Kung & Lee Associate Architects, Hong Kong

 

Structural

Leslie E. Robertson Associates, New York, NY, and
Valentine, Laurie, and Davies, Hong Kong

 

Mechanical / Electrical

Jaros, Baum and Bolles, New York, NY and
Associated Consulting Engineers, Hong Kong

 

 

Photo credits

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