China＊s Next Tallest Building Breaks Ground in Shanghai
Three months after mainland China＊s tallest building opened to tenants in a souring real estate environment, ground is being broken just next door in Shanghai for a $2.2 billion building more than one-fourth higher.
Next up is a 632-meter, 128-floor building dubbed Shanghai Tower. China＊s latest fantastical super-tall shopping, office and hotel skyscraper is designed to curl heavenward, incorporating ※green§ elements such as rainwater capture and wind redirecting technology. Gardens will grow in between and around what are essentially nine cylindrical buildings stacked atop one another, all of it visible through a transparent façade.
Shanghai Tower is set for a 2014 completion.
Such a building has been on the drawing board since the early 1990s, when Shanghai planners designated a trio of skyscrapers for the heart of a purpose-built financial district called Liujiazhui, Pudong.
The first of the three, the 88-floor, 420-meter Jin Mao Tower opened in 1998 to laudatory reviews for its stainless steel pagoda-like design. Ten years later, in August, Japan＊s Mori Building Co. took wraps off the 492-meter building called Shanghai World Financial Center, that was as controversial as it was delayed. It features a trapezoid-shaped hole at its top, where a glass-enclosed observation deck offers views from floor 101.
Though Shanghai is well-known for a dozen buildings built in the 1930s on its historical Bund, its skyscraper race is mostly playing out on the opposite bank of the city＊s Huangpu River, in Pudong. Dozens of banks have built towers but the height crown has changed hands less often, about once a decade.
Each new tower has redefined the much-photographed Shanghai skyline. Yet, the arguably most eye-catching structure in the former farm and factory land of Pudong remains a 1995 gaudy spike of concrete and purple glass called Oriental Pearl Tower that at night strobes a light beam across the city sky.
None of the Shanghai structures gets close in height to a tower in the United Arab Emirates called Burj Dubai that even amid construction has already stretched to 688 meters. And while Shanghai is one of the world＊s biggest construction markets, with a rare concentration of super-tall buildings in close proximity, subway expansion projects are the most noticeable building work in the east coast city today. Shanghai also ranks as only the world＊s seventh tallest city, while Beijing＊s extreme makeover ahead of this year＊s summer Olympic Games gave it power to boast at having China＊s most iconic buildings.
A shared characteristic on Shanghai＊s dazzling cityscape: seed money from Chinese state owned banks and companies.
Shanghai Tower is being built by a consortium of companies owned by the municipal government ″ two years ago the local government had put the project on hold amid a big corruption scandal. San Francisco-based Gensler is the designer, while the design institute of Shanghai＊s Tongji University will act as the local partner.
At a press conference this week organized by the Shanghai government, developers of Shanghai Tower defended the estimated 14.8 billion yuan, or $2.2 billion, price tag by saying it is the kind of project China needs as its economy slows and that in a down market they can save money on material costs. ※The Shanghai center is expected to increase domestic demand and economic growth amid the world - wide financial crisis,§ the official Xinhua News Agency said, quoting Kong Qingwei, board chairman of the building consortium, Shanghai Center Construction and Development Co.
Need is another question. Elbow room is becoming less of a problem in crowded Shanghai. Savills Plc last month pegged the vacancy rate for Grade A offices in Shanghai at above 11%, and cited widespread discounting by landlords to attract tenants into empty space. Following opening of the Mori building, the firm estimated, over 687,000 square meters in new Grade A office supply has come onto the Shanghai market in 2008, outstripping demand of 405,000 square meters. It said the average rent stood at $42.9 per square meter per month, cautioning that some statistics don＊t fully capture upward pressure on vacancy rates.
More supply is on the way. Savills noted that in addition to the new tower for Pudong, a groundbreaking is set before yearend for a 340-meter building on the more historic Puxi side of Shanghai. |
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