The Center (traditional Chinese: 中環中心) is the fourth tallest skyscraper in Hong Kong, after Two International Finance Centre (88 storeys), Central Plaza and Bank of China Tower. With a height of 346 m (1,135 feet), it comprises 73 storeys. The Center is one of the few skyscrapers in Hong Kong that is entirely steel-structured with no reinforced concrete core. It is located on Queen’s Road Central in the Central and Western district, roughly halfway between the MTR Island Line’s Sheung Wan and Central stations.

The Center is notable for its arrangement of hundreds of neon lights arranged as bars in increasing frequency towards the top of the building, which slowly scroll through the colours of the spectrum at night. During the Christmas season, the building’s neon arrangement follows a festive motif and resembles a Christmas tree.

The direct translation of the Chinese name of the building is “Central Centre” or the “centre of Central”, even though the building is in fact near the boundary of Central and Sheung Wan.

The building was a project involving the Land Development Corporation since it was required to demolish many old buildings and lanes. The premises of The Center is of irregular shape because surrounding lots within Queen’s Road Central, Jubilee Street, Des Voeux Road Central and Gilman’s Bazaar were already redeveloped. Various lanes and streets including Gilman Street, Wing On Street, Tung Man Street, Hing Lung Street, and Tit Hong Lane were shortened.

In addition, several historical structures were demolished from the project. Many cloth shops located on Wing On Street, also known as Cloth Alley, were moved to the Western Market while Eu Yan Sang, a traditional Chinese medicine shop, was moved near the Stag Building to continue business.

Other Information

• Location : Hong Kong
• Status : Complete
• Constructed : 1995 – 1998
• Use : Office
• Height : Antenna/Spire – 346 m (1,135 ft), Roof – 292 m (958 ft), Top floor – 275 m (902 ft)
• Floor count : 80
• Floor area : 130,032 m² (1,399,653 sq ft)
• Elevator count : 35, made by Otis Elevator Company
• Architect : Dennis Lau & Ng Chun Man Architects & Engineers (HK) Ltd.

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Tags: bank of china tower, Hong Kong Skyscraper, International Finance Centre, tallest skyscraper

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 5th, 2009 at 5:26 pm and is filed under Skyscrapers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.