Architecture firm Goettsch Partners (GP) has designed the new Poly Business Tower in Shunde, China. Totaling 110,000 square meters, the project is one of several current assignments between GP and leading Chinese developer Poly Real Estate (Group) Co., Ltd. Other office, hotel and mixed-use developments are located in the cities of Chengdu, Deyang and Guangzhou.
The new tower in Shunde will be the tallest structure in the area, at a height of 200 meters, and will be a centerpiece of the business district. It will add valuable Class A office space and will be in close proximity to various cultural and government facilities in the city, making the structure a critical venue and focal point.
GP’s concept was to create an efficient, modern tower that integrates features of the local culture into the architectural expression of the building. Particularly inspired by the “pinwheel” patterns commonly found in the regional screens and paving, the tower’s planning and façade articulation are designed to showcase this traditional vernacular. Pinwheel-patterned perforated screens extend the full height of the tower in order to provide shading; more importantly though, they integrate and conceal fresh-air ventilation for all office floors. These screens, in conjunction with automated energy controls, high-performance glazing and vertical shading devices, create an energy-efficient skin that also provides floor-to-ceiling glass for all office users.
A multi-story winter garden is designed for the top of the structure, offering unobstructed views of the surroundings in all directions. This signature space will be lit at night to create a new beacon that provides identity for the Shunde business district. At the base, the tower is seated at the head of a ceremonial garden. The four-sided lobby is designed to engage the landscape, blurring the distinction between interior and exterior space while intuitively segregating vehicular and pedestrian circulation around the perimeter of the building.
Completion of the development is scheduled for 2014. +
Related Stories
| Oct 5, 2012
2012 Reconstruction Award Bronze Winner: Pomeroy Senior Apartments, Chicago, Ill.
The entire interior of the building was renovated, from the first floor lobby and common areas, to the rooftop spaces. The number of living units was reduced from 120 to 104 to allow for more space per unit and comply with current accessibility requirements.
| Oct 5, 2012
2012 Reconstruction Award Bronze Winner: Walsh Group Training and Conference Center, Chicago, Ill.
With its Building Team partners—architect Solomon Cordwell Buenz, structural engineer CS Associates, and M/E engineer McGuire Engineers—Walsh Construction, acting as its own contractor, turned the former automobile showroom and paperboard package facility into a 93,000-sf showcase of sustainable design and construction.
| Oct 5, 2012
2012 Reconstruction Award Silver Winner: 220 Water Street, Brooklyn, N.Y.
The recent rehabilitation of 220 Water Street transforms it from a vacant manufacturing facility to a 134-unit luxury apartment building in Brooklyn’s DUMBO neighborhood.
| Oct 5, 2012
2012 Reconstruction Award Silver Winner: Residences at the John Marshall, Richmond, Va.
In April 2010, the Building Team of Rule Joy Trammell + Rubio, Stanley D. Lindsey & Associates, Leppard Johnson & Associates, and Choate Interior Construction restored the 16-story, 310,537-sf building into the Residences at the John Marshall, a new mixed-use facility offering apartments, street-level retail, a catering kitchen, and two restored ballrooms.
| Oct 4, 2012
2012 Reconstruction Awards Silver Winner: Allen Theatre at PlayhouseSquare, Cleveland, Ohio
The $30 million project resulted in three new theatres in the existing 81,500-sf space and a 44,000-sf contiguous addition: the Allen Theatre, the Second Stage, and the Helen Rosenfeld Lewis Bialosky Lab Theatre.
| Oct 4, 2012
2012 Reconstruction Awards Gold Winner: Wake Forest Biotech Place, Winston-Salem, N.C.
Reconstruction centered on Building 91.1, a historic (1937) five-story former machine shop, with its distinctive façade of glass blocks, many of which were damaged. The Building Team repointed, relocated, or replaced 65,869 glass blocks.
| Oct 4, 2012
2012 Reconstruction Awards Gold Winner: Rice Fergus Miller Office & Studio, Bremerton, Wash.
Rice Fergus Miller bought a vacant and derelict Sears Auto and converted the 30,000 gsf space into the most energy-efficient commercial building in the Pacific Northwest on a construction budget of around $100/sf.
| Oct 4, 2012
2012 Reconstruction Award Platinum Winner: Building 1500, Naval Air Station Pensacola Pensacola, Fla.
The Building Team, led by local firms Caldwell Associates Architects and Greenhut Construction, had to tackle several difficult problems to make the historic building meet current Defense Department standards having to do with anti-terrorism, force protection, blast-proofing, and progressive collapse.
| Oct 4, 2012
2012 Reconstruction Awards Platinum Winner: City Hall, New York, N.Y.
New York's City Hall last received a major renovation nearly a century ago. Four years ago, a Building Team led by construction manager Hill International took on the monumental task of restoring City Hall for another couple of hundred years of active service.
| Oct 4, 2012
BD+C's 29th Annual Reconstruction Awards
Presenting 11 projects that represent the best efforts of distinguished Building Teams in historic preservation, adaptive reuse, and renovation and addition projects.
