Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) recently unveiled the design for the Hangzhou Wangchao Center in Hangzhou, China. The tower will add 125,000 sm of office, hotel, and retail space directly adjacent to one of the city’s new subway stations.
The tower’s silhouette is the result of an efficient structural system that minimizes wind loads with eight mega-columns that slope outward at the corners to create large, flexible floor plates. As the corner columns move farther apart, secondary perimeter columns branch out to maintain equal bays.
At the tower’s crown, the primary corner columns extend upward to a truss at the top level. Hangers and spandrels are braced back to the central concrete core with a series of struts that work in tandem to support MEP equipment and conceal the building maintenance systems.
Above the lobby, a Vierendeel transfer truss links the secondary columns to the corner columns, which creates an open lobby space below. The cladding on the undulating façade consists of planar glass panels.
"The Hangzhou Wangchao Center's distinctive silhouette derives its form from an integrated design process that solves programmatic, structural, and environmental criteria,” says SOM Design Partner, Gary Haney, in a release. “Located at the intersection of several major transportation networks, the tower is a beacon of performance-driven design and is emblematic of Hangzhou's future as a new global destination."
The Hangzhou Wangchao Center is slated for completion in 2021.
Related Stories
Mixed-Use | Feb 19, 2019
Sunset Library in Brooklyn will be capped with 50 affordable residences
Magnusson Architecture and Planning is designing the facility.
Mixed-Use | Feb 18, 2019
Seaport World Trade Center will offer Bostonians 737,000 sf of waterfront mixed-use space
Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects is designing the project.
Mixed-Use | Jan 22, 2019
Mixed-use skyscraper rises in the heart of metropolitan Tokyo
Pickard Chilton designed the building.
Mixed-Use | Jan 4, 2019
Grenoble, France’s new mixed-use building has the skin of a python
A Prada bag inspired the design.
Mixed-Use | Jan 2, 2019
Goettsch Partners’ and Lead8’s mixed-use complex begins construction in Changchun, China
The complex includes a 980-foot tower.
Mixed-Use | Dec 14, 2018
Schmidt Hammer Lassen’s first U.S. project breaks ground in Detroit
The mixed-use development will connect some of Detroit’s key public spaces.
Mixed-Use | Dec 10, 2018
Luxury residential development completes in downtown Charleston
JE Dunn was the general contractor for the project and The Preston Partnership is the architect of record.
Mixed-Use | Nov 7, 2018
53-story L.A. tower has a series of 12 cantilevered pools
Arquitectonica is designing the building.
Mixed-Use | Nov 5, 2018
44-acre mixed-use project completes in Northridge, Calif.
Ware Malcomb designed the project.
Mixed-Use | Oct 25, 2018
Philadelphia’s uCity Square kicks off major expansion drive
This innovation center has several office, lab, and residential buildings in the works.