GP Wins its Largest Commission in China

Goettsch Partners (GP) has been hired by developer China Resources Land Limited (CR Land) to design a massive project located in Neighborhood 2 of Shenzhen’s Qianhai district. The project covers 6.18 hectares and includes five commercial towers totaling 450,000 square meters—the firm’s largest project to-date in China. The overall development totals 503,000 square meters and includes three office towers, a five-star hotel tower, an apartment tower, shopping mall and retail stores. GP is designing all of the towers, as well as the hotel and apartment podiums and their affiliated program spaces. GP will collaborate with UK-based design firm Benoy, who developed the master plan and is designing the shopping mall and retail areas.

The Qianhai district is a special economic zone designated for an ambitious $45 billion overall development to transform the 15-square-kilometer area into the “Manhattan of the Pearl River Delta.” Neighborhood 2 is the most recent of three Qianhai parcels sold. 

The overall design concept is one of a unified complex composed of buildings with related yet individual exterior characteristics and facades designed with a textured elegance that differentiates them from the surrounding blue-glass buildings of Shenzhen. A metallic-painted aluminum frame with consistent spacing between verticals prioritizes internal planning flexibility for the office towers. The spacing between horizontal frame elements varies from a two-story to a four-story rhythm in order to respond more individually to each office building’s height and proportions. The frame’s vertical component is accentuated by means of double fins; this character is countered by an expression of double horizontal fins on the hotel and apartment towers that create a related yet different appearance while affording maximum flexibility for views and natural ventilation.

“We are delighted and honored to win this prestigious commission,” said James Zheng, AIA, LEED AP, president of GP.  “We are confident to design a modern, bold and highly sustainable world class complex for the new Qianhai district.”

The commission marks GP’s latest project for CR Land. Other assignments include the Grand Hyatt Dalian, an over 400-meter-tall mixed-use tower in Nanning, the Hotel Kapok Shenzhen Bay, and two additional towers at Shenzhen Bay.