Guangzhou’s new business and cultural district is poised to place it firmly on the international map.
The party boat cruises at a quick clip along the Guangzhou waterfront. On the top deck, a score of the city’s business elite sip champagne and get down to hits form the “80s and 90s”. The boat slows as it approaches the start of Zhujiang New Town with its steel ribs, hulking cranes, bamboo scaffolding and winking construction lights.
“I’m already looking at a possible venue in New City”, says Shawn Rayson, a local restaurateur and caterer who organized the evening showboat gala. “It’s really amazing what’s happening there”.
Rayson’s definitely onto something. The construction of Zhujiang New Town, a massive new business, leisure and culture district in southeastern Guangzhou, is one of the most important developments taking place south of the Yangtze. Once completed, the area will host the city’s score of consulates, feature world-renowned architecture and be home to a spate of luxury residential communities and hotels, as well as a striking new opera house, designed by renowned architect Zara Hadid and aimed at placing the city firmly on the global cultural as well as architectural map.
The local government is aiming to make it a major hub in time for the East Asian Games in 2010 which will be held in the city. Property investors and developers from both China and overseas have flocked to the new project. Country Garden Holdings, owned by China’s richest individual, Yang Huiyan, has raised USD 600 million for speculation in Zhujiang New Town, while international property giant Jones Lang LaSalle will undertake the management of a landmark new premises in the new area. No wonder the city’s business leaders are celebrating.
Five-star Fever
Unsurprisingly, luxury hotels have been keen to establish presences in the New City. Among the first major properties to open its doors this month will be the Ritz-Carlton Guangzhou, located next to the brand new opera house and museum.“we are very excited to be in prime location”, says the hotel’s general manager Francois Cnockaert, “What’s more, we’ll be the first to set the tone for five-star destinations in this area”.
Cnockaert’s right to expect competition. The Guangzhou Park Hyatt Hotel is also joining the district. Billed at USD 150 million, the 66-story,1,000 foot tall property will feature staggered vertical strips on its fa?ade that will stretch and compress like tendons, say designers, in response to the function of each floor. It is planned to be finished sometime in 2010.
Culture Vultures
Apart from posh hotels, two key culture centers are poised to put polish on the Pearl: the Guangzhou Opera House and the new Guangdong Museum of Art.
Construction on the Guangzhou Opera House began in 2005 and it is supposed to open sometime this year. It will consist of 46,000sqm and was designed by the acclaimed London-based architect Zaha Hadid, creator of masterpieces such as the award-winning Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art in Cincinnati. Billed at RMB1 billion(USD 138 million), the Guangzhou Opera House will rival Beijing’s National Theatre and Shanghai Theatre as one of the biggest performing houses in China. It will certainly be the biggest of its kind in southern China, with 1,800 seats and a 2,500sqm multipurpose hall. The design is daring: sharp and curvilinear shapes symbolizing river pebbles run from large halls right down to the river itself.
Its cultural neighbor, the new Guangdong Museum of Art, will contrast the opera house’s curves with its box-shaped proportions. Designed by Hongkong’s Rocco Yim, the museum has a Chinese courtyard theme with alcoves and layered spaces. Yim calls it his “treasure box” because of its traditional Chinese lacquered box form and collection of over 130,000 exhibitions. It is supposed to be completed sometime before 2009 and will cost RMB455 million(USD 63 million).
Sky’s the limit
Yim is also undertaking one of the area’s showcase financial projects-the International Financial Place, or IFP. Hongkong-based KWG group is underwriting the IFP and has hired Jones Lang LaSalle to manage the 39-story development.
IFP won’t be the biggest tower on the block though. That honor goes to the Guangzhou Twin Towers West Tower, which will be the world’s fourth-tallest building when completed in 2009.Tagged at RMB 10 billion(USD1.4 billion),construction of the Wilkinson Eyre-and Ove Arup-designed megastructure began in 2005.When completed in 2009,it will reach 103 stories at 437.5m in height. The East Tower will be completed by 2010 and complement two other new skyscrapers also under construction in the New City: Pearl River New Tower and the Guangzhou TV Tower.
The former is being designed by New York based Skiddings, Owens, Merrill(SOM) and will consist of 71 stories. It will be a “zero-energy” building, fitted with solar panels and a curtain wall to collect water, while its body will funnel wind energy into turbines----potentially generating as much energy as it uses, say SOM architects.
They’re also confidence the building will get international media coverage, especially from the owners of its neighbor, the Guangzhou Television Tower. This also promises to be a visual treat, with its 450m of crystalline space and a twisted tube of steel structure.
The concept was created by Mark Hemel, the director of Information Based Architecture(IBA); Arup; and the Guangzhou Design Institute. As one might expect, this communications tower will host a television and radio station, commercial facilities, as well as conference and exhibition rooms. Its crowning climax is naturally at the top----an outdoor square with terraced landscaping, a two-story revolving restaurant, and observation deck. Planners anticipate that 10,000 visitors will pass through this tower every day when it opens in 2009. The total cost for the project is currently running at RMB 2.2 billion( USD303 million)-not surprising given that it’s being dubbed Guangzhou’s new landmark.
Great Expectations
Despite the ambitious scale and hefty cost of the construction projects, local dignitaries and residents are convinced that the Zhujiang New Town will play a crucial role in Guangzhou’s emerging prominence as a globally recognized city.
“This development is going to be very good for business and help put more of an international focus on Guangzhou”, says Hannu Toivola, the Guangzhou Consul-General for Finland. “we are already seeing more Europeans, for example, paying attention to here. Nicer hotels and residents will be very good for tourism too”.
Local resident Erika Leung, a senior executive with fashion magazine Noblesse, has watched the New City rise up from her nearby apartment. She is also in little doubt that the new development will have a transformative effect on the city.
“Right now it’s a lot of steel and dust, but in a few years, its really going to change Guangzhou”, she says.“I sometimes wonder why development here is not as fast as Beijing or Shanghai, but this center will really alter all that.”
Guangzhou City
