Chater House

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Chater House
Chinese: 遮打大廈
200px
Chater House viewed from Connaught Road
General information
Status Complete
Type shopping mall,
office building
Location 7-9 Connaught Road Central, 10-12 Chater Road, Central, Hong Kong
Coordinates Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
Construction started October 1998
Opening 2003
Cost HK$2.3 billion
Owner Hongkong Land
Technical details
Floor count 30
Floor area 438,500 net sq.ft. (498,000 sq ft. gfa)
Lifts/elevators 16 passenger, 2 service
Design and construction
Architect Kohn Pedersen Fox
Developer Hongkong Land
Main contractor Gammon Construction

Chater House (simplified Chinese: 遮打大厦; traditional Chinese: 遮打大廈) is an office tower in Central, Hong Kong. Opened in 2003,it is a part of the Hongkong Land portfolio of properties. The building was built on the site of the former Swire House, and was named after Sir Paul Chater. The building faces streets on three sides: Chater Road, Pedder Street and Connaught Road Central.

Plot history

Union Building viewed from Pedder Street, looking north, c.1926. A corner of the burnt down Hong Kong Hotel is visible on the right.

There were three buildings on the site between 1905 and 1958,namely Mansions Building (Hotel Mansions, later renamed Union Building),King's Building and York Building.[1]

View from Victoria Harbour in the 1920s. The building on the left is King's Building, and the adjacent, slightly taller one is Union Building.

Following the Praya reclamation of 1890–1904, a building was constructed and opened in 1905, that served as offices of Canadian Pacific Ocean Services (G/F) and Hong Kong, Canton & Macao Steamboat Company (1/F).

This building was acquired in 1921, and used as its headquarters by the Union Insurance Society of Canton Ltd., and then became known as Union Building(於仁行).

It was bought by The Hongkong Land Company in 1946, and was demolished in 1950. Hongkong Land later acquired the adjacent King's Building and demolished it in 1958 to complete the Union House complex.

King's Building

King's Building was built in 1905 and was for some time home to Marconi Wireless. The building was located along Connaught Road, next to the Union Building. It was demolished in 1958.

Swire House

The 23-storey building,[2] initially called Union House (於仁大廈), was completed in 1962, and had a total floor space of 34,000 square metres (370,000 sq ft).[3] in the 1970s, the Swire Group, gained naming rights for the building, which was renamed Swire House (太古大廈) in 1976.[1] In 1997, the main tenant of the building was Cathay Pacific, which occupied about 30% of the floor space. Other tenants included other Swire group companies, including Swire Pacific and Swire Industries.[4] Swire House was demolished on 5 October 1998.

Chater House

Foyer of Chater House, Hong Kong, with bust of Sir Paul Chater.

The site was again redeveloped by Hongkong Land when the new Hong Kong International Airport opened in 1998. The building's main tenant, Cathay Pacific and Swire Group, relocated to Cathay City and Pacific Place when the airport moved to its new site at Chek Lap Kok and Admiralty.[4]

Chater House has a total floor area of 438,500 net sq.ft. (498,000 sq ft. gross), was designed by architects Kohn Pedersen Fox. It was originally configured into 30 floors – 474,000 net sq. ft – of office accommodation above a three-level retail podium of 45,000 net sq.ft. (81,000 sq ft. gfa) and a three-level basement,[5] which includes 112 parking spaces. When the project was announced, in 1997, the estimated cost was HK$2.3 billion, and would complete in 2003.[4] Architecture firm Aedas were the architect for the Chater House[6]

The building is linked to the Central Elevated Walkway, also owned by Hong Kong Land.

In 2014, the display of Antony Gormley's art installation Event Horizon at Chater House was cancelled when US investment bank JPMorgan, which has offices in the building, asked Hongkong Land – the sponsor of Event Horizon – to cancel its support for the show after bank employee Dennis Li Junjie[7] jumped to his death from the building's roof.[8]

Tenants

The main tenant of Chater House is JPMorgan, who have their Asia Pacific headquarters in the building. Other current tenants include Franklin Templeton Investments and previous tenants include the Securities and Futures Commission.

Nearby buildings

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1

    Union Building

    gwulo.com: Swire House (originally named "Union House") [1962–1998]

  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Press release, " Hongkong Land Unveils New Look of 11 Chater Road", Hong Kong Land, 5 March 2001
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Cristina Ruiz (10 May 2014), Gormley’s Hong Kong installation cancelled after banker’s suicide The Art Newspaper.

External links

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