CENTRAL PLAZA


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CENTRAL PLAZA
374 metres/1,227 feet
78 stories
Completed: 1992

Some Central Plaza facts & figures:

- the office tower is situated in the Wanchai North district of Hong Kong, on Hong Kong Island.
- it was Hong Kong's tallest skyscraper from 1992 - 2003,
when it was surpassed by Two International Finance Centre;
it was Asia’s tallest until 1996, when Shenzhen’s Shun Hing Square was completed;
- designed by DLN (Dennis Lau & Ng Chun Man) Architects & Engineers;
- originally, Central Plaza was proposed to have 92 stories and would surpass
the Empire State Building in height, but financial problems prevented it from becoming taller.
Nevertheless, it was the tallest reinforced concrete skyscraper in the world when completed in 1992
(although it lost this title to Guangzhou's CITIC Plaza in 1997);
- construction of the building started in January of 1989;
the tower was completed in August of 1992;
- the tower has a triangular shape with rebated corners;
Central Plaza stands on a 30,5m/100f-high podium,
while the building is topped by a pyramidal roof, with a surmounting mast;
- the building used to have a public observatory (sky deck) on the 44th floor,
but it was closed after the fatal events of September 11th, 2001;
- the height of the building is including the spire on top,
which is part of the architectural design of the tower;
without spire, the building reaches a height of 309m/1,014f.
The spire itself is 102 metres (335 feet) tall, but a part of it is not visible;
- the skyscraper is part of A Symphony Of Light, a permanent nightly spectacle in Hong Kong
that combines interactive lights of 44 key buildings on both Hong Kong Island and Kowloon
with musical effects to showcase the vibrancy and glamorous night vista of Victoria Harbour;
some 1,000 neon transformers with a total length of 6,000 metres are used on Central Plaza to create this spectacle;
- the building was built on a site area of 7,230 square metres (77,795 sq f);
- total gross floor area is 130,140 square metres (1,400,306 sq f);
- building costs were approximately US$ 141,000,000
- the façade of the building consists of granite and glass;
720 tonnes of granite cover 40,060 square metres of the building,
while almost 50,000 square metres is glass covered;
- the building has 39 computerized high-speed lifts;
- about 6,000 people work in the building;
- the part of the summit between the roof and the mast itself functions as a clock;
incorporated in the mast’s four spandrel neon bands is a high-tech and high-profile lighting system
that changes colouring in a regular sequence every quarter of an hour;
the system works according to a six-hour colour cycle
(6pm and 12am: red, 7pm and 1am: white, 8pm and 2am: purple,
9pm and 3am: yellow, 10pm and 4am: pink, and 11pm and 5am: green);
every quarter of an hour one neon band changes its current colour to the one of the next hour,
so for instance 6,30 pm would have two red bands (lower ones) and two white ones (upper);
- the 69^th and 75^th floors house the world’s highest church:
the Hong Kong City Church;
- on the upper executive floors there is also a swimming pool and fitness studio, among others;




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