Shanghai's two offices in one

Click image to expand

Click image to expand

Click image to expand

of

This office high-rise sits on Century Avenue, the main, 300-foot-wide boulevard in Shanghai’s newly developed Pudong area, the primary location for the city’s modern office towers. Approximately one-half of the building will be occupied by members of the Diamond Exchange, with the remainder available for other tenants. The ground floor will house Diamond Center-related retail and, on the second floor, will include the elevator lobby, exhibition space and a restaurant.The building is conceived as two rectangular office slabs connected by a skylit atrium with a cable-supported net wall at each end. One tower is dedicated to Diamond Exchange members and designed to provide them with secure transport from their below-grade parking spaces to their offices above. The adjacent tower serves other tenants, with access through an open elevator tower in the center of the atrium. The ends of the rectangular slabs are clad with horizontal grilles, which provide a monumental surface that disguises the intakes and exhausts of the mechanical system. The curtain wall opposite the atrium uses a series of horizontal fritted-glass screens to reduce glare and minimize the internal heat load.