Culture Plaza: Performance and Iconicity of Megastructures

A series of challenging site constraints prompted an innovative structural solution for the Guizhou Culture Plaza Tower (GCP), through which a new performance based expression was created for Guiyang’ skyline. A design solution that values performance, iconicity, and the public realm with equal weight was a result of an integrated and collaborative process. By leveraging technology, the GCP Tower is an example of an emerging new design language that is reshaping supertall tower design; an integrated workflow that is based on solving performance based criteria as its primary focus.

Guiyang – A City in Flux

Located in China’s lush and mountainous Guizhou province, Guiyang is a city that is experiencing explosive growth. Currently ranked as a second-tier city by Chinese national standards (Explore and Compare China, 2015), Guiyang’s economic and development potential make it is a premier provincial capital, booming with intra-China ecotourism amidst good air quality and a rich ecological, cultural and historic setting (Air Quality Index China, 2015). It has a population of approximately four million people, a figure which is projected to double within the next 15 years, as a result of the economic shift from rural to commercial. To meet the projected demand, rapid growth, and development is occurring across the metropolitan landscape, a place characterized by the imposing presence of mountains and giant limestone karsts. The constantly changing ground-plane impacts the scale and morphology of new development and creates challenging conditions for new construction, in contrast to this topographic condition, a handful of key environmental conditions make Guiyang an ideal location for building vertically: mild weather, favorable soil conditions, diffuse-light conditions, low wind patterns and great air quality.

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Materials provided by SKIDMORE, OWNINGS & MERRILL LLP
Authors: Yuping Luo, Chairman, Zhongtian Urban Development Group Co., Ltd; Charles Besjak, Director of Structural Engineering, Skidmore, Ownings & Merrill LLP; Daniel Cashen, Senior Designer, Skidmore, Ownings & Merrill LLP; Colin Koop, Design Director, Skidmore, Ownings & Merrill LLP