Mass Transit Railway Tower (Union Square Phase 7), West Kowloon, Hong Kong

The Mass Transit Railway (MTR) Tower is a new office and residential building being developed on the Union Square site.

The site is on Nga Cheung Road and Austin Road West, at the southern tip of the West Kowloon reclamation area overlooking Victoria Harbour in Hong Kong. The Tower is the final stages (Phase 7) of the Kowloon Station Development, known since 2001 as the Union Square complex, under construction in the area.

Construction was started in 2002 following some design changes to the originally planned 'world's tallest' tower by the architects Kohn Pederson and Fox of New York, USA, in September 2001. The old design had a 100m pyramidal top that included a transparent atrium, which would have raised the structure's height to 580m.

The developer took the decision to re-design the tower mainly due to new height restrictions imposed by the planning department in the areas around Victoria Harbour. These restrictions are in place to keep buildings from rising higher than nearby mountains.

The new design is a square 474m tower with 108 floors and 270,000m² of office space, retail areas, serviced apartments, hotel space and car parking facilities.

MASS TRANSIT RAILWAY DEVELOPERS AND FINANCE

The Tower is being developed by the Mass Transit Railway (MTR) Corporation (as the customer), Sun Hung Kai Properties (SHKP), Hang Lung Group Ltd, Wharf Holdings and Wing Tai Group.

Two smaller 68-storey towers - Union Square Phase 6 - are also under construction and will together accommodate 262,185m² of office, hotel and retail space (the Phase 5 hotel complex was cancelled in 2002 and Phase 6 increased to two larger towers).

The tender for developing the last two stages (Phases 6 and 7) of the 'Kowloon Station Development' at Union Square was awarded to SHKP in October 2000. The project is estimated to be worth HK$29 billion ($3.85 billion). One major financial term is that SHKP will have to give rental and management rights of 78% of the 82,750m² shopping mall to the MTR.

The land for the project cost HK$7.4 billion. Kowloon Station, which is one of the six subway stations of the Tung Chung Line and Airport Express Line, will be situated in the podium beneath the MTR Tower. This tower will form a gateway for Victoria Harbour with the two International Finance Centres (2IFC) at the opposite side of the harbour.

A seven-star hotel with 250 rooms will be located near the top portion of the Tower. It will also include convention and conference facilities. The seven-star hotel will be the highest hotel in the world, surpassing the one in Jin Mao Tower, also in Hong Kong.

MASS TRANSIT RAILWAY CONTRACTORS

The design architect for the project is Kohn Pederson and Fox Associates; the construction architect is Wong and Ouyang (HK) Ltd. The construction is being carried out by Sanfield Building Contractors Ltd and structural engineering by Maunsell Group and Ove Arup and Partners Hong Kong Ltd.

The Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing (MEP) engineering is being carried out by J Roger Preston Ltd. Geotechnical engineering is by Ove Arup and Partners Hong Kong Ltd, Bachy Soletanche Group Ltd and Intrafor Asia.

The company responsible for the foundations of the building is Backy Soletanche Group Ltd. The wind surveyor is Rowan Williams Davies and Irwin Inc. The façade of the building is to be constructed by Arup Façade division.

MASS TRANSIT RAILWAY ENGINEERING

The façade for the building is to consist of triple-glazed glass curtain wall panels and lacquered aluminium panels. The building will be of a traditional construction with steel and site cast reinforced concrete framework/columns, along with a site cast reinforced concrete core section, housing services and elevator shafts. The floor sections will consist of a steel deck with concrete overlay.