Atlanta, Georgia, USA – John Portman & Associates announced that the firm’s design for Xi Shui Dong Lot A Super Tall Project, Greenland Wuxi 200, was declared the winning entry in an international design competition held by Greenland Hong Kong Wuxi.
Together with its podium base, the 657-foot (200-metre) tower will include over 947,000 square feet (88,000 square metres) of built area. Planning for the new tower has its basis in three key ideas – bold clarity, holistic simplicity, and a constructed aesthetic.
Firm Principal and Design Director, Gordon Beckman, AIA, elaborated: “The tower itself develops from the pragmatic programmatic initiatives. Simple, bold geometries assure a strong presence as a marker for the new district. Further, the project is composed with a systems approach, using the appropriate, economical and efficient systems, composed so that each contribute to the greater whole.”
Anchored on the northeast corner of the site, the tower emerges from a four-storey mixed-use podium that includes activating retail. The podium is elevated to create a porous connection from the canal waterfront to the central space of the five towers court. Elevating the podium allows for vehicular access around the base of the tower, creating entry courts for the primary functions of the project. The more public hotel entry is located to the east, while a more private, exclusive residential entry is located to the west. This scheme proposes that the retail street be transformed to a pedestrian street without a road connection through it.
Designed from the outside in and from the inside out, Greenland Wuxi 200 is a soaring, crystalline, 55-storey mixed-use tower, a vital and energetic place for people.