Civic Center (Shenzhen)

Development

The Civic Center building and area master plan was designed by the American firm Lee/Timchula Architects, which won the international design competition in 1996. Other full submissions were from Arcurban Design and Management Services, Hyayi Design Consultants and Societe de Conception d'Architecture et d'Urbanisme; 2 other firms decided to not submit designs.

The curved-wing design of the Civic Center is based on a traditional Southern Chinese roof form and reflects Shenzhen's description as the "Eagle City". The Citizen's Center was the first iconic building in the new city center, and the final building was considerably different from the original plans. The long roof truss was built in 1998, but wasn't clad until 2004 due to a lack of funding and difficulty developing the metalwork. The roof was also intended to use solar panels as an energy source but that was removed for cost and maintenance issues.

The design was an important element that unified the various buildings and functions underneath it including meeting halls, offices and other bureaucratic functions.

The building's roof spans 486 meters and has a width of 154 meters. The building is 84.7 meters tall and 200,000 square metres (2,200,000 sq ft). To show scale the architect proposed to use balloons to outline the roof design.

It was the only design that took vehicle traffic into account. The architect was inspired by the West-Side Highway in New York City and the visual pleasure it gives as a distraction and entry point into New York.