Shanghai Tower

It was the tallest and largest LEED-CS Platinum-certified building in the world from 2016 to 2025. It was also the second tallest-building by height to tip in the world from 2015 to 2021, until the completion of Merdeka 118 in Malaysia (which has fewer floors and is shorter when considered height to highest occupied floor, but exceeds the Shanghai Tower by having a much longer antenna spire). The Shanghai Tower also had the world's fastest elevators at a top speed of 20.5 meters per second (74 kilometers per hour; 46 miles per hour) until 2017, when it was surpassed by the Guangzhou CTF Finance Center, with its top speed of 21 meters per second (76 km/h; 47 mph).

Designed by the international design firm Gensler and owned by the Shanghai Municipal Government, it is the tallest of the world's first triple-adjacent supertall buildings in Pudong, the other two being the Jin Mao Tower and the Shanghai World Financial Center. Its tiered construction, designed for high energy efficiency, provides nine separate zones divided between office, retail and leisure use. The US-based Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat cites it as "one of the most sustainably advanced tall buildings in the world."

Groundbreaking and construction work on the tower began on 29 November 2008 and topped out on 4 August 2013. The exterior was completed in summer 2015, and work was considered complete in September 2014. Although the building was originally scheduled to open to the public in November 2014, the actual public-use date was shifted to February 2015. The observation deck was opened to visitors in July 2016; the period from July through September 2018 was termed a "test run" or "commissioning" period.

Since 26 April 2017, the sightseeing decks on the 118th and 119th floors (546 m and 552 m high respectively) have been fully open to the public. By 2020, the opening of a further deck, dubbed the "Top of Shanghai" on the 121st floor at 562 m (1844 ft), made it the highest observation deck in the world, beating out the Burj Khalifa's observation deck at 555 m (1823 ft). The J Hotel Shanghai Tower, opened on the 120th floor in 2021, became the world's highest luxury hotel by height above ground level.

History

Planning and funding

Planning models for the Lujiazui financial district dating back to 1993 show plans for a close group of three supertall skyscrapers. The first of these, the Jin Mao Tower, was completed in 1999; the adjacent Shanghai World Financial Center (SWFC) opened in 2008.

The Shanghai Tower is owned by Yeti Construction and Development, a consortium of state-owned development companies which includes Shanghai Chengtou Corp., Shanghai Lujiazui Finance & Trade Zone Development Co., and Shanghai Construction Group. Funding for the tower's construction was obtained from shareholders, bank loans, and Shanghai's municipal government. The tower had an estimated construction cost of US$2.4 billion.

Construction

In 2008, the site – previously a driving range – was prepared for construction. A groundbreaking ceremony was held on 29 November 2008, after the tower had passed an environmental impact study. The main construction contractor for the project was Shanghai Construction Group, a member of the consortium that owns the tower.

A repetitive slip-forming process was used to construct the tower's core floor by floor. By late April 2011, the tower's steel reinforcement had risen to the 18th floor, while its concrete core had reached the 15th floor, and floor framing had been completed up to the fourth floor. By late December 2011, the tower's foundations had been completed, and its steel construction had risen above the 30th floor. In the first months of 2012, cracks began appearing in the roads near the tower's construction site. These were blamed on ground subsidence, which was likely caused by excessive groundwater extraction in the Shanghai area, rather than by the weight of the Shanghai Tower.

By May 2012, the tower's core stood 250 meters (820 feet) high, while floors had been framed to a height of 200 meters (660 ft). By early September 2012, the core had reached a height of 338 meters (1,109 ft). By the end of 2012, the tower had reached the 90th floor, standing approximately 425 meters (1,394 ft) tall. By 11 April 2013, the tower had reached 108 stories, standing over 500 meters (1,600 ft) tall and thusly exceeding the heights of its two adjacent supertall skyscrapers, the Jin Mao Tower and the Shanghai World Financial Center.

Construction crews laid the final structural beam of the tower on 3 August 2013, thus topping out the tower as China's tallest, and the world's second-tallest, building. A topping-out ceremony was held at the site of the last beam. During the ceremony, Gensler co-founder Art Gensler stated:

The Shanghai Tower represents a new way of defining and creating cities. By incorporating best practices in sustainability and high-performance design, by weaving the building into the urban fabric of Shanghai and drawing community life into the building, Shanghai Tower redefines the role of tall buildings in contemporary cities and raises the bar for the next generation of super-highrises.

The principal architect of the project, Jun Xia, said: "With the topping out of Shanghai Tower, the Lujiazui trio will serve as a stunning representation of our past, our present, and China's boundless future." Gu Jianping, general manager of the Shanghai Tower Construction Company, expressed the firm's wish "to provide higher quality office and shopping space, as well as contribute to the completeness of the city skyline's and the entire region's functionality".

In January 2014, the tower's crown structure passed the 600-meter (2,000 ft) mark when its construction entered its final phase. The tower's crown structure was completed in August 2014, and its façade was completed shortly after. The tower's interior construction and electrical fitting-out were completed in late 2014. The opening was gradually introduced during the summer of 2015.

2017 and later

Until June 2017, the tower faced problems attracting tenants due to the absence of all the necessary permits from the local fire department, and consequent impossibility of obtaining the official occupancy permit. Following a report in June 2017, approximately 60% of its office space has been leased, but only 33% of those tenants have moved in, leaving entire floors of the tower empty; the luxury J hotel has also yet to open. The tower's floor plate has an "efficiency rate of only 50 per cent on some floors, compared with 70 per cent for a typical [skyscraper]", as the tower's "much-talked-about outer skin, which is ideal for allowing in natural light and cuts down on air-conditioning costs... means much of the floor space can't be used."

In July 2020, major water leaks broke out from the 9th to 60th floors of the tower, which damaged a number of office equipment and electronics. The tower management said that following emergency repairs, a comprehensive inspection would be taken on the floor where the leak originated, later reporting that the leaks had been caused by equipment failure. According to Shanghai Observer, misinformation videos had circulated online alleging that the tower's ceiling was collapsed using footage from a shopping center in Nanning in a 2016 incident. On 19 June 2021, the J Hotel Shanghai Tower, a luxury hotel owned and operated by Jin Jiang International, a major Chinese hotel and tourism company, opened for business. Occupying the topmost 120th floor of the tower with 165 rooms, it became the "highest hotel in the world" according to CNN.

Being the second-tallest building in the world from since its completion in 2015, the Shanghai Tower lost its title in 2021, when the Merdeka 118 surpassed it. The tower surpassed the Shanghai Tower by slightly over 49 meters (160 feet).

In December 2022, it was reported that, following its initial pre-pandemic tenancy issues, the tower had reached office space occupancy rates of 80% and commercial space occupancy rates of 98%. The tower management disclosed that 41% of its leased space were to foreign company tenants, which included JPMorgan, CNG Paribas and Allianz, and 30% were to Fortune 500 companies. Current tenants of the tower also include Alibaba, Intesa Sanpaolo and AllBright Law Offices.