Hotel complex for choice Kowloon site
CONSTRUCTION work for a multi- level hotel complex on a site at the junction of Nathan Road and Salis- bury Road, Kowloon has just begun - only seven months after the then re- cord sum of HK$2,661 per sq. ft. was paid for the 48,850 sq. ft. site at a Government auction.
Crow Pope International Ltd. of Dallas, Texas, bid HK$130 million for the site in November last, and since that time the group's architects and engineers, Wong & Tung & Associates, Hong Kong, have been planning its de- velopment as a 17-storey hotel of 900 guestrooms above shopping levels.
The work now in hand is on piling and basement construction. Super- structure construction is expected to follow by August 1971. The commer- cial portion of the complex is sche- duled to open for business in May
1972, and the hotel is expected to be in operation by the end of 1972.
Design solution
The site, being on the southern tip of Kowloon peninsula, commands a panoramic view of Hong Kong harbour and Victoria Island. Adjacent to it on the east is a nine-storey Government car park for 900 cars which eventually will be directly connected by a bridge to the shopping mall of the hotel com- plex.
It is Government's intention to de- velop the area to the south of Salis bury Road into a park and this will insure that the site retains its un- obstructed views.
The design solution for this choice site in the heart of the 'Golden Mile' area of Tsim Sha Tsui, recognises the two independent functions of hotel
and shopping mall and combines them in a functional way within one struc- ture.
The entire building complex con- sists of a 17-storey structure above two and a half basements, with 13 floors of hotel guest rooms and faci lities on top of six floors of shopping mall. Separate and easily accessible en- trances to both hotel and shopping areas are provided at ground level.
Commercial area
Shopping facilities cover approx- imately 179,000 sq. ft. of net rental area which comprises the whole of the first basement, street floor level (about 6 ft. below the street), part of the ground floor (about 5 ft. above street level), first floor, second floor and third floor levels.
Due to the limited street frontage
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Far East BUILDER, July 1970
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