HE overall plan to create one of Hong Kong's most complete and attractive shopping and entertainment areas from the Ocean Terminal and its environs will be taken a stage further in May when work starts on the main contract for building the Harbour Centre.
This 18-storey complex, with а volume of 8.2 million cu. ft.. will occupy a site between the landward end of the Ocean Terminal on its west side and Canton Road to the east.
Magnificent and uninterrupted views across the harbour will be pro- vided from this site, which is in the heart of Tsimshatsui's residential, tourist and commercial district.
Key feature in the development of the site is the connection of Canton Road with the lower shopping level of the Ocean Terminal. This is achieved by the provision of a three- floor grand arcade of shops with bridge connections to the Ocean Ter- minal shopping arcades at levels 33 and 48.
A grand staircase entrance situated in Canton Road is aimed at attracting shoppers into the arcades which are designed for an efficient traffic flow through the building and on into the terminal. Escalators and staircases link the arcades on each floor to allow this flow to reach all areas. Access to the complex is also obtain- ed from the terminal building and by direct approach, via the terminal building concourse, from the Star Ferry, to the west of the property.
Thus the new arcades will benefit from the present terminal shopping
Far East Architect & Builder March, 1967
HARBOUR CENTRE DEVELOPMENT, LTD.
ERIC CUMINE ASSOCIATES
S. T. KWOK
LANGDON & EVERY
and will also bring more shoppers into the terminal ~ itself. The de- velopers estimate that some 15,000 persons a day visit the Ocean Ter- minal shops. This number reaches 30,000 per day at weekends and it is visualised that these figures will be doubled when Harbour Centre is intergrated with the terminal.
The shopping arcades on the first. second and third floors comprise some 120 units, each having an area of approximately 400 sq. ft. Below, the ground floor area of 24,000 sq. ft. will be mainly occupied by a super- market or department store. Loading bays and service lifts are approached from an internal service lane at this level.
Composite Building
The Harbour Centre is a composite development. containing, as well as supermarket and shopping arcades, a cinema, offices, and restaurants, together with 11 floors of service apartments. Parking facilities for all its users will be available in the ad- jacent 1,200-space Ocean Terminal car park.
The cinema occupies an area of about 11.250 sq. ft. through the first
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architects and engineers
partner in charge
quantity surveyors
to the fifth floors on the north side of the building. It is segregated from the rest of the building and has its own set of imposing entrances from Canton Road and a spacious lobby at first floor level.
The design and shape of the build- ing was dictated to some degree by its incorporation of the ramp into the Ocean Terminal. A two-storey podium covers the whole of the site to the height of the ramp and above this is a second podium of a further three floors, before the 11 floors of apartments rise in an H-shaped tower.
In situ reinforced concrete con- struction will be used, wind stress being taken by service cores in the north-east and north-west corners of the building and a shear wall on the southern boundary.
The column grid is generally 17ft. 10in. by 25 ft. Two rows of columns supporting the terminal ramp at the northern end of the building are spaced at 23 ft. by 25ft. and this spacing is repeated at the southern end to give the building a balanced appearance.
Within the fourth and fifth floors there is 60.000 sq. ft. of office space. Each floor has 30,000 sq. ft., divided into units of about 400 sq. ft.
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