it
under a high protruding porch sweeps straight into the lobby which occupies most of the first floor and on to two banks of lifts. This effect is heightened by the use of plate glass walls at the
entrance.
The building rises 200 feet above the ground. exactly the height allow- ed by Government regulations. The total volume of the structure is 6.5 million cubic feet.
The concrete columns are rein- forced with mild steel, and 1,600 tons of this were used in conjunction with almost a million cubic feet of concrete. A further 1,500 tons of high tensile steel (Dacon 40) were purchased from Japan for the horizontal bars.
The President. is expected to cost nearly $90 million, including about $15 million for the land. which cost approximately $1.000 a square foot.
It was built entirely with Hong Kong capital by a group of five Chinese brothers, Messrs. K.H., M.F.. C.M., K.S.. and L.Y. Chung and is their first venture into the hotel in- dustry. In the last ten years the brothers have constructed 200 build- ings. including apartment blocks. factories and theatre in Hong Kong.
ધી
The President is situated in the heart of the Colony's tourist shop- ping district in Kowloon.
In the early planning stages. great care was taken in regard to flexibility. Only one or two basic issues were decided upon. The two lift wells had to be centrally located in the building, which 325 ft by 135 ft. This provided the core on which the rest depends. To give balance it was decided to in- corporate full height staircases each end.
measures
at
The hotel was raised on a site of 13.500 square feet at the corner of Nathan and Peking roads (K.I.L. 74251.
During site preparation early in 1961 it was found that half the site was composed of decomposed granite rock which sloped under- ground to depth of 40 to 45 ft at the southern end.
This problem was overcome by constructing the building in two
This picture shows the ramp leading up to the hotel's main entrance in narrow Lock Road. The front lower floors of the building, along busy Nathan Road, have been set aside shops. ▼
halves with an
expansion joint which would allow for any expan- sion, contraction or settling. As it is now.
one half of the building sits on bedrock and the other half on piles.
The piling contractor drove a total of 894 piles on the southern half of the site. The piles were of pre-cast concrete. 14 inches by 14 inches and varying in length from 10 to 30 feet.
A smaller problem that arose during piling concerned the recently repaved roadway at the front of the site. PWD engineers noted that if excavation was attemepted at one corner of the site the roadway would be in danger of subsiding.
To counteract this. the contractors drove 30 feet steel sheet piling com- pletely around the southern end. At the northern end. pressure grouting was applied to stabilise the pave- ment and roadway.
excavation
With the completion of the piling at the lower end of the site. partial was undertaken for the basement area. Before this could be accomplished. however, a de-water- ing system had to be used to lower the water table about 20 feet. that the contractors could work in dry conditions.
SO
HT
THE HONG KONG & FAR EAST BUILDER-VOLUME 18. NUMBER 3
89