WORK on
a 26-storey 280 ft. high building housing South East Asia's first revolving restaurant on its top floor will begin in Novem- ber on a 106 ft. x 75 ft, site at the corner of Nathan Road and Nelson Street, Mongkok, Hong Kong.
Construction is expected to take about two years.
The restaurant. which will seat 200 people, was the idea of the chairman of Central Enterprises Ltd.. Mr. Wu Chung.
General Enter- prises bought the
land at $700
a
square foot in 1961. They re- cently paid com- pensation totalling $390,000 to nine business proprie- tors who occupied one-storey pre- mises on the site.
Mr. Wu and his son, Mr. Gordon Wu of Au. Pei and Wu, the archi. tectural firm that designed the build- ing, undertook a world trip last year to study various revolving restaurants.
When they re- turned they look- ed around for a site to erect a towering monolith of up to 35 stories. Because there was no building height limit. on Hong Kong island they first searched for a site there.
Even there they were limited by a height regulation. What looked like the final blow was a rumour that the Government was about to greatly alter building regulations in Mong- kok.
Mr. Gordon Wu saved the day by rushing through a design of the building from sketch plans to work- ing drawings in less than five weeks. The design was approved.
The restaurant will be about 280
E
S T
R
A U
R
R
PASSAGE
LAV LOB
DU-
/PANTRY
SCAL E 16
However, they discovered that no position was suitable because diners on one side of the restaurant would get a view hemmed in by the hills.
Tsim Sha Tsui was considered the perfect spot for a breathtaking view but the height limit there forced them to select their present site further back in Mongkok,
THE HONG KONG & FAR EAST BUILDER
E
BAR
LIFT HALL
1 SHAFT
PASS
-DN LOB
AGE
S
TA
U
A
N
R
BOUNDARY LINE
be one
of the few wholly non- domestic buildings in Mongkok.
The whole restaurant will be circular in shape and 62 feet in diameter.
The actual turntable will be 14 feet wide and will revolve around a fixed centre 34 feet in diameter con- taining a staircase, lifts. pantry, toilets and bar. This outer periphery will hold the dining tables. It will rest on rollers and will be powered
T
26TH. FL. PLAN
24 32 FT.
feet above the ground on the 26th storey (the building has 28 floors including ground and mezzanine).
It will incorporate ideas from similar restaurants in Europe and America.
When completed the restaurant will take in a view sweeping from the Carlton Hotel at Castle Peak to Kwun Tong and from West Point to North Point on the island. It will
· VOLUME 18, NUMBER 1
by a one horse-
power motor with a gear reduction of approximately 100,000 to 1.
The mechanism was ordered from the same firm
which installed a revolving restaur- ant in the
600 ft. high "Space
Needle" at the Seattle Trade Fair last year.
Food will be prepared in a kitchen covering the 24th floor and sent up in dumb waiters.
On the 25th floor, between
the restaurant and the kitchen, will be an observation lounge.
The ground. mezzanine and up to the third floor of the new build- ing, which will be built of reinforced concrete will be let as department store.
A large Chinese restaurant will be situated on floors four, five and six. It will have a total area of 24,000 square feet excluding the kitchen which will be on the seventh floor.
Offices will be constructed from the eighth to the twenty third
floors.
101
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.