IN the busiest area of North Kowloon, a new multi-storey building has been erected which breaks with most of the traditions of the area. It is a high quality office building of modern de- sign which houses the new headquarters for the Mongkok Branch of the Hong- kong and Shanghai Banking Corpora- tion.
The existing building, which has housed the bank for the past 14 years, has outgrown its full potential because of the rapid expansion of business in the area. The Bank therefore decided that it needed a new prestige building which would incorporate whatever ad- vantages modern Hong Kong techno- logy could offer. The building also had to be extremely functional and com- pletely distinctive in its design, yet incorporate the characteristic dignity associated with the bank.
The site chosen for this develop ment was on the south-west corner of the Nathan Road/Argyle Street junc- tion. It was originally the site of the old Broadway Cinema. After construction began, the adjoining Bank of Tokyo site also became available, and it was purchased by the Bank in order to provide expansion space.
The basic need of the Bank was simply that it required more space for almost every one of its functions. In particular, the new building had to cope with the increased demands made by the many branches in Kowloon, the increase in safe deposit requirements, greater use of banking facilities by the general public and the need for higher security areas. Space was also required on the upper floors for housing bank tenants who needed prestige space in the Mongkok area.
In order to produce the basic out- line plan, the engineer and architect co-operated and evolved a simple column-free form with a service core placed centrally at the west. This plan allowed flexibility to design the bank as freely as possible and also allowed. for the banking halls to be extended on to the adjoining site.
Structure
The structure consists essentially of the core and a prestressed ribbed slab which spans 73 ft. between external mullions and 48 ft. between mullions and the core. The load from the mul- lions are distributed through the base- ment walls onto the large diameter bored piles with a maximum depth of 110 ft. reaching down to bedrock. The framing arrangement for the ty- pical floor has been designed to pro-
flexible office layout on the upper floors. The 6ft. mullion and beam grid provides a suitable structural module and a convenient dimension for win- dow spacing. The ribs are 28 in. deep and contain 2-707 C.C.L. anchorages for the long span and 1-607 for the short span.
In order to avoid excessive losses, the ribs are designed simply supported and the prestressed tendons are placed in the form of a simple parabola. The joint at the mullion however has been reinforced to control cracking which may occur due to the joint rotation during the various loading stages.
The 54 ft. x 26 ft. core has been designed to contain all the required services such as airconditioning, toilet facilities, staircases, lifts, etc. in the smallest possible area and of sufficient size to resist all the wind loads. It was slipformed so that the installation of all services could commence at an early date and at least one lift could
be operational during construction to serve as a personnel hoist. Furthermore, it helped to reduce the overall con- struction time as the installation of the lifts no longer control the com- pletion of the building. A crane was carried on the slipform work and used for the hoisting of all materials during the slipforming operation, as well as for the remaining structure. Only one set of formwork was required to main- tain the rate of construction of 10 days per floor.
Once the basic structure of the building had been decided and sizes established, the internal planning pro- vided for the bank security area to be below ground whilst banking halls were at lower ground, upper ground and first floor levels. Above these, the bank required four complete floors of offices. These offices were identical to those designed for the tenancy areas, of which there are nine floors. The 15th, and top floor, is used by the
vide open space in the Banking Hall and The slipformed core located at the back of the building
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Far East BUILDER, September 1969
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