hsbc main building

hsbc main building

Located in central, Hong Kong, HSBC main building is the head office of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited. The building is sandwiched between Queen's road and Des Voeux Road Central, adjacent to Queen's Statue Square, Standard Chartered Bank building and MTR central station. Its registered address is "No.1 Queen's Road Central"; most genuine Hong Kong people think that the main entrance of the bronze lion is the entrance to the Yangtze River group center.

Basic introduction

On Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, the open space on the ground floor of the HSBC head office building and the nearby Queen's Statue Square become resorts for many Filipino domestic helpers. The HSBC head office building is one of the participating buildings of the magic color Yongxiang river.

history

In fact, the first generation of Hong Kong HSBC headquarters building is located at the junction of Victoria Street (now known as Bank Street) and Queen's road. It was rented by the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation in 1865, and Queen's road was still the waterfront at that time. In 1866, the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation decided to purchase the land.

The second generation head office building was completed in 1886. The design of the front and back parts of the building is quite different, which seems to be composed of two buildings with different styles: the side facing Queen's road is mainly composed of colonnade and octagonal arched roof, which belongs to Victorian design; the side facing des Voeux Road is mainly composed of a series of arched corridors. Since 1933, the building has been rebuilt, and part of the original site of the old Hong Kong City Hall has been used. It was opened in 1935. The design belongs to the Chicago school. Building 70 meters high, a total of 13 floors, was the largest building in the Far East. It is said that it is the first air-conditioned building in Hong Kong. During the Japanese rule period, Hong Kong was used as the headquarters of the government.

With the development of post-war economy, the buildings were no longer suitable for use, so they were rebuilt in July 1981, completed on May 20, 1985, and officially opened on April 7, 1986 (while the head office was temporarily moved to Yian Chinese travel), and the opening ceremony was presided over by the governor of Hong Kong, sir Youde, who died in December of the same year. The fourth generation head office building, which cost HK $5.2 billion to rebuild, was the most expensive building in the world at that time and the first building with a cost of US $1 billion.

After the establishment of HSBC Holdings Limited in 1991, the head office building was still used as the general management office of HSBC Group at the initial stage. Until 1993, HSBC moved the general management office of HSBC Group to London, UK.

Design

The fourth generation Hong Kong HSBC head office building is designed by the famous architect Norman Foster. It takes six years from conception to completion. The whole building is 180 meters high, with 46 floors and 4 floors of basement. It is constructed with 30000 tons of steel and 4500 tons of aluminum. The whole project is based on the principle of avoiding affecting the MTR Island Line (phase II).

Most of the accessories used in the construction of the building are prefabricated. The structural steel parts are made in the UK, the glass, aluminum shell and floor are made in the United States, and the service facilities components are made in Japan.

The feature of the whole design is that there is no supporting structure inside and it can be disassembled freely. All supporting structures are set outside the building to make the floor more practical. Moreover, the design of glass curtain wall can make good use of natural light; the underground lobby door faces due south and North, which can keep the lobby cool in winter and summer, saving a lot of air conditioning costs. With its flexible design, the expansion project can be easily carried out according to the actual needs without affecting the original floor. There is also a document transport belt in the building, which can freely transport several tons of documents every day.

The key point of the building is the design scheme of "coat hanger plan". The whole building on the ground is supported by four frames, each frame contains two masts, which respectively support the suspended truss on five floors. The double height space formed by the truss becomes the focus of each group of floors, and also contains the space of circulation and social interaction. Each mast is composed of four steel pipes, which are connected by rectangular joists on each floor. This layout makes the mast reach the maximum bearing capacity and the plane area of the mast minimum.

Since the framework can be seen from the outside of the building, the design team naturally wants to expose the basic structure. However, based on the need of durability and resistance, a layer of protection must be added, so some form of covering must be made naturally.

Bronze lion

The two male lions placed in front of the head office are called "Stephen" with their mouths open. This name comes from A. g. Stephen, the general manager of the head office of Hong Kong in 1920-24, and the casting of the bronze lion also comes from his initiative. Another bronze lion was called "Stitt", the name of G. H. Stitt, the manager of Shanghai branch at that time.

When the third-generation Hong Kong HSBC head office building was completed in 1935, HSBC also placed two bronze lions in front of the Shanghai HSBC building, and made two identical lions from a pair of Shanghai bronze lions, which were placed in front of the Hong Kong head office. After the Japanese army occupied Hong Kong in 1942, due to the shortage of materials, the Japanese army tried to transport the copper lions from Hong Kong and Shanghai to Japan for copper. The two bronze lions from Hong Kong, together with the bronze statues of Queen Victoria and Sir Thomas Jackson of Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, were transported to Yokohama and stored in the wharf warehouse for melting into ammunition materials. After the surrender of Japan in 1945, the two lions were found by the US Army and transported back to Hong Kong under the order of MacArthur. When the third generation head office was demolished and rebuilt in July 1981, two bronze lions were arranged to be placed in the square opposite the statue of the queen until they were moved back to the fourth generation head office on June 8, 1985.

Each Bronze Lion weighs 2250 pounds. The first pair of copies is placed in Hong Kong; the second pair is in front of the new headquarters building of HSBC Group in Canary Wharf, London; and the third pair is placed in place after Shanghai Pudong Development Bank obtained the right to use the former Shanghai HSBC building in 1997. Shanghai Pudong Development Bank once hoped to move the original product back to the front door of the bank. After negotiation, Pudong Development Bank invested in the recasting. In the process of imitating the casting, out of respect for history, the saw marks damaged by the former Japanese army were also preserved. In October 2009, the bank started the fourth pair of bronze lions replication project. The bank selected a pair outside the Hong Kong HSBC head office building as the blueprint. The purpose is to place a pair of guard lions for the upcoming HSBC building in Shanghai Guojin center according to the tradition.

One of the original Steven, who yell at her mouth, is shown in the Shanghai city historical development Gallery in the Oriental Pearl TV Tower of the Bund, Shanghai. The original and the other "Shidi" are kept in the Museum of Bank of Shanghai. From November 28, 2007 to March 24, 2008, Shanghai lent Shidi to the Hong Kong Museum of history to hold a special exhibition - "from banks to modern banks: the development of banking industry in Shanghai and Hong Kong".

Address: Hong Kong, China

Longitude: 114.159549

Latitude: 22.280281

Chinese PinYin : Hui Feng Zong Hang Da Sha