Profile

Beijing Central Business District Core

Beijing, China
Master Plan completed 2004

Master plan for office and mixed-use facilities
 

Click on image to enlarge

The Beijing CBD Core is a 38-hectare zone located at the intersection of Jianguomenwai Street and East Third Ring Road. Within this precinct, it is expected that almost all existing buildings will eventually be cleared and replaced by 1.3 million square meters of mixed-use development. The master plan takes into account two important features of the preestablished CBD master plan. The first is a Green Belt of public open space that is intended to run throughout the CBD, bisecting the CBD Core in a north-south direction. The second is a proposed greenway that would bisect the CBD Core in an east-west direction. The intended crossing of these two elements within the CBD Core leads to the proposal of a Central Park and a Boulevard together with a second east-west street—all serving to complete the urban grid and thus to assure that the CBD Core will both draw from and contribute to the life of the surrounding city.

At the intersection of the Boulevard and the Central Park, marking the epicenter of the CBD Core, sits the tallest of four office towers, rising to 275 meters. A public, glazed winter garden offering views over the city occupies the crown of this tower. Three additional towers, embodying the same geometry as the Central Park Tower but simpler in form, are arrayed in series along both sides of the Boulevard, so as to enjoy the benefits of frontage on that broad tree-lined open space while reinforcing its role as the major circulatory spine of the CBD Core. Taken as a group, the Boulevard Towers and the Central Park Tower relate well to nearby landmark buildings: the main tower of the China World Trade Center to the west and the bold sculptural form of the CCTV Building to the north.

The curvilinear forms created by carving the inner faces of the perimeter blocks establish the distinctive character of the CBD Core as a place, while providing flexibility for diverse mixed-use development over time. While guaranteeing coherence and legibility of the whole, the master plan leaves ample opportunity for developers and architects of individual buildings to provide those varieties of expression that will help make the CBD Core a vibrant model of twenty-first-century urbanism.

Major Components

Master plan for 1.3 million m² mixed-use program comprising 850,000m² office, 170,000m² residential, 120,000m² hotel, 118,000m² retail, 35,000m² exhibition, and a 5000m² transit hub; additional 500,000m² underground area of primarily retail, parking, and vehicular and service loop road

Pei Cobb Freed & Partners services

Urban Design, Master Planning, Architectural Design

Associate Architect

China Architecture Design & Research Group, Beijing

Associate Architect

Beijing Municipal Institute of City Planning and Design

Profile   Projects   Contacts   Contents