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POS Plaza
(originally Silver Crown Tower)

Shanghai, China
Completed 1999

Office-commercial-retail complex with public space and underground parking
 

POS Plaza occupies a prominent corner site on the main boulevard of the developing Pudong Area of Shanghai. With nothing to relate to but the boulevard itself, the project created its own context for the long-term benefit of the public and private realms.

The solution reinforces the street with a 34-story office tower derived in its proportions from traditional Chinese architecture. Clad in stainless steel, its carefully detailed structural cage is left open at the top and illuminated at night to create an emblematic crown that announces the existence of a significant urban place. A four-story circular commercial pavilion complements the tower atop a traditional low granite plinth. The plinth covers and unifies the site; a retail concourse integrates the complex below grade.

Mass gives way to open space in the heart of POS Plaza where the buildings embrace the lively paved and landscaped arrival court that gives this project its name. A large central oculus funnels light into the concourse, where a recessed fountain, spraying water into the air, adds activity to the plaza above.

Acknowledging the civic responsibility of private development, POS Plaza creates through the interplay of its parts a welcoming center of shopping, dining, work and entertainment — a dynamic urban stage with a distinct sense of place where previously there was none.

Major Components

153m high office tower (55,450m² including 32 office levels @ 1,655m²); 7,430m² drum-shaped commercial pavilion housing cafes, restaurants and shops around a central atrium, and sun-shaded dining terraces; granite plinth; 2,000m² public space including pedestrian plaza and arrival court, 8,075m² retail / service concourse; 24,525m² parking for 800 cars on 3 levels underground; internal service road; rooftop helipad

Pei Cobb Freed & Partners services

Complete Architectural Design services including construction documents; coordination with associate architect on construction administration

Client / Architects

POS-A.C. Co., Ltd., Architects and Consultants
and I.D. Architects Co., Ltd., Seoul, South Korea

Shanghai Consultant / Architect

ECADI (East China Architectural Design Institute), Shanghai, China

Structural

Weiskopf & Pickworth, New York, NY, and
POS-A.C. Co., Ltd., Seoul, South Korea

Mechanical / Electrical

Jaros Baum & Bolles, New York, NY, and
Mirae Engineering Co., Ltd., Seoul, South Korea

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