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International Commerce Centre Exemplar Ultra High-Rise in Hong Kong
Hailed as the “Vertical Wall Street”, the International Commerce Centre (ICC) had a construction period of over 10 years. From its planning to completion and its tenants moving into the tower in phases, the building of ICC exemplified the expertise of ultra high-rise construction as well as the niches of various construction services including construction development management, foundation and structural work, and glass curtain wall design in Hong Kong.
ICC rising 490m is not only the new landmark of Hong Kong, but also helps consolidate the CBD status of West Kowloon district.
Keypoints
- ICC is a large-scale integrated development, which is part of the cityscape, a transportation hub as well as a business district.
- In order to manage visitor flow, ICC’s design is equipped with elevators that divert passenger flow with an intelligent dispatching system.
- ICC is situated above a fault zone and shaft grouted friction barrettes were chosen as the foundation design.
- Completing the glass curtain installation work without causing disturbance to current tenants presented one of the biggest challenges.
Situated above the MTR Kowloon Station, the ICC was jointly designed by the world-renowned architecture firms Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates (KPF) and Wong & Ouyang (HK) Ltd., and it was developed and built by Sun Hung Kai Properties. Construction started in 2005 and ended in 2011. The ICC was the world’s third tallest building at the time of its completion.
Sun Hung Kai Properties: Experience in Large-scale Integrated Development
In 2000, the MTR Corporation offered Kowloon Station Development Packages 5, 6 and 7 for open auction, with Package 7 designated for the construction of a high-rise building (the ICC at present). Sun Hung Kai Properties won the property development rights of the three packages, which were to be developed as an integrated development encompassing residential buildings, a hotel, service apartments, a shopping mall, offices and car parks, and which would incur a HKD20 billion investment.
Tony Tang, Deputy Project Director of Harbour Vantage Management Ltd., a member of Sun Hung Kai Properties Group, says that the year 2000 saw the burst of the dot-com bubble and the decline of the global economy. The Group made the significant investment developing the ICC as it foresaw positive long-term prospects for West Kowloon, and it had acquired substantial experience in building and managing integrated developments since the 1980s (New Town Plaza in Sha Tin).
Tony Tang, Deputy Project Director of Harbour Vantage Management Ltd., a member of Sun Hung Kai Properties Group, says that the year 2000 saw the burst of the dot-com bubble and the decline of the global economy. The Group made the significant investment developing the ICC as it foresaw positive long-term prospects for West Kowloon, and it had acquired substantial experience in building and managing integrated developments since the 1980s (New Town Plaza in Sha Tin).
Tony Tang, Deputy Project Director of Harbour Vantage Management Ltd. notes that Sun Hung Kai Properties has substantial experience in building and managing integrated developments.
Phased Completion to Lower Investment Risk
He recalls that in the construction of the ICC, one of the tower’s distinctive features was its facing the Two International Finance Centre (IFC) across the harbour. The two towers form the “Victoria Harbour Gateway” which stands out as an architectural landmark of Hong Kong. “Our Group’s developments share three characteristics. Firstly, the development must be part of the cityscape. Secondly, it must be a transportation hub. Thirdly, in addition to being a central business district, it must also serve as a venue for other activities during the weekends and holidays.”
ICC faces the Two International Finance Centre (IFC) across the harbour while the two towers form the “Victoria Harbour Gateway”.
Given the tremendous financial investment, Tang remarks that phased completion was adopted for the development to lower risk. “In many cases of ultra high-rises in the West, the construction was confirmed in a time of bull market. Upon completion of the building, all the units were launched at the same time and that put pressure on the overall rentals.” The construction of the ICC was confirmed during a time of global economic downturn, and it was completed in four phases between 2008 and 2011. This reduced the pressure on rentals that would have been entailed by launching 2.5 million square feet of grade-A office floor space simultaneously. However, this strategy also created significant difficulties for the construction of the ultra high-rise.
Wong & Ouyang (HK): Challenging Visitor Flow Control in Vertical City
Artur Au-Yeung, senior director of Wong & Ouyang (HK) Ltd. that oversaw the design of the ICC, says the tower resembles a Vertical City. “It is a transportation hub, and it also encompasses residential buildings, a shopping mall and offices. With its being a vertical development, the biggest challenge is the management of visitor flow, where managing elevator passenger flow is an extremely difficult task.”
He notes that one of the special features of the tower’s design is its being equipped with more than 80 elevators, 42 of which are double-deck elevators on 3/F and 8/F that divert passenger flow with an intelligent dispatching system. On the 9/F are elevators that go directly to the hotel lobby. “Located on the 102/F, this Ritz-Carlton Hotel is one of the world’s highest hotels. Considering the large number of guests that would be accommodated by the hotel’s banquet hall, we figured there would be frequent issues with visitor flow management if the banquet hall was located on a high level.” In view of this, Au-Yeung says the designers decided to locate the hotel’s banquet hall on the 3/F.
He notes that one of the special features of the tower’s design is its being equipped with more than 80 elevators, 42 of which are double-deck elevators on 3/F and 8/F that divert passenger flow with an intelligent dispatching system. On the 9/F are elevators that go directly to the hotel lobby. “Located on the 102/F, this Ritz-Carlton Hotel is one of the world’s highest hotels. Considering the large number of guests that would be accommodated by the hotel’s banquet hall, we figured there would be frequent issues with visitor flow management if the banquet hall was located on a high level.” In view of this, Au-Yeung says the designers decided to locate the hotel’s banquet hall on the 3/F.
One of the special features of ICC’s design is its being equipped with more than 80 elevators that divert passenger flow with an intelligent dispatching system.
Ultra Resilient and Crash-resistant Structure
Since the 9/11 event took place in 2001, airplane crash-resistance has become an important consideration along with typhoon and earthquake-proof foundation and structural work in the design of ultra high-rises. Au-Yeung stresses, “The concrete structural inner core of the ICC is crash-resistant against even the Boeing 727.”
Artur Au-Yeung, senior director of Wong & Ouyang (HK) Ltd. says that the biggest challenge of ultra high-rises is the management of visitor flow.
Financial institutions and investment banks were the targeted tenants of the ICC from its conception. In 2007, international investment bank Morgan Stanley leased 16 levels and Credit Suisse leased ten levels of the ICC; in 2008, Deutsche Bank leased 12 levels of the tower. “Investment banks operate on a 24-hour basis, which generates a huge demand for data management. The server room of each bank takes up half storey of floor space, and it requires an independent generator for preventing power failure. In view of this, the ICC provides these tenants with exclusive vertical fuel lines for fuel transmission to the generators. This is a rare design in Hong Kong.”
Arup: Innovation in the foundation design
The superstructure of the ICC is made of a high strength high modulus concrete core wall, pre-stressed concrete outrigger and steel outrigger, and eight mega columns on the perimeter. For Arup, the engineering consultancy firm which oversaw the construction of the ICC, the most challenging aspect was the foundation design of the ultra high-rise.
ICC is situated above a fault zone and shaft grouted friction barrettes were chosen as the foundation design.
Arup Director VC Cheong points to the fact that the foundation design of ICC was extremely challenging.
Arup Director VC Cheong points out that the building is situated above a fault zone, which made the foundation design extremely challenging. “Given the difficult geological conditions where the bedrock was located 70 to 100 meters underground, the use of normal end-bearing piling system was unviable. The severe weathering also resulted in volatility and rendered the site highly uneven. The existence of MTR server stations MTR tunnels and overpasses nearby also posed significant difficulties to the construction of the supporting and deep foundation pits.” As the location of the foundation could not be changed, shaft grouted friction barrettes were chosen as the foundation system after the company conducted a series of detailed studies and comparisons of various foundation types.
Cheng explains that in the use of shaft grouted friction barrettes, a designed volume of cement grout is injected into the soil-pile interface to improve the contact between the barrettes and the surrounding soil. “The improved contact between the barrettes and the soil from injection grouting increased the load carrying capacity of the foundation; the use of circular cofferdams also greatly enhanced the stability of foundation pit excavation.”
He adds that the work saw the first-ever use of the shaft grounding technique in building construction in Hong Kong. Five trial piles and four working barrettes were constructed for testing to ensure that the design would be fully materialised in the construction scheme.
Cheng explains that in the use of shaft grouted friction barrettes, a designed volume of cement grout is injected into the soil-pile interface to improve the contact between the barrettes and the surrounding soil. “The improved contact between the barrettes and the soil from injection grouting increased the load carrying capacity of the foundation; the use of circular cofferdams also greatly enhanced the stability of foundation pit excavation.”
He adds that the work saw the first-ever use of the shaft grounding technique in building construction in Hong Kong. Five trial piles and four working barrettes were constructed for testing to ensure that the design would be fully materialised in the construction scheme.
ALT: Innovative Installation of Glass Curtain Walls
Another distinctive architectural feature of the ICC is its stability system of a central core rested onto eight mega columns. The exterior glass curtain walls shimmer like dragon fins from the top to the low levels of the tower and to the ground level.
The installation method of ICC’s glass curtain walls are nothing but traditional.
As Joe Theodore S. Khoury, President of ALT, which designed the ICC’s glass curtain walls remarks, the tower’s phased completion schedule meant that the glass curtain installation had been completed at some levels while it was still in progress at others. Completing the work without causing disturbance to current tenants presented a serious challenge for the ALT team.
ALT President Joe Theodore S. Khoury (2nd from the left) and his team
“It was time to think out of the box!” he came up with an innovative solution. “We decided to build a gigantic balcony (like an arch balcony) and carry out the installation from top to bottom, piece by piece, on the sides of the tower. The traditional method involves installing the glass curtains on one level after another, by which an average of 50 glass curtains may be installed per day. Our method allowed much greater flexibility. Whenever we came across a section where it would be untimely to carry out the installation, we switched to another side of the tower. On average, 350 glass curtains might be installed per day.” At the early stage of its conception, Khoury incorporated into the design the projection of visuals on the LED curtains starting at the 101/F, which became the ICC Light and Music Show that is acclaimed and well-loved today.
ICC Light and Music Show
Facts
| Height | 490m |
| Gross Floor Area | About 2.82 million sq.ft. |
| Gross Floor Area per storey | 35,000 sq. ft. |
| A-Grade Office Gross Floor Area | 2.5million sq.ft. |
| Storey | 118 |
| Floor distribution | 2/f Elements Shopping Mall 10-99/F Office Floors 48 & 49/F Sky lobby 100/f Sky 100 Observation Deck 101/f Sky Dining 101 102-118/f Ritz Carlton Hotel |
| Special Features | Double glazed with low E-coating curtain wall |
| 42 double-deck elevators divert passenger flow with an intelligent dispatching system 14 elevators that go directly to high zone and 2 VIP lifts |
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| Twelve generators for essential chiller back-up, tenants' essential supply and fire services | |
| Awards | 2014 The inaugural Performance Award from the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) |
| Beam Society certified ICC for achieving the Platinum Standard in accordance with the Society's environmental assessment method for new buildings | |
| HKIE awarded the ten Hong Kong People Engineering Wonders in the 21st Century | |
| 2013 Tien-Yow Jeme Civil Engineering Prize | |
| 2012 Hong Kong Awards for Environmental Excellence |
