There were three buildings on the site between 1905 and 1958, namely Mansions Building, King's Building and York Building.
Union Building
Following the Praya reclamation of 1890–1904, a building was constructed and opened in 1905, that served as offices of Canadian Pacific Ocean Services and Hong Kong, Canton & Macao Steamboat Company. This building was acquired in 1921, and used as its headquarters by the Union Insurance Society of Canton Ltd., and then became known as Union Building. It was bought by The Hongkong Land Company in 1946, and was demolished in 1950. Hongkong Land later acquired the adjacent King's Building and demolished it in 1958 to complete the Union House complex.
King's Building
King's Building was built in 1905 and was for some time home to Marconi Wireless. The building was located along Connaught Road, next to the Union Building. It was demolished in 1958.
York Building
York Building was built in 1905 and demolished in 1958.
Swire House
The 23-storey building, initially called Union House, was completed in 1962, and had a total floor space of 34,000 square metres. in the 1970s, the Swire Group, gained naming rights for the building, which was renamed Swire House in 1976. In 1997, the main tenant of the building was Cathay Pacific, which occupied about 30% of the floor space. Other tenants included other Swire group companies, including Swire Pacific and Swire Industries. Swire House was demolished on 5 October 1998.
Chater House
The site was again redeveloped by Hongkong Land when the new Hong Kong International Airport opened in 1998. The building's main tenant, Cathay Pacific, relocated to Cathay City when the airport moved to its new site at Chek Lap Kok, while Swire Group moved to Pacific Place in Admiralty. Chater House has a total floor area of 438,500 net sq.ft., was designed by architects Kohn Pedersen Fox. It was originally configured into 30 floors – 474,000 net sq. ft – of office accommodation above a three-level retail podium of 45,000 net sq.ft. and a three-level basement, which includes 112 parking spaces. When the project was announced, in 1997, the estimated cost was HK$2.3 billion, and would complete in 2003. Architecture firmAedas were the architect for the Chater House. The main contractor was Gammon Construction. The building is linked to the Central Elevated Walkway, also owned by Hong Kong Land. In 2014, the display of Antony Gormley's art installationEvent Horizon at Chater House was cancelled when US investment bankJPMorgan, which has offices in the building, asked Hongkong Land – the sponsor of Event Horizon – to cancel its support for the show after bank employee Dennis Li Junjie jumped to his death from the building's roof.
