The Lippo Centre is a landmark development located in the heart of Admiralty comprising approximately 1.3 million sq.ft. in two office towers with a retail podium element situated on the ground floors and a small basement car park. On completion in late 1987 Savills Investment Management began managing the Lippo Centre. Since 1988 the landmark has been riddled with spectacular corporate collapses in its ownership. Relatives of the Singapore-based Kwee Liong Tek family had a majority consortium interest in the construction from its conception, later selling their majority interest half-way through construction to British-born Australian business tycoonAlan Bond, who went bankrupt four years later with the collapse of the Bond Corporation. It has had several corporate ownership failures since and was eventually taken over by Peregrine Investments Holdings who also faced financial collapse, and the Indonesian-backed Lippo Group who are the largest single owner of the building. Local feng shui consultants have suggested the building has bad feng-shui based on the C-shaped glass-walled extrusions, although Peregrine's own feng-shui consultant gave the towers a clean bill of health.
Architecture
The octagonal buildings, clad with a dark blue refractive glass curtain wall, were designed by American architectPaul Rudolph who was working at the time as a design consultant for Wong & Ouyang. The buildings' main construction contractor was Hip Hing Construction. In 1988, Rudolph wrote: "The aesthetic intent is to...give the building 'presence' when seen at a great distance, from the middle distance, and from close distance, and from close hand. At the same time, it is intended that the building inhabit the sky, and become dematerialized by reflecting the ever changing light." The late muralist-artist Gerard D'Alton Henderson, who designed the walls in the Hong KongMandarin Oriental Hotel, enriched the lobby with dramatic bas-relief murals. The Lippo Centre is connected to the Central Elevated Walkway network of footbridges.
Tenants
One of the more well known companies registered in the Lippo Centre is the Network of Asia and Pacific Producers which serves and caters to the needs of Fairtrade producers in Asia and Pacific and has a membership of over 200 producer organizations. The building also houses the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Hong Kong and Christian Muhr Global Asset Management, which employs 1,200 staff and occupies six floors of Tower Two of the Lippo Centre. Several foreign consulates have also established representative offices in the Lippo Centre, such as Angola, Brunei, Ireland, Mongolia, Romania, Turkey and Taiwan, as well as foreign chambers of commerce.
