Pearl River Tower


Pearl River Tower is a 71-story,, clean technology neofuturistic skyscraper at the junction of Jinsui Road/Zhujiang Avenue West, Tianhe District, Guangzhou, China. The tower's architecture and engineering were performed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill with Adrian D. Smith and Gordon Gill as architects. Ground broke on the tower on 8 September 2006 and construction was completed in March 2011. It is intended for office use and is partially occupied by the China National Tobacco Corporation.

Architecture and design

The design of the Pearl River Tower is intended to minimise harm to the environment and it will extract energy from the natural and passive forces surrounding the building. Major accomplishments are the technological integration of form and function in a holistic approach to engineering and architectural design.

Sustainability

The building is designed with energy conservation in mind, including wind turbines and solar collectors, photovoltaic cells, underfloor air distribution, and radiant heating and cooling ceilings. It is one of the most environmentally friendly buildings in the world.
Of Pearl River Tower’s accomplishments, many are related to the sustainable design features include:
In a report presented at the 2008 Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat it was reported that the building's sustainable design features will allow a 58% energy usage reduction when compared to similar stand alone buildings. The building would have been able to be carbon neutral and actually sell power back to the surrounding neighborhood if the micro-turbines had been installed into the building. However the local power company in Guangzhou does not allow independent energy producers to sell electricity back to the grid. Without the financial incentive to add the micro-turbines the developers removed them from the design. If they had been added excess power would have been produced from the building, at the very least, after office hours when the power needed by the building itself had been reduced.

Timeline