The Ping An Finance Center () is a 115-

story Story or stories may refer to: Common uses * Story, a narrative (an account of imaginary or real people and events) ** Short story, a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting * Story (American English), or storey (British ...

, supertall skyscraper in

Shenzhen, Guangdong Shenzhen (; ; ; ), also historically known as Sham Chun, is a major sub-provincial city and one of the special economic zones of China. The city is located on the east bank of the Pearl River estuary on the central coast of southern province ...

, China. The building was commissioned by

Ping An Insurance Ping An Insurance known also as Ping An of China (), full name Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China, Ltd. is a Chinese holding conglomerate whose subsidiaries provide insurance, banking, asset management, financial, healthcare services. ...

and designed by the American architectural firm

Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates (KPF) is an American architecture firm that provides architecture, interior, programming and master planning services for clients in both the public and private sectors. KPF is one of the largest architecture firms in ...

. It was completed in 2017, becoming the tallest building in Shenzhen, the 2nd tallest building in China and the 5th tallest building in the world. It also broke the record of having the highest

observation deck An observation deck, observation platform, or viewing platform is an elevated sightseeing platform usually situated upon a tall architectural structure, such as a skyscraper or observation tower. Observation decks are sometimes enclosed ...

in a building at .

Progress

The building is located within the

Central Business District A central business district (CBD) is the commercial and business centre of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides with the "city ...

of Shenzhen in

Futian Futian District () is one of the nine districts comprising the city of Shenzhen, China. The district is home to the government and Municipal Committee of Shenzhen, as well as the city's central business district (CBD). Name There are two theor ...

. Its 18,931 square meter lot was purchased by Ping An Group via auction at a price of 1.6568 billion RMB on 6 November 2007. Design of the building began in 2008 with

providing the architectural design and

Thornton Tomasetti Thornton Tomasetti (formerly the Thornton-Tomasetti Group, Thornton Tomasetti Engineers, Lev Zetlin & Associates, LZA Technology and Weidlinger Associates) is a global, 1,500-plus person scientific and engineering consulting firm. Services Tho ...

providing structural design. Its

foundation stone The cornerstone (or foundation stone or setting stone) is the first stone set in the construction of a masonry foundation. All other stones will be set in reference to this stone, thus determining the position of the entire structure. Over time ...

was laid on 29 August 2009, and construction started in November the same year. China Construction First Building Group was hired as the general contractor to construct the building. On 15 March 2013, the construction process was temporarily halted, due to the suspected use of concrete made with unprocessed sea sand, which could corrode the steel structure. Construction resumed on the building after sample testing. On the morning of 15 July 2014, upon a 10-meter-long steel column being lifted to place, the skyscraper exceeded 443.8 meters in height, surpassing the

KK100 The KK100 (), formerly known as Kingkey 100 and Kingkey Finance Tower, is a supertall skyscraper in Shenzhen, Guangdong. Location It is located on Shennan East Road and within Caiwuwei, an area often described as the 'financial district' of ...

Tower to become the tallest building in Shenzhen. The building

topped out In building construction, topping out (sometimes referred to as topping off) is a builders' rite traditionally held when the last beam (or its equivalent) is placed atop a structure during its construction. Nowadays, the ceremony is often parlaye ...

on 30 April 2015, and became the second tallest skyscraper in China at a height of 599 meters. The original plan was to add a 60-meter-long antenna atop the building to surpass the

Shanghai Tower Shanghai Tower () is a 128-story, megatall skyscraper in Lujiazui, Pudong, Shanghai.

and become the tallest building in China. However, in February 2015, it was decided that the antenna would not top the tower due to the possibility that it might obstruct flight paths.

Features

The building contains office, hotel and retail spaces, a conference center, and a high-end shopping mall. Floor 116 feature an

named Free Sky. As its name suggests, it is also the headquarters of

. The design of the building is meant to be unique and elegant, and to represent the history and achievements of the main tenant. A stainless-steel facade that weighs approximately 1,700 metric tons provides a modern design to the building. The building has a total gross floor area of 378,600 square meters. The 115-story tower has a width-to-height aspect ratio of 1:10 and also has an 11-story podium. Including the podium, the building has 495,520 square meters of floor space. A five-level basement adds another 90,000 square meters of area. The 620,000 metric ton tower has eight main columns which form the superstructure. The column dimensions range from approximately 6 by 3.2 m at the lowest level to 2.9 by 1.4 m at the top of the tower.

Elevators

The Ping An International Finance Center is equipped with 33 double deck elevators, travelling at speeds of up to 10 m/s.

Climbing attempts

The Ping An Financial Center has been the subject of frequent

rooftopping Rooftopping sometimes called roofing refers to the unsecured ascent of rooftops, cranes, antennas, smokestacks, etc., usually illegally. Rooftoppers usually take photos or videos and panoramic photographs—either a selfie by themselves or with th ...

attempts. In January 2015, daredevil Malaysian photographer Keow Wee Loong climbed the then incomplete building and released video footage and a photo taken from a crane at the tower's top. The structure was subsequently climbed during Chinese New Year on 19 February 2015 by two Russian and Ukrainian

urban explorer Urban exploration (often shortened as UE, urbex and sometimes known as roof and tunnel hacking) is the exploration of manmade structures, usually abandoned ruins or hidden components of the manmade environment. Photography and historical inte ...

s, Vadim Makhorov and Vitaly Raskalov from

Ontheroofs Ontheroofs is an urban exploration and rooftopping photography project conceived by Vitaliy Raskalov () and Vadim Makhorov (), from Ukraine and from Russia respectively. Their main focus of photography is the exploration of high-rise architectural ...

, who further climbed out to a crane above the under-construction tower and documented their ascent with video and photos.

Phase 2

The second building of the project, a 290-meter, 47-story skyscraper known as the South Tower, has been completed. Construction began in April 2014 and it opened in 2018/19. The complex includes a 5-star Park Hyatt hotel, a planned retail bridge connecting the two skyscrapers from levels 3 through 6.

Current status

Low occupancy

According to

South China Morning Post The ''South China Morning Post'' (''SCMP''), with its Sunday edition, the ''Sunday Morning Post'', is a Hong Kong-based English-language newspaper owned by Alibaba Group. Founded in 1903 by Tse Tsan-tai and Alfred Cunningham, it has remained ...

, almost 30 percent of the office space remained empty in the second quarter of 2019.

Gallery

File:Ping An Finance Center.JPG, June 2013 File:Shenzhen Pingan International Finance Center 2013-12-13.jpg, December 2013 File:Ping'an IFC, 2014-12-21.jpg, December 2014 File:Pingan IFC, May 2015 (1).jpg, May 2015 File:Ping An IFC as of August 2015.jpg, August 2015 File:Ping An IFC from above.jpg, September 2015 File:PAFC SZ.jpg, March 2016 File:Ping An Tower Nov.2016.jpg, November 2016 File:Another photo of Shenzhen Skyline.jpg, The Skyline of

Shenzhen Shenzhen (; ; ; ), also historically known as Sham Chun, is a major sub-provincial city and one of the special economic zones of China. The city is located on the east bank of the Pearl River estuary on the central coast of southern province ...

, the tallest building in the middle being Ping An IFC File:FREESKY观光层上所见的深圳之景.jpg, View of ShenZhen from the top of PAFC Tower File:从地王大厦上俯瞰鹏城.jpg, Ping An Finance Center shown from the top of

Shun Hing Square Shun Hing Square (), also known as "Di Wang Tower" () is a -tall skyscraper in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, China. Upon its completion in 1996, it became the tallest building in China, until being surpassed by CITIC Plaza next year. Backgrou ...

References

External links

Thorton Tomasetti

Pingan International Finance Center on Emporis.com
{{Supertall skyscrapers, under-construction Ping An Insurance Skyscraper office buildings in Shenzhen Kohn Pedersen Fox buildings Futian District Retail buildings in China Skyscrapers in Shenzhen Office buildings completed in 2017 2017 establishments in China