Chater House (Chinese: 遮打大廈; Jyutping: ze1 daa2 daai6 haa6) is an office tower in Central, Hong Kong. Opened in March 2003, it is a part of the Hongkong Land portfolio of properties. It has a three-level retail podium, known as Landmark Chater. The building was built on the site of the former Swire House, and was named after Sir Paul Chater. The building faces streets on three sides: Chater Road, Pedder Street and Connaught Road Central.
Plot history
Union Building viewed from Pedder Street, looking north, c.1926. A corner of the burnt down Hong Kong Hotel is visible on the right.
There were three buildings on the site between 1905 and 1958, namely Mansions Building (Hotel Mansions, later renamed Union Building), King's Building and York Building.[1]
Union Building
View from Victoria Harbour in the 1920s. The building on the left is King's Building, and the adjacent, slightly taller one is Union Building.
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 (於仁行).
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,[2] initially called Union House (於仁大厦; 於仁大廈; Yūrén Dàshà; jyu1 jan4 daai6 haa6), was completed in 1962, and had a total floor space of 34,000 square metres (370,000 sq ft).[3] in the 1970s, the Swire Group, gained naming rights for the building, which was renamed Swire House (太古大厦; 太古大廈; Tàigǔ Dàshà; taai3 gu2 daai6 haa6) in 1976.[1] 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.[4] Swire House was demolished on 5 October 1998.
Chater House
Foyer of Chater House, Hong Kong, with bust of Sir Paul Chater.
Chater House has a total floor area of 438,500 net sq.ft. (498,000 sq ft. gross), 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. (81,000 sq ft. gfa) and a three-level basement,[5] 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.[4] Architecture firm Aedas were the architect for the Chater House.[6] The main contractor was Gammon Construction.[7]
In 2014, the display of Antony Gormley's art installation Event Horizon at Chater House was cancelled when US investment bank JPMorgan, 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[8] jumped to his death from the building's roof.[9]
