centerpiece of the ongoing transformation of Shanghai’s Huangpu River waterfront

Shanghai's Next Great Waterfront Place

The historic building boom that has so dramatically remade Shanghai’s skyline in the past decade has produced one of the most startling urban transformations ever seen. While the boom has resulted in a glittering collection of trophy buildings and stand alone icons, its effect on the vitality of Shanghai’s legendary street life has been less benign. With the design of the Huishan North Bund, EE&K has introduced a new approach to large scale waterfront development to China’s financial center and most dynamic metropolis.

EE&K approach centered on three principles:

• creating an active waterfront program for the water’s edge.
• focusing the development’s mixed-use development program around a series of high quality public environments, including two marinas.
• bringing people to the water by creating a porous edge along the landside

To prevent a monotonous “project”-like atmosphere, EE&K gave each building a unique design identity. Each building was designed to define smaller-scale places to bring people closer to the water, and to maximize the site’s unparalleled views of both the historic Bund, one of the most famous symbols of Shanghai’s past, and the Pudong District, a symbol of the new Shanghai across the river. Uniting these buildings will be a continuous waterfront promenade which will extend the public riverfront environment of the Bund to the east.

With the first buildings scheduled for completion in spring 2012, Huishan North Bund will become the centerpiece of the ongoing transformation of Shanghai’s Huangpu River waterfront into a post-industrial era. It is also envisioned as the anchor for the redevelopment of Shanghai’s long neglected port district, Hongkou. Huishan North Bund’s 320,000 square meter development program includes commercial office space, Shanghai’s new shipping exchange and trading hall, retail, and parking.