Less than two years after Kunming's first skyscraper broke ground, plans for a 456-meter-high building in Dongfeng Square have been made public.
No details have been provided on which company will build the skyscraper, nor when construction is scheduled to begin.
The proposed skyscraper would sit on an 83,700 square-meter site and anchor a commercial and transportation hub with an underground complex of three to four stories of parking, a shopping center and a metro station. The current Workers' Cultural Palace (工人文化宫) will be demolished and rebuilt on Renmin Dong Lu.
If the proposed skyscraper were standing in Kunming today, it would be the second-tallest skyscraper in China, after the Shanghai World Financial Center. It is not clear whether the projected height of the Kunming building includes a spire or other thin projection off the top.
Three potential designs are currently on exhibit at the Urban Planning Museum on Tuodong Lu. Planners are asking the public to help guide the design process by voting on their favorite design before August 25.
Kunming's other skyscraper project, the 83-story, 333 meter South Asian Gate (南亚之门), broke ground in December of 2008 at the intersection of Tuodong Lu and Baita Lu, a few blocks southeast of Dongfeng Square. Construction on the South Asian Gate has yet to make substantial progress.
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Comments
Sounds cool but I don't think Kunming needs more half empty shopping centers at this point. I hope they plan ahead for a major earthquake as well. Kunming is statistically due soon unfortunately.
Joe Buzzkill
Ditto! And not to mention that the rents are going up so fast, fewer and fewer people can afford to buy things.
Very scary with their attention to detail that someone in Kunming is building these buildings. And, yes, the economy in China is built on a house of cards. One Chinese friend told us this week that the government wants to stop the construction, but does not know how.
Let's clue them in ... stop lending money! Simple! These things are all built on credit.
Kunming used to be a not-so-bad place to live, by China standards. But now it's just too many vehicles, too many people, too much filth. Sad to see the "Spring City" turn into what it is today. Poor infrastructure, poor advance planning, poor enforcement of laws and regulations.
Only saw this article now, 1 year after it was originally published.
A 456m building in Kunming? Sounds like another white elephant project. I would be more than happy to see 10 or even 50 such skyscraper projects in Shenzhen, Shanghai or Beijing, perhaps even Chengdu, but Kunming? Maybe in some years to come, but not now...seems a bit far fetched. Kunming is barely even known internationally and is even still a bit of a backwater as far as China is concerned. There is no reason for Kunming to show off by trying to stand up to the likes of Shanghai...
The shopping centers in Kunming are OK, but barely compare to what's on offer in Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore etc. (not to mention Hong Kong and Shanghai) and btw apart from the Petronas Twin Towers in KL, no other buildings in those SE Asian cities, which contribute to regional and global GDP far more than Kunming does have any buildings even close to 456m, the closest being about 320m (Baiyoke Tower in Bangkok).
Agree about the possible earthquake scenario. Plenty of earthquakes have occurred in western Yunnan recently, but Kunming could feel the effects of a strong earthquake closer to it sometime soon. Preparation is the key to successfully avoiding large scale casaulties.
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