Best Tall Building 200-299 meters Award of Excellence: Maike Centre, Xi’an
Eugene Park
Senior Associate Vice President
CallisonRTKL, Los Angeles
He Xin
Executive Vice President
Maike Centre, Xi’an
A New Gateway Couched in Cultural Context
Located in the heart of Xi’an’s new High Technology Industry Zone, the Maike Centre marks the center of this new CBD in the southwest part of the city. Adjacent to the Third Ring Road and a future subway line, it provides convenient access to and from any location in the city, as well as the airport. Planned as a main headquarters office and home to a Grand Hyatt hotel, the building needed to reflect the ambitions of a global corporation as well as the atmosphere of modern hospitality for the international hotel brand. Amidst dense, tall block developments, the design opens a public passage diagonally through the site, connecting a major urban intersection to a park to the southeast, retaining a clear visual connection from one end to the other. The copper ribbon strips rise from either corner to meet at the skybridge between the two towers, celebrating this urban linkage. The geometry of the ribbon strip, together with the skybridge, create a legible gateway to Xi’an.
Features of the design programming include the tri-level skybridge, which contains a collection of restaurants and entertainment venues where hotel guests, office workers, and shoppers can relax and take in the views of the city; the private dining villas atop the podium overlooking the park; and the unique oval-shaped, glass-walled ballroom, with views of the surrounding neighborhood. The interiors reflect a style that gives visitors a sense of the historic city’s new chapter, providing spaces that suit modern demands of luxury and efficiency, crossed with themes that portray their inspiration from Xi’an’s cultural heritage.
