CBD Central Park

GROSS. MAX. won the invited competition for a new park in the Central Business District of Beijing. The linear park along Chang’an Street fronts the KPF designed CITIC Tower, the tallest skyscraper of the capital. For us it was of interest to note that the height of the new skyline corresponded with the height of the mountain’s crescent surrounding the city of Beijing. We propose to represent -above a sunken pedestrian passageway -a mountain ridgeline silhouette; a dynamic configuration composed out of angled red colored metal beams creating an iconic landmark.  Nature here is represented as an abstract construct expressed in ridges and folded lines. Moving along the North/South axis and seen from different angles the structure creates different visual experience. During daytime the sun will create fantastic pattern of shade and at night the structure will be illuminated in the most striking fashion. Water is represented as a winding twisting rill of water situated as central element of the axis. Towards the South we situated a circular moon reflecting pool of water. At night images are projected upon the surface of the water of the monthly lunar cycle of phases of the moon. We reinvented the simple dogma that without mountain and water there is no Chinese garden.

Recently we spotted on Google Earth that the project was after many years delay built. Hence compromised without mountain ridgeline and less elegant strip of pavilions. Indeed, you win some and you lose some….