Chater House () is an office tower in

Central Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object. Central may also refer to: Directions and generalised locations * Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known a ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

. Opened in March 2003, it is a part of the

Hongkong Land Hongkong Land (HKL) is a property investment, management and development group with commercial and residential property interests across Asia. It owns and manages some 850,000 sq. m. of office and retail property in Asia, principally in Hong K ...

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 Chater Road is a three-lane road in Central, Hong Kong named after Sir Paul Chater. It begins at its intersection with Pedder Street and Des Voeux Road Central in the west, and ends at Murray Road in the east. It divides Statue Square int ...

, Pedder Street and

Connaught Road Central Connacht ( ; ga, Connachta or ), is one of the provinces of Ireland, in the west of Ireland. Until the ninth century it consisted of several independent major Gaelic kingdoms (Uí Fiachrach, Uí Briúin, Uí Maine, Conmhaícne, and Delb ...

Plot history

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.gwulo.com
Swire House (originally named "Union House") 962–1998/ref>

Union Building

Following the Praya reclamation of 1890–1904, a building was constructed and opened in 1905, that served as offices of Canadian Pacific Ocean Services (G/F) and Hong Kong, Canton & Macao Steamboat Company (1/F). This building was acquired in 1921, and used as its headquarters by the

Union Insurance Society of Canton The Union Insurance Society of Canton (commonly known as the Union) was a major Hong Kong-based insurance company regarded in the early 20th century as one of the four leading British businesses, or " hongs", of colonial Hong Kong alongside Hong Ko ...

Ltd., and then became known as Union Building (). 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, initially called Union House (), was completed in 1962, and had a total floor space of 34,000 square metres (370,000 sq ft). in the 1970s, the

Swire Group Swire Group () is a Hong Kong- and London-based British conglomerate. Many of its core businesses can be found within the Asia Pacific region, where traditionally Swire's operations have centred on Hong Kong and mainland China. Within Asia, ...

, gained naming rights for the building, which was renamed Swire House () in 1976. In 1997, the main tenant of the building was

Cathay Pacific Cathay Pacific Airways Limited (CPA), more widely known as Cathay Pacific (), is the flag carrier of Hong Kong, with its head office and main hub located at Hong Kong International Airport. The airline's operations and subsidiaries have sc ...

, which occupied about 30% of the floor space. Other tenants included other Swire group companies, including Swire Pacific and Swire Industries. Swire House was demolished on 5 October 1998.

Chater House

The site was again redeveloped by

when the new

Hong Kong International Airport Hong Kong International Airport is Hong Kong's main airport, built on reclaimed land on the island of Chek Lap Kok, Hong Kong. The airport is also referred to as Chek Lap Kok International Airport or ''Chek Lap Kok Airport'', to distingu ...

opened in 1998. The building's main tenant,

, relocated to

Cathay City Cathay Pacific City (), often referred as Cathay City, is the headquarters of Cathay Pacific, Hong Kong's flag-carrying airline. It is located at Hong Kong International Airport, on the south side. History The airline built Cathay Pacific City ...

when the airport moved to its new site at

Chek Lap Kok Chek Lap Kok is an island in the western waters of Hong Kong's New Territories. Unlike the smaller Lam Chau, it was only partially leveled when it was assimilated via land reclamation into the island for the current Hong Kong Internatio ...

, while Swire Group moved to Pacific Place in Admiralty. 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, 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. Architecture firm

Aedas Aedas is an architectural firm with eleven International offices founded by the Welsh architect Keith Griffiths. Aedas provides services in architecture, interior design, urban design, masterplanning and graphic design. It was established in 2002 ...

were the architect for the Chater House. The main contractor was

Gammon Construction Gammon Construction Limited is a Hong Kong construction and engineering contractor headquartered in Kwun Tong, Hong Kong. In addition to local construction projects, it also involved in construction and engineering various projects in China and ...

. The building is linked to the Central Elevated Walkway, also owned by Hong Kong Land. In 2014, the display of

Antony Gormley Sir Antony Mark David Gormley (born 30 August 1950) is a British sculptor. His works include the '' Angel of the North'', a public sculpture in Gateshead in the north of England, commissioned in 1994 and erected in February 1998; ''Another ...

's art installation ''

Event Horizon In astrophysics, an event horizon is a boundary beyond which events cannot affect an observer. Wolfgang Rindler coined the term in the 1950s. In 1784, John Michell proposed that gravity can be strong enough in the vicinity of massive compact ob ...

'' at Chater House was cancelled when US investment bank

JPMorgan JPMorgan Chase & Co. is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Investment banking, investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered in City of New York, New York City and Delaware General Corporation Law, inco ...

, which has offices in the building, asked

– the sponsor of ''Event Horizon'' – to cancel its support for the show after bank employee Dennis Li Junjie jumped to his death from the building's roof.

Tenants

The main tenant of Chater House is

, who have their

Asia Pacific Asia-Pacific (APAC) is the part of the world near the western Pacific Ocean. The Asia-Pacific region varies in area depending on context, but it generally includes East Asia, Russian Far East, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Australia and Pacific Isl ...

headquarters in the building. Other current tenants include

Franklin Templeton Investments Franklin Resources, Inc. is an American multinational holding company that, together with its subsidiaries, is referred to as Franklin Templeton; it is a global investment firm founded in New York City in 1947 as Franklin Distributors, Inc. It i ...

, Jane Street and previous tenants include the

Securities and Futures Commission The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) of Hong Kong is the independent statutory body charged with regulating the securities and futures markets in Hong Kong. The SFC is responsible for fostering an orderly securities and futures mar ...

. Previously the Hong Kong Institute of Surveyors was headquartered in the Swire House.Home page
Hong Kong Institute of Surveyors. February 6, 1998. "1934 Swire House, Chater Road, Central, HONG KONG."

Nearby buildings

Jardine House Jardine House (), formerly known as Connaught Centre (), is an office tower in Hong Kong. The building is located at 1 Connaught Place, Central on Hong Kong Island. It is owned by Hongkong Land Limited, a subsidiary of Jardines. At the time ...

* Exchange Square * Mandarin Oriental (formerly

Queen's Building Queen's Building () was a late 19th-century neoclassical building located in Central, Hong Kong. Named after Queen Victoria, it was situated to the west of Statue Square on Hong Kong Island's waterfront with Victoria Harbour at the time. It ...

) *

Alexandra House Alexandra House () is an office building in Central, Hong Kong near Central station. The building has 37 levels. It hosts a shopping arcade, Landmark Alexandra, and it is connected to the Central Elevated Walkway. The block formed by Alex ...

* Prince's Building * The Landmark * Cheung Kong Center * HSBC Building *

Standard Chartered Hong Kong Standard Chartered Hong Kong (officially Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong) Limited, ) is a licensed bank incorporated in Hong Kong and a subsidiary of Standard Chartered. It is also one of the three commercial banks licensed by the Hong Kong Mo ...

* Three Garden Road *

World-Wide House World-Wide House is an office building in Central, Hong Kong. It is located between Connaught Road Central, Pedder Street and Des Voeux Road Central. History The site is situated on land reclaimed at the turn of the 20th century. WWH was co ...

Wheelock House Wheelock House () is a commercial office building located on Pedder Street in Central, Hong Kong. Wheelock House is a Class A office space An office is a space where an organization's employees perform administrative work in order to su ...

* Hang Seng Bank Headquarters Building

References

External links

Chater House
on

website {{Cathay Pacific Group Central, Hong Kong Hongkong Land JPMorgan Chase buildings Skyscraper office buildings in Hong Kong Shopping centres in Hong Kong Cathay Pacific Kohn Pedersen Fox buildings Office buildings completed in 2003 2003 establishments in Hong Kong