SHIJIAZHUANG, China--()--Lerthai Center, designed by The Jerde Partnership, a Los-Angeles based international architecture design and urban planning firm, celebrates its grand opening today as the inaugural benchmark mixed-use urban environment for the emerging city of Shijiazhuang, China. Shijiazhuang, the capital and largest city of North China’s Hebei Province about 280 kilometers from Beijing, is on the precipice of tremendous economic, social and cultural advancement.
Pioneering the continued growth of the city, the project was developed by local company Lerthai Commercial Real Estate Group, and encompasses over 620,000 square meters of total Gross Floor Area (GFA) within an integrated high-rise and public commercial district containing hotels, offices and apartments, and a first-of-its-kind shopping center with retail, dining, entertainment, and leisure. Known locally as “the diamond on the ring,” the project is located on approximately 60,000 square meters at the edge of the region’s main ring road in the heart of downtown Shijiazhuang, and is expected to become a premier public attraction and gathering place for the community and visitors. Jerde’s placemaking design has expanded tremendously throughout China over the last 15 years, with Shijiazhuang’s new urban landmark epitomizing the firm’s philosophy of making special places for people.
“When people visit Shijiazhuang, Lerthai Center will be the go-to place as it offers something dynamic, authentic, and never before seen. It will become the postcard of the region,” says Tammy McKerrow, Jerde senior design principal. “Our design approach was to attract the local population by introducing real experiences, knowing that tourists and visitors will follow because they want to be immersed in the city’s best place.”
Opening to the public today at Lerthai Center is the fully leased six-level, approximately 200,000 m2, indoor shopping and entertainment district that ties the larger urban complex together as the experiential public space. The 34-meter high shopping podium is bounded by four major streets downtown, with landmark entries and elevations reflecting each distinct urban edge, and designed to enhance the pedestrian experience. Anchored at the north end by a four-level department store, along with an underground Carrefour Hypermarket, visitors can easily access multiple shopping offerings, including 200 flagship retailers and unique entertainment venues within a warm and modern interior, complemented by underground parking for 2300 vehicles and 1200 motorcycles.
In addition to major retailers, the shopping center includes a modern ice-skating rink, performing arts center, luxury cinema, the finest local and international shopping and dining, and landscape and garden features, all designed to attract visitors from other areas of China as well as from around the globe. Highlighted by stunning spatial volumes and an interior pedestrian street, the retail program and circulation is broken down as human-scaled compartments that feel like real Chinese streets and urbanity.
Complementing the indoor retail is the outdoor SJZ Street – an eclectic village atmosphere with a collection of restaurants, bars, nightclubs and an inviting outdoor garden terrace that draws visitors from the street into the center. A unique ‘dragon canopy’ hovering over exterior express escalators brings visitors from the ground street directly up to level five. While the interior retail areas maintain a modern approach, SJZ Street is reminiscent of the rich cultural and traditional elements of city life in Shijiazhuang. Its strategic location and design is inspired by the existing context of a nightlife street that once occupied the area.
Opening in stages throughout 2012/2013 will be four landmark towers: a 44-story 5-star Marriott Hotel & Service Apartments (currently open); a 44-story Class-A, work smart office building; 29-story Office Loft building; and 35-story boutique Spa Hotel. Once fully completed, Lerthai Center is poised to heighten the public’s experience in the provincial capital and become the preferred destination for millions of people.
Inspired by the city’s evolution and Chinese themes, the center is punctuated with attention-grabbing architectural features. One of the project’s most prominent elements is a corrugated glass roof set directly above the L05 ‘sky garden’ – an approximate 13,000 square-meter space that could fit a 747 plane. The sky garden includes a performing arts theater, fitness center, business lounge, public amphitheater and stage, and state-of-the-art cinema surrounding the ice rink. Other local inspired themes include an interior ‘rock’– a vibrant-colored copper fabric providing a visual landmark and sculptural circulation – at the north atrium entrance; the undulating south entry canopy; and collective ‘red lantern’ elements within the rooftop wedding chapel, boutique hotel tower, and SJZ Street, which combined, represent China’s urban progression.
“As the design architects for the complex, we carefully studied the surrounding urban context to develop a cohesive design that would allow each component of the project to stand on its own architecturally, yet weave together in a fluid, seamless language to emerge as a visually stunning, distinctly communal place,” says McKerrow. “Big box malls and cookie-cutter residential towers are not going to propel China’s livability, but what will is true urban placemaking like Lerthai Center.”
With its innovative design, Lerthai Center will lead the region’s new evolution in urban redevelopment and will be the catalyst for Hebei Province’s growing prominence throughout China.
Jerde has designed or planned landmark places throughout China for nearly two decades, and has several major mixed-use developments in detailed design stages or under construction, each serving similar catalytic effects as Lerthai Center for Shijiazhuang. Recently breaking ground in November is the mixed-use ‘eco-city’ Samson International Plaza in Jiaxing, also under the design leadership of McKerrow, and will further showcase the firm’s design expertise that brings more than one billion people each year to Jerde places.
Six more Jerde Places in China that are under construction include: Northstar’s Xin He Delta in Changsha, a 520,000 m2 premier waterfront mixed-use district (winner of the 2012 MIPIM Asia Silver Award for Best Chinese Futura Mega Project, and planned for completion in late 2013); Guotai Plaza, approximately 65,000 m2 underground cultural leisure project in Chongqing (expected completion early 2013); Longshen Plaza, a nearly 100,000 m2 mixed-use complex in the Minhang district of Shanghai (expected completion 2013/2014); HuaYuan Mixed-Use in Changsha (expected completion 2013); Jiangmen Hilton Resort & Villas at Yu Lake, Jiangmen, China (expected completion 2013); and CityPark, a 300,000 m2 retail, dining, leisure and public space in Anhui, HuaiNan, China (expected completion 2015).
For more information, please visit www.jerde.cn | www.jerde.com