Tall & Urban News

Goettsch Partners (GP) has announced the start of construction for Changchun CR Center, a major mixed-use complex with a 300-meter (980 foot) tower in Changchun, the capital city of China’s northeastern Jilin Province. 
Designed by GP with international architecture and design firm Lead8, the project represents the third collaboration of the two design firms with developer-owner China Resources Land Limited, the previous two efforts leading to new city-making projects with multiple buildings and significant civic and economic impact in the Chinese cities of Wuhan and Hangzhou. In Changchun, GP is designing the main tower, and Lead8 is designing the retail and entertainment center. 
Plans for the development of the eight-acre (3.2-hectare), 34,000-square-meter parcel in Changchun comprise multiple towers, including office space, luxury residential units, and fully- furnished serviced apartments. In addition, new “signature spaces,” including a 66th-floor observation deck at the tower’s crown, are designed to draw visitors to the site overlooking the adjacent Mudan Yuan park and lake. The Changchun CR Center will be anchored by a 1.8 million-square-foot (170,000-square-meter) retail and entertainment complex. CR Land will occupy the 63-story, 1.5 million-square- foot (140,000-square-meter) office tower with its own regional headquarters, taking advantage of a direct connection to the subway. 

“The design team seeks to create a development in close harmony with the surrounding environment,” says Paul De Santis, LEED AP, design partner with Goettsch Partners. 
Slated to open in 2021, the complex and signature tower for Changchun CR Center will bring a distinctive façade and a highly visible illuminated crown to the city’s skyline—a statement in the developing metropolitan area, which is home to about half of the region’s total population of 7.7 million. 

Anchoring the development at the tower’s base is the MixC RDE Center, Lead8’s concept for China’s popular MixC brand: a retail and entertainment complex that elevates the traditional shopping center. Inspired by Changchun’s culture and influenced by the temperate climate, the lifestyle center features an integrated retail street where visitors will enjoy luxury brand stores, pop-up exhibitions, and fine-dining functions year-round. The glass façade establishes a visual connection with the street.  
“The new Changchun MixC is purposefully designed to blur the lines that define indoor and outdoor spaces,” says Claude Touikan, co-founder and executive director of Lead8.  
For more on this story, go to Goettsch Partners.