12/12/2025
Incredibly proud of our redBANG Design team for completing this stunningly detailed sketch of the iconic Shanghai Centre – one of China’s most famous and recognizable landmarks!
Located on the famous W. Nanjing Rd in Jing’an, the mixed-use complex comprises three towers — two 34-storey serviced apartments (472 units) and a 165 m, 48-storey central tower — rising from an 8-storey podium totalling 2 M sq ft. Home to the luxurious Portman Ritz-Carlton Shanghai, it was designed by visionary American architect John C. Portman Jr., whose dramatic atrium style and “mountain” (山) tower arrangement became legendary.
Built in the 1980s for affluent foreign expats and businesses settling up shop in the new China, it featured high-end retail, 30 k m² of offices, a supermarket, exhibition hall and 1 k-seat theatre.
☝️Fun story: In 1979, Deng Xiaoping visited Portman’s Peachtree Center in Atlanta, fell in love with it, and personally commissioned a similar “people-oriented” complex for Shanghai — making this China’s first major foreign-led development (with AIG & Kajima). The East Tower opened in May 1990.
A true symbol of China’s opening-up era.
