Visible from throughout Taipei, the Shin Kong Life Tower quickly became the city’s most recognizable landmark after construction began in 1989. Standing fifty-one stories high, the rose-colored US$270 million building topped by a distinctive golden pyramid is the tallest in the city. Since it opened in December 1993 along the major east-west thoroughfare of Chunghsiao West Road, across from the Taipei Railway Station, it has become an important reference point and gathering spot for the western section of the city.
It gives people a sense of orientation for all of Taipei,” says Simon Chang (張世儫), an architect with International Metropolitan Architects and Associates. Tsai Ching-hui (蔡清徽), a senior urban design specialist in the city’s government’s Department of Urban Development waxes more poetic on the building’s role as the first landmark visitors see as they arrive in Taipei by train. Says Tsai, “It has become the beacon leading to the gateway of Taipei city.”
The project went through several phases before the final concept was settled on. The four companies that owned the land first began discussing plans to build two separate buildings on the 10,000-square-meter plot in 1981. But the plan never got off the ground because the foursome could not reach a consensus on the design and management of the buildings. The partnership eventually broke up, and in 1985 the land was purchased by two of the original partners: Asiaworld International Group retained the eastern half and Shin Kong Life Insurance Co. kept the western half. Each company built its own building. The twenty-seven-story Asiaworld Department Store opened in 1990. Shin Kong hired Kaku Morin Group (KMG) Architects and Engineers of Japan and decided to build a combination office tower and department store.
Prize winner—The tower won third place in the 1994 architectural design contest for high-quality construction, inclusion of public space, and a pleasing color scheme.
The architectural team at KMG faced three main challenges in taking on the final project for Shin Kong. The first was the space limitations of the site. Despite its location in the center of a bustling district filled with shops, office buildings, and cram schools, KMG hoped to create a open public area around the tower. So the front of the building is set back 31 meters to form a 1,170-square-meter plaza decorated with flower pots, lamp posts, and flags. The other sides of the building were also set back from the streets to provide pedestrian walkways. In addition, the upper stories of the building have been reserved for three restaurants and an observation tower equipped with telescopes, offering an excellent vantage point overlooking Taipei.
The creation of public space has won praise from architects such as Wang Yu-hua (王裕華), chief designer at Sinotech Engineering Consultants Inc. “They have followed the architectural rule of creating a public square around the tower,” Wang says. But others, including architect Simon Chang, believe KMG should have done more for the public. “Space is very important for urban people,” Chang says. He believes KMG should have raised the ceiling of the first floor to create a tall, two-story entrance level offering a more open feeling.
KMG’s second main consideration was to overcome the difficulties in combining a department store and office tower into a single building, Because the store required a wider floor area, the base of the building is thicker than the narrow office section above. But in creating the design, KMG had to follow the regulations on high-rise buildings, which in this case required that the building take up only 60 percent of its land area, Thus, the department store had to be squeezed into a floor space of about three thousand square meters per story. “It was a challenge for us to meet the requirements of the owner and government,” says architect Kaku Morin (郭茂林), owner of KMG.
Shining accomplishment—Says one architect, “It gives locals a sense of orientation for all of Taiwan.” Another calls it “the beacon leading to the gateway of Taipei city.”
To separate department store shoppers from office building personnel, Shin Kong was built with several sets of elevators. One set serves the twelve department store floors and a second sends visitors from the ground floor to the restaurants on the forty-fourth and forty-fifth floors and to the observation tower on the forty-sixth. A third ferries office personnel to the sixteenth floor, where a guard monitors traffic to the upper stories. Urban design specialist Tsai Ching-hui thinks that locating both the department store and the office tower entrances at the front of the building is a flaw. She would have preferred a private side entrance for office personnel.
The third consideration was the safety of the tower itself. Earthquakes are frequent in Taiwan. In addition, the building site suffers from a soft soil structure and from nearly constant, heavy traffic. To safeguard against these potential dangers, the buildings safety features were tested by the Center for Earthquake Engineering Research at National Taiwan University.
Choosing the exterior material for the tower posed another challenge. “Taiwan’s hot sunshine and air pollution make it difficult to keep buildings looking good,” explains Lee Tiao-yang (李調陽), manager of Shin Kong Life Insurance Company’s construction department. In the end, KMG chose aluminum covered with a fluoride-based paint that Lee says should stay untarnished for about twenty years. The colors were based on a combination of the national flowers of ROC and Japan—the plum blossom and the cherry blossom. Kaku Morin says the colors help localize the tower by representing Taiwan’s characteristics. Architect Tsai Ching-hui says the rosy shades harmonize well with the neighboring buildings.
... while the forty-sixth floor offers a prime view overlooking the city.
The completion of Shin Kong Life Tower, as well as the Asiaworld department store and the high-tech new train station, completed in 1989, have all given the surrounding neighborhood a modern look. Today, it is an area in transition. The narrow lanes and alleys behind the Shin Kong building are clogged with crowds of students in matching uniforms traveling to and from after-hours cram schools, shopping at the area’s many bookstores, or grabbing a quick bowl of noodles. Most of the nearby low-rise buildings house apartments, offices, and small, family-owned shops or restaurants on the ground level. Yet Shin Kong and the other new buildings give the neighborhood a sense of moving upscale, and several ongoing construction projects promise to continue this shift. Two stations for the Taipei Mass Rapid Transit System are being built near the train station, and a public plaza in front of the station will eventually provide open space.
The Shin Kong building gives high visibility to its owners, but is it a model for Taipei’s future skyline? The desirability of building super high-rises is still being debated. Earthquakes and fire safety top the list of public and professional concerns.
In 1994, the Shin Kong tower won third place in the Sixteenth Annual Chinese Architecture Awards, sponsored by Taipei-based Chinese Architect magazine. The building outpaced the competition with its designation of public space, its attractive color scheme, high quality construction, and its success in overcoming the challenges posed by a small land area and crowded surroundings.
Second prize went to the Taipei Metro, 42-story twin towers in the eastern section of the city. The building complex houses the Shangri-La hotel, office spaces, and six floors of upscale retail shopping. No building received a first place award that year. One of the judges, professor of architecture Fu Chao-ching (傅朝卿), explains that the decision was made not as a criticism of these two buildings but as a general protest of Taiwan’s ineffectual safety standards concerning high-rise buildings. “The judges did not want to encourage the construction of skyscrapers in Taipei because the equipment for fire and earthquake safety currently is not good enough and the building safety laws are not perfect,” he says. Another factor in the decision was that the judges felt neither building truly reflected a local spirit. “Both of the buildings were mainly designed by foreign architects,” he says.
Other architects have harsher criticisms of the Shin Kong tower. Some claim that the building lacks creativity and flair. “Compared with other skyscrapers, this tower’s design is very plain and traditional,” says Tsai Ching-hui. One architect who has lived in the United States for almost twenty years believes Shin Kong has become a landmark only because of its height. “Frankly speaking, its design can’t compete with outstanding international skyscrapers,” he says.
But KMG’s Kaku Morin responds that while the building may not be daring, it is beautiful in its well-proportioned, “healthy” structure, careful design, and construction. “Construction is as important as design,” he says. “A building is like a human body—if it is not healthy, it is nothing no matter how beautiful it is.”
Upscale shopping—The Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Department Store occupies the entrance level, shown here, and eleven more floors.
Architect Kaku Morin refutes criticisms that Shin Kong is too simple—“A building is like a human body—if it is not healthy, it is nothing no matter how beautiful it is."