GIRIMUN ARCHITECT’S design is finalist at the 2019 ICSC Awards!

We are excited to announce that our project Grand Gateway 66 North Building is a Finalist at 2019 ICSC Asia-Pacific Shopping Centre Awards in the category Design & Development – Expansions and Renovations.

The ICSC Asia-Pacific Shopping Center Awards Program recognizes excellence within the region’s shopping center industry. Awards are given for outstanding achievement in marketing and design/development of retail properties and retail store design.

The award will be presented in Singapore on October 22nd at the RECon Asia-Pacific Conference.

All of us from Girimun would like to thank our clients and everyone involved in the works.

About the project:

Grand Gateway 66 is a flagship commercial complex located in the heart of Xujiahui, a bustling commercial district and transportation hub in Shanghai Southwest. This well-established landmark comprises of a 7-storey retail center of 130,000 sqm with serviced apartments above it, and twin office towers. The retail center is composed by the main L-shape building and its annex North portion, a square-shape building featuring basement retail and six levels above totaling approximately 33,600 sqm GFA.

Owing to the strategic importance of Grant Gateway 66, a major revitalization program has been put in motion in 2015 to adapt the complex to new realities and consumer demands, one that required sensitive strategic planning and precise phasing implementation to allow for minimum disturbance of normal business operation during the 24-month construction period. As the most consolidated shopping and entertainment destination in this part of the city its renovation aimed to serve the community through an ever more diverse offer and high standard services, concierge and social events.

As the first phase implementation, the North Building is a key project to integrate all parts of the complex and its surroundings, and to create an attractive contemporary design language that signifies the whole renovation effort.

Once operated as department store, the building lacked prominent street level entrances, visual connections, and was poorly linked to the main building through far-apart enclosed bridges deprived of sight lines.

The renovation was conceived as to maximize urban permeability towards the vicinity. The implementation of new pedestrian routes required intense coordination with city authorities and the result is a building that embraces the city in multiple levels: at basement level, now two metro stations are directly linked into the property serving thousands of people daily; at street level, new landscape invites people through the Food Street and the building central atria that now features two entrances at opposite corners; at upper level, a system of implemented footbridges connects the complex itself and is planned to accommodate and expand outwards through the future 24-hour district footbridge network.

The scope included two basement parking levels and its new escalator connections to upper floors, basement-level retail and connections to metro network, Street level retail and adjacent outdoor Food Street and additional five upper levels including retail, cafes and restaurants, and the only multiplex in Shanghai with IMAX 3D, 4K and 4D.

All innovative changes, gains and improvements were conceived and implemented under complex constrains and planning conditions, the most important of which was the need to maintain the GFA balance originally approved.

The façade renovation was carefully considered under guidelines to create change where it would most significantly generate positive impact. New façades were implemented aiming at minimum demolition and at most exposed parts of the building, namely the general perimeter up to level 3, with special features at new corner portico entrances and full-height glazing at footbridge links functioning as doorways to the Food Street.

New voids at each floor and numerous added escalators formed a new central space that substantially improved shopper’s traffic. The new retail planning unveiled a major transformation, channeling pedestrian flows from metro stations– including a newly created link to line 9 –seamlessly onto upper floors and all the attractions on offer: fashion retail, creative restaurants and cafes, and an IMAX cinema complex at the top.

At street level, the revitalized Food Street features a mix of fashion tenants and indoor/outdoor dining offers, linking the two main vehicle drop-offs at both ends, now celebrated by elegant portico entrances and transparent-skin bridges exposing double-high space shops and restaurants.

An additional diagonal bridge above Food Street creates a new retail shortcut to the main building topped by a “hanging” dining terrace. Other series of footbridges are planned for future integration of surrounding buildings and urban public spaces.

New facades at lower levels were designed to aesthetically match the preserved façade above level 3, featuring elegant stonework texture, decorative bronze-aluminum feature panels, fine glazed canopies and generous shop fronts integrated with back-lit advertising panels.

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