Grand 50 Tower
Kaohsiung, Taiwan

HEIGHT: 222m/728 feet
FLOORS: 50 floors
COMPLETION: 1992
ARCHITECT: ?

The building's design uses the traditional Chinese pagoda style, where it looks like a block setting on another block. The building is an octagon-shaped to reduce force from the wind.

Chang-Gu World Trade Center is the first building in Taiwan over 50 floors. It was the tallest building in Taiwan for 6 months, from 1992 until early 1993 when Shin-Kong Life Tower was completed in Taipei.

Modern treatment of tones and textures utilizing traditional stone, combined with the dichotomy of complex aluminum shapes, present an instantly recognized image.

The 50-storey high structure is fully unitized for the entire wall system, some of the larger units are over 7 metres in height.

The entire project demanded the highest standards of finish and materials. The test specimen was subjected to very high windloads; the project was tested to pressures equivalent to a wind speed in excess of 300 mph.

Chang-Gu World Trade Center was the tallest building in Kaohsiung from 1992 until the Tuntex & Chien-Ti Tower was completed in 1997.

Currently the 2nd tallest building in Kaohsiung, and 3rd tallest in Taiwan.



http://www.2bangkok.com/2bangkok/kao/bld13.jpg

http://photo.starblvd.net/RateOurTalls/2-1-5-1078350796?m=1&pg=1&ro=0&co=4

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/photopost/data/500/103cg2.jpg

http://www.2bangkok.com/2bangkok/kao/bld10.jpg

http://www.2bangkok.com/2bangkok/kao/bld06.jpg

http://www.2bangkok.com/2bangkok/kao/bld02.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v427/rotpics03/kaohsiung11.jpg

It's too boxy, but the facade is quite good. The style isn't bad, especially with the pagoda like top and shape.

7/10

8.5/10

This is one ethnic design that really works IMO. The setbacks are well-proportioned and graceful. Only the top looks heavy.

High points for being daring and beautiful.

I like it. Whats the style of this one?

8/10

daring, has an asian feeling. love its façade, the top does look a bit bulky.

9/10 one of C.Y. Lee's better ones :)

4.5/10

don't really like it. the shape of the building is quite nice though.

I don't like the bulge at the very top but the rest is very good.

8/10

8, nice building.. a little bit of height would do some good,.. altho its tall enough..

Hmm...

Well, if they like it over in Taiwan, then I like it.

I really have no idea what to give it.

i dunno there are some crazy towers over there . . .that looks like it belongs in Vegas!! 6/10

While the building is terrible IMO, this thread about it is awesome. Well done! The building is a PoMo disaster though, almost as bad as the skyscrapers in Wuhan.


6.0/10

The top totally ruins this building. It had so much potential. What a waste. 6.5

yeoh awesoem building;)
6/10:D

I've always liked the unusual design and colouring. . . 9/10

Check out this picture

http://www.skyscraperpicture.com/kaohsiung11.jpg

This is my favourite picture of this tower. It looks so large and imposing, but also like a giant monument. The top is a bit funny from some angles, but it fits right in when looking up at the tower from close, like in that second picture. The pagoda style is very interesting and unusual. Great building 9.0/10

7/10 - I like the multiple indentations at the corners, the cornice at the top of each set back, and the outward curve at the bottom of each segment. The cornices in particular not only resemble a pagoda, but remind me a bit of late 19th & early 20th century buildings, such as the Wainwright or the Flatiron.
However, the building is still too broad and blocky, even with the set backs, some parts of the facade could use a bit more detailing on the stonework, and that so-called crown - ARRGH! >( It's blocky and awkward, and doesn't seem to have any connection with the tower below it at all! All of that effort, and just a flat roof with a ticky-tacky, scrawny out of place antenna and a guy wire - they could have spared themselves the effort, and simply built the tower up with a series of setbacks culminating in a spire...THe only good thing about that crown as it is, is that it doesn't look quite so monumentally out of place when you're looking straight up at it from the ground...

thats a :nono: in me book

4/10

yeah it looks like a giant monument!

less than 5

this is hideous to look at...looks more like a monument than a skyscraper...what is going on in Taiwan anyways??..the TFC looks like a bunch of tupperware stacked up & now this..??....maybe Taiwan should rejoin China ..at least they know how to build skyscrapers! :puke: less than 3/10...sorry.

what a stupid piece of architecture :puke:

A 10 for those who dare looking at it , a less than 3 for it's design :X

Not bad !!
Very good design
7/10

Awful. 5

Different culture, different style, I guess.

In my eyes it's a 4.

Innovative yet absurd. 7.5/10. I like it somewhat for some reason.

This kind of design is unnusual and i don't like it at all....
4.5/10

5 This building really had something going on... until the top! What a gorgeous facade... and interesting shape... but that ridiculous crown really kills this thing...

Yeah, the top part is butt ugly and ruins the look of the building. The rest of it is quite good post-modernism IMO! 6/10.

Under 3/10

Damn controversial building....it dosent look positive to me thou...too much stone I guess, and those mid level protrusions spoil it. 6/10.

looks cool, 8

:wtf: This was something special!! 7/10

again a very weird asian shape 5/10

facade: the color is the half point that's missing for a ten, could be a bit darker
form: great! nice details!
specials: the top is so cool!
points: 9,5

5/10



Totally weird.

9.8/10
I love the pagoda style and the color, my favorite in TW. :cool:

Like other scapers in Taiwan, it's no wannabe-building and looks like a thing-in-itself.......hooray for originality !

Designed with care for detail and meaning.

9/10

Great~! Design..I like it my second favourite in Taiwan after taipei 101...10/10.

5/10

When I saw this building for the first time I thought it was built in the 1970's. :D :D :D :D

Sorry!!! :dizzy: :dizzy: :dizzy: :dizzy: :dizzy: :dizzy: :dizzy: :dizzy:

Really not my cup-o-tea.

i dunno what i rated it exactly, but it must have been something down there. it's just ugly

it's a really cool building and i lkike the design partly i gave it a 8

Is this real? Aargh. 3.0

Originally posted by johnrosstaiwan

When I saw this building for the first time I thought it was built in the 1970's. :D :D :D :D

Sorry!!! :dizzy: :dizzy: :dizzy: :dizzy: :dizzy: :dizzy: :dizzy: :dizzy:

Really not my cup-o-tea.

You're an expat in Tainan? We probably know eachother.

ARGGG!! Less than 3!!

Noooo!

3 or less

yep, looks like a monumend u'd expect to find in nk...lol. need a lot more glass to this one

6.5

4/10

What the heck is that?

Hmmm, I don't like it because it's too futuristic looking. What I mean by that is that it should be a lot taller looking that futuristic so in a sence it looks too futuristic for it's time. 5/10

8.5

I really like everything about the bldg but the very top and even that isn't soooo bad. Has a great shape and dominates its surroundings. Original and strong

It looks a bit contrived, like it's trying too hard to be different.

5.5

4/10

Incredibly ugly. 3.0

it has not aged well.5

I hate the shape and facade, 3/10

6.5/10

WOW!!! What a nice building!!! The last pic is simply awesome!!! 9.5/10.

:puke: Very ugly. In fact, this redefines ugly. I give it less than 3. :(

mmmmhhhh.....5!

Simply ugly
3

everything was like kinda good till i saw that top..:poke: 4/10

1/10

Top sucks, rest is good. 7.5.

5/10

I don't like it's style,but it's not bad seeing from chinses eyes.The side part is a bit boring though.

8/10

7/10

Very unusual design, very distinctive also, 8/10

7.

5.5/10

7/10

It's very original but I don't like it. 5/10

6/10

6/10

7,5/10

7/10

don't really like it
6/10

I like it. 10/10

So unique ^ ^
I have to say it would look better without the observatory thing at the top or even if it was better clad. The rest of the building is very original, offers an interesting shape and has good looking materials !
Very intriguing, in fact I'd like it to be taller !
7.5

From far it looks nice, but some details are hideous, and the colour is awful

5/10

8/10

Bizarre and ugly. 5.5/10

it looks like a light house from faraway.. i go to kaohsiung every year and its a shame they have that building i like the e erything about it but ew the top crown thing totally takes away from it

4/10

so ugly 4/10 is being generous

i always think its necessary to infuse a bit of your own culture into your architecture even though the majority of times it bombs. This is one occasion where I really like the results. Throroughly Chinese or Taiwanese it looks spectactular. It would have looked better if they had decorated it up a little more. the facade coloring is bland.

8.5/10

5/10.

9,5/10

7/10

6/10

i love the design of it, 8.5/10

this one is special! both taipei 101 and it are by same desigher.

even if it looks like a monument, it doesn't metter...

or maybe it looks better in person?? :)

already tall in Taiwanese standard.... :sleepy:

7/10

The only reason I would give it higher than a 6/10 is for the traditional design, but I can't the top.. 5/10

2/10

the design for the top is simply absurd. the architects for this project obviously have no concept of grace or elegance.

the building would have looked much better simply by continuing the pattern upward once or twice.

7/10

impressive but not so great 6.5/10

Radical looking buildng

6.5/10

odd

This building scores very heavilly and works very well until the last moment and you see the top. It is a joke right. No. 9/10 - 4 for the top. The pinicle of any tower is important 5/10

7/10

There is some limits with the «Asian» architecture, and this building surpass them.

6.5/10.

7/10

6/10

8/10,

it's like a proto taipei 101. 6/10

9.5 nice and weird! cool!

I like the pagoda style a lot, 9.5/10

0 / 10

( minus 11 actually )

0 / 10

( minus 11 actually )

LOL!! I like your style!

Agreed totally. Wish I could rate it in the negatives.

I'm not sure whether the Chinese understand that their pagodas are among the ugliest man-made structures ever existed on earth. They seem to have this uncontrollable urge to throw in elements of their ugly pagodas into highrise designs whenever possible without even asking themselves why the pagoda must be the defining characteristics of "Chinese architecture". It's such an obvious philosophical and logical flaw in their thinking and reasoning that they should feel embarrassed in not being able to get it right after hundreds if not thousands of years. Using their very own logic, the first Chinese architect to have designed the pagoda should not have been regarded as a traditionalist in the first place.

0 / 10

a big monument.
4/10

6.5/10

http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/6515/changgugo0.jpg 8/10romanpaucin

http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/4382/24yd8.jpg

Ugly top. 6.0

looks like a giant temple I like it ,its a bold design 8/10

ummm...it's not my taste
6.5/10

Looks pretty bad, especially the top.
4/10

7/10

10/10

Nah i do not like it, a 6 out of 10.

http://img462.imageshack.us/img462/6361/grand50uj3.gif http://img522.imageshack.us/img522/8877/grand50azj0.jpg

It's too ugly :puke:
3/10

6.5/10

7/10

7/10

interesting design 8/10

Very traditional... 7/10

1/10

3,5/10

4/10

7/10

ugly top,ewww

interesting 8.5

Fuck it:puke:
1/10

brr 3

8/10

Taiwanese style is handsome :)

7/10

9/10

Strange shape.

7/10

nice 8/10:)

So different:) it is a different culture, but we are able to appreciate the beauty:) Interesting, interesting, so different!

8,5/10

The tower looks very interesting, except for the top that looks hideous

7/10

4/10 Not my taste at all, but the top is horrible.

8/10

4/10

not my taste... 4/10

I don't know but i like it :D
9/10

10/10

8/10

Unique and original style !

9.0/10

8. Good building. Regards.

7.5/10

8/10

Insane attempt at vernacular styling. Crazy! 4

5.5

5/10

unique!
8.5/10

10/10
Belissimo

7/10

Wow, what a strange shape. 3/10

9/10

6.5

7/10

7/10

5/10

Different..would look better if it had more glass..6.5/10

5/10

:down:

1/10

6,5/10

9/10

Nice one and this represents their architectural style:okay:

8/10

terrible, 0/10

great 8/10

6.5 has a very 70's look.

6/10

5.5/10

I'd give it another point if it didn't have that weird thing on top.

4/10

5/10

5/10

Well, at least it's original.

Interesting design 8.5/10