Jin Mao Tower is a supertall skyscraper in Shanghai, China, the tower was once the nation's tallest building. Below are facts about the Jin Mao Tower and the related information.
Name: Jin Mao Tower
Also known as Jinmao Tower or Jinmao Building, all of three names are originated from the Chinese Pinyin of the tower's Chinese name("金茂大厦"), "jīn mào dà shà", if directly translated from the Chinese name by its meaning, the name would be "The Golden Prosperity Building".
Location: No. 88, Century Avenue, Pudong District, Shanghai
Jin Mao Tower can be accessed by taking Metro Line 2, getting off at Lujiazui Station and get out the station at Exit 6, and walking towards the tower for a few minutes. there are also many bus routes go through there, but not as convenient and popular as Metro.
Height: 420.5 meters(1380 feet)
The total height and architectural height of Jin Mao Tower is 420.5 meters, the tower has a spire and the supportive structure of the spire, the real roof height of the tower is 370 meters.
When completed in 1998, it was the tallest building in China.
Now Jin Mao Tower is no longer the tallest building in Shanghai, two nearby skyscrapers have surpassed it in height.
As of February 2018, Jin Mao Tower is the 29th tallest building in the world.
Uses: Observation(Tourism), Hotel, Office, Retail
Jin Mao Tower has 88 floors, the highest floor is occupied by an observation deck that open to tourists.
The 53th floor to 87th floor are occupied by a Grand Hyatt hotel, it's the building's anchor tenant, the hotel has 555 suites, a club, and some bars, cafes and restaurants. As of 2018, Grand Hyatt Shanghai hotel is still the 3rd highest hotels in the world, after the Ritz-Carlton on International Commerce Center in Hong Kong and the Shanghai Park Hyatt on the nearby Shanghai World Financial Center.
Office spaces start from 3rd floor and end at 50 floor, the 51st and 52nd floor between the office floors and the hotel are two mechanical floors.
The first six floors of the building also include a shopping mall, some restaurants, and clubs,
There are three basement floors, being occupied by a parking area that capable of holding 993 cars and 1000 bicycles.
Design:
Jin Mao Tower was designed by Adrian Smith from Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), he also designed many other tallest skyscrapers, including Burj Khalifa, Jeddah Tower and many more.
The appearance of Jin Mao Tower is inspired from ancient Chinese pagoda, which generally composed of many similar segments that gradually step back towards the core as the structure rises.
Jin Mao Tower composed of 88 standard floors, as the number 8 is the best number in Chinese culture, the whole building is designed largely based on number 8.
the portion below 350 meters is unevenly divided into 12 segments(with another 4 segments added it's 16 (8x2)segments in total), one stacks on another, each of these segments is 1/8 shorter than the lower segment that it stacks on, and the cross section of these sections gradually become smaller as the tower rises. The first section above the ground has 16 levels or floors, all 16 sections have a total of 88 levels.
there are 4 additional levels or sections above 350 meters, each of them is 5 meters tall, forming the base of the spire, tops out at 370 meters, the spire and its supportive structure contribute the last 50 meters of the height of the building, which is 420.5 meters.
The office spaces in the building are all column-free, gross height of each floor is 4.0 m (13.1 feet) and net height is 2.7 m (8.9 feet).
The building is designed to be able to withstand earthquakes of up to 7 on the Richter scale and typhoon winds of up to 200 km/h.
The exterior curtain walls of Jin Mao Tower are made of glass and stainless steel, they are criss-crossed by complex latticework cladding that made of numerous aluminum alloy pipes.
Development:
In December 17, 1992, a proposal for a 88-story skyscraper in Pudong was approved by State Council of China, the construction work began on May 10, 1994, it was contracted by Shanghai Construction Group.
Shanghai is not very suitable for building skyscrapers, as the city is built on alluvial plain where the soil is soft, skyscrapers are more likely to sink into the ground without proper supportive methods, to prevent sinking piles must be driven deeper. To build Jin Mao Tower, 1062 steel piles were inserted 83.5 meters deep into the ground, by that time they were believed the longest steel piles ever used for a building.
The building structurally topped out on August 28, 1997 and completed in mid 1998, and opened on August 28, 1998, the day of open was specially chosen for the date contains a few number 8.
The cost of construction was 530 million US Dollars by 1999, approximately 790 million US Dollars in 2018.
Tourism:
The observation deck on 88th floor of Jin Mao Tower is one of the most visited tourist attractions in Shanghai, it's at a height of 340 meter above ground, offering 360 degree aerial views of Shanghai. The observation deck has an area of 1,520 square meters(16,400 sq ft) , larger than other other observatories in Shanghai, its capacity is about 1000 people.
In addition to the panoramic views of the city, inside the observatory tourists can look down at the barrel-vaulted hotel atrium that just below the observation deck, the atrium has 28 annular corridors, it's 27 m (89 ft) in diameter and 115 m (377 ft) deep(tall), it's second tallest atrium in the world, only after the atrium in Burj Al Arab in Dubai.
In 2016, a new fenceless open-air skywalk was added to the observation deck.
As of 2018, admission to the Jin Mao Tower Observatory costs 120 RMB (approximately 18 USD) per visitor.