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(An article about USA-Chinese architect I.M. Pei, focusing on his Bank of China Tower commission in Hong Kong and his retrospective exhibition at M+. Originally published in The Foreign Correspondent's Club of Hong Kong's magazine The Correspondent (in English), October 2024; the article with Chinese translation was published in Artomity, October 2024). Scroll down for English.

 

Above image:

Bank of China Tower seen from across Victoria Harbour, photographed from M+, West Kowloon, Hong Kong, May 2024 (photo: John Batten)

貝聿銘：人生如建築

約翰百德

 

80年代是動盪的時期。1984年簽署中英聯合聲明前，香港的未來充滿未知。1982年11月，香港外國記者會搬遷至現址，亦即舊牛奶公司倉庫，給予一直沒有固定會址的記者會一種穩定。幾個月前，即1982年8月，社會氣氛急轉直下，當時政府宣佈將一塊重要土地出售予中國銀行，導致港元和股市大跌，而這塊土地就是美利樓的舊址。當時的美利樓位於花園道盡頭，是美利軍營內的駐港英軍軍官宿舍，意義非常重大。該次出售是拆除金鐘英軍設施的第一步。

 

M+博物館目前的大型展覽展出了美籍華裔建築師貝聿銘（1917-2019年）的作品，他設計過多個著名建築項目，包括香港的中銀大廈和巴黎的羅浮宮金字塔等。展覽沒有討論建造大廈背後的爭議，但仔細介紹了貝聿銘對當代建築設計和規劃的眼光，反映香港城市發展的挑戰。

 

Visitors at the opening of 'I.M. Pei: Life is Architecture' mimicking I.M. Pei, who is photographed on-site in front of his Grand Louvre project in Paris, circa 1984. (photo: John Batten)

貝聿銘生於蘇州一個中產家庭，父親貝祖貽是一名會計師和中國銀行的職業銀行家，曾去過全國不同城市工作。貝聿銘生於廣州，1918年舉家移居香港，父親在香港開設了中國銀行內地以外的第一間分行。遠離中國波動的經濟、政治不確定性和地方軍閥，他為中華民國政府建立了一個穩定、有利可圖的外匯業務，後來在倫敦和紐約也開設了分行。

 

貝聿銘的成長歲月和早期教育都在香港渡過。1927年，貝氏全家再次因為父親工作的關係舉家搬到上海。這些早期在香港的經歷和人脈之後對貝氏非常有用，他廣闊的見識，包括寫中文和英語會話的能力，都在香港習得。

 

貝聿銘於1935年移居美國，在麻省理工學院和哈佛大學學習建築。他的老師包括馬素．布勞耶、勒．科比意和包浩斯學校創辦人華特．葛羅佩斯，他學習了他們乾淨清晰、棱角分明的現代主義建築風格。1946年，他在葛羅佩斯的研究生班設計上海一座藝術博物館的概念時，拋棄了當時上海建築常見的中式元素，因為這些元素「是對公共建築流於表面的添加」。在這個早期設計中，他的個人風格已經逐漸萌芽。

 

 

A page from Walter Gropius' article about I.M. Pei's design for an art museum in Shanghai, published in L'Architecture d'Aujoud'hui, Vol 28, February 1950.

 

 

他找到了兩個會出現在後期項目的中式元素。小時候到蘇州拜訪祖父和城中著名花園時，他領會到葛羅佩斯所述的「空蕩中式牆」和「小型露天庭院」。1948年至1955年間，貝聿銘為紐約著名地產開發商威廉．錫堅杜夫的公司齊氏威奈設計大型高層寫字樓和住宅項目時就實現了這些設計元素，這些項目包括為藝術、花園和露天廣場提供地面的「社交互動」空間。公司追求建築卓越和盈利，威廉．錫堅杜夫後來提過，聘請貝聿銘「就像是美迪奇家族尋找米高安哲羅一樣」。

 

Mile High Center, (1952-1956), a Webb & Knapp development, Denver, Colorado, U.S.A. (Photograph courtesy of the Estate of I.M. Pei) 

 

 

貝聿銘於1955年成立自己的建築事務所，當時他已經以優質的作品聞名。事務所由一支多學科團隊協作，設計商業和住宅項目，包括齊氏威奈的項目。1966年，他被任命設計位於哈佛大學的甘迺迪圖書館，公司的設計領域逐漸擴張，隨即被選中設計更多重要和傑出的公共和國際建築和博物館項目，並越常在設計中使用幾何形狀。甘迺迪的遺孀積琪蓮．甘迺迪說過，貝聿銘被選中設計圖書館是因為他的作品「總是美麗的」。

 

貝聿銘在香港的第一個項目是位於銅鑼灣的新寧大廈（建於1977-1982年），大廈的設計與他一些美國項目的設計類似。新寧大廈是一座優質的商業辦公大樓和住宅，配有一個小型的室外廣場，可惜大廈已於2013年拆卸。新寧大廈是當時銅鑼灣區罕有可以讓人閒坐和飲食的室外空間，附近有一間以現場音樂和免費花生作招徠的深夜酒吧，食客可將花生殼丟在地上踩滿腳下。

 

貝聿銘的高聳三角形地標建築中銀大廈（建於1983-1989年）是香港的代表建築之一，經常可以在廣告和旅遊推廣中見到它的蹤影。它與獅子山、太平山景和電車並列，成為了香港的標誌。

 

 

Lease brochure cover showing an illustration of office tower and apartment tower (detail), Sunning Plaza, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong, 1981. (Printing ink on paper, courtesy of Chien Lee - photo: John Batten)

 

Bank of China Tower under construction, photographed by Frank Fischbeck. Courtesy of Special Collections, The University of Hong Kong Libraries.

政府宣布出售美利樓土地一事引起了爭議，有人指責政府向中國示好，因為當時的地價遠低於同期向港鐵出售一塊大小相約的金鐘地皮，而付款年期長達13年。官方為此事及後來類似的土地交易所編造的說辭變得耳熟能詳，直至在同意建造赤鱲角機場前，每筆交易都被宣傳為中國大陸對香港未來的「信心」。

 

早於殖民地時期，金鐘就一直是英軍和殖民政府的活動中心。中銀大廈土地的出售，是這區慢慢轉變為民用的開始。1991年，域多利軍營改建成香港公園。添馬艦的海軍設施歸還後進行了填海，2000年代初建成了新的政府總部和立法會大樓。

 

 

Model of Bank of China Tower in lobby of Old Bank of China building, photographed by Bobby Lee. Published in Mandarin Oriental magazine, 1988.

中銀大廈位於主要道路周圍，且地勢崎嶇，它的位置當時被形容為「難以應付」。根據貝聿銘的兒子、參與該建築項目的貝禮中和M+展覽策展人所述，貝聿銘「與政府官員提出換地，以西面角落的一個公共區域交換另一個空間，將該地塑造成一個平行四邊形，大廈被三角形的花園環繞。」

 

大廈建成後，人們開始質疑它的風水和它棱角分明、呈尖刀狀的原因。貝聿銘駁斥了這種說法，並表示他的銀行客戶及其主要股東在大陸的活動中亦反對這種過時和迷信的想法。這座建築無疑是非常獨特和銳利，特別是從禮賓府（前港督府）附近看。

 

貝聿銘與他長期合作的結構工程師萊斯利．羅伯森（1928-2021年）合作，構建四根鋼角柱，將重量轉移到獨特的三角形/菱形結構上，發展出建築的形式。建築的高度和角度外觀令它在香港島的山脈和面海的城市地形中有著強烈的存在感，時而與之對立，時而與之融合。

 

最初的空間限制現在已不再明顯。大廈在重新協商和塑造的土地上，與中環及周邊道路成一直線，具有良好的地面行人通道，看起來非常壯觀。建築高度為315米，連同兩枝獨特的天線總高度達367米。

 

Site model of the Bank of China Tower (detail), with surrounding buildings and environment, acrylic and wood, 1988. (Courtesy of Bank of China (Hong Kong) Limited - photo: John Batten)

 

 

中銀大廈雖然高，但並未如其他城市的高樓大廈（如台北101）那樣霸佔香港的景觀。大廈背靠太平山，與香港島的山脈和其他高樓大廈融為一體。即使從附近的上環和跑馬地觀望，也看不到大廈的蹤影。大廈之所以擁有強大而有代表性的存在，就是因為它的建築特色。

 

早期的爭議現在已經被遺忘，然而，貝聿銘讓大廈在城市的想像藍圖中佔一席位，因為他堅信「建築不是關於空間內的獨立個體，而是一種可以承載和提升生活品質的公共藝術，以持久的方式改善社會。」

 

貝聿銘：人生如建築，M+，香港，2024年6月29日至2025年1月5日

I.M. Pei: Life is Architecture

by John Batten 

 

 

The 1980s were volatile. Amidst uncertainty over Hong Kong’s future prior to the signing of the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration, the Foreign Correspondent Club’s relocation in November 1982 to its current home, the former Dairy Farm building, offered some stability for a club with an itinerant history. A few months earlier, in August 1982, the city’s social climate had plummeted as the Hong Kong government announced the sale of a key piece of land to the Bank of China, triggering Hong Kong’s dollar and stock market to tumble. The site was symbolically significant: Murray House, the officers’ quarters of the British Army at Murray Barracks at the bottom of Garden Road. The sale was a first step in the dismantling of British military facilities in Admiralty.

 

The current big show at Hong Kong’s M+ museum is devoted to the work of Chinese-American architect Ieoh Ming Pei (known universally as I.M. Pei, 1917-2019), designer of Hong Kong’s Bank of China Tower and other prestigious projects, including the Louvre pyramid in Paris. The exhibition avoids discussing the controversy surrounding the construction of the tower but gives an excellent introduction to Pei’s vision in contemporary architectural design and planning that reflect Hong Kong’s own urban development challenges.

 

 

Visitors at the opening of 'I.M. Pei: Life is Architecture' mimicking I.M. Pei, who is photographed on-site in front of his Grand Louvre project in Paris, circa 1984. (photo: John Batten)

 

 

Born into a middle-class Suzhou family, I.M. Pei’s father, Pei Tsuyee, was an accountant and career banker for the Bank of China, working in different cities around the country.  I.M. Pei was born in Guangzhou and the family then moved to Hong Kong in 1918, where his father opened the Bank of China’s first overseas branch in the city. Away from China’s volatile economy, political uncertainty and regional warlords, he built a stable and profitable foreign exchange business for the Chinese Republican government (with later branches in London and New York).

 

I.M. Pei’s formative years and early education were spent in Hong Kong. In 1927, the Pei family moved to Shanghai, again for the senior Pei’s work. These early Hong Kong experiences and connections would later be useful, and it is an intriguing fact that I.M. Pei’s young cosmopolitan persona, including learning written Chinese and spoken English, were formed in Hong Kong.

 

Pei moved to the United States in 1935, studying architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard University. His teachers included Marcel Breuer, Le Corbusier and Bauhaus school founder Walter Gropius, and he adopted their architectural milieu: a modernist design sensibility of clean rectangular lines. For a 1946 graduate masterclass led by Gropius, I.M. Pei’s conceptual design for a Shanghai art museum dismissed the Chinese motifs often seen in the period’s Shanghai architecture, as they were “added to public buildings in a superficial way.” The inklings of a personal style were demonstrated in this early design.

 

A page from Walter Gropius' article about I.M. Pei's design for an art museum in Shanghai, published in L'Architecture d'Aujoud'hui, Vol 28, February 1950.

 

 

He identified two Chinese elements that were to feature in later projects. Visiting his grandfather in Suzhou and the city’s famous gardens as a child, he appreciated, as related by Gropius, “bare Chinese walls” and “small open patios.” These design elements were realised when Pei worked for a prominent New York property developer, William Zeckendorf of Webb & Knapp, on large-scale high-rise office and residential designs between 1948 to 1955. These projects included ground-level “social interaction” spaces for art, gardens and open plazas. The company strived for architectural excellence and profitability and Zeckendorf later quipped that employing Pei “..was a matter of de’ Medici looking for a Michelangelo.”

 

Mile High Center (1952-1956), a Webb & Knapp development, Denver, Colorado, U.S.A. (Photograph courtesy of the Estate of I.M. Pei) 

 

 

Pei already had a reputation for high-quality work when he set up his own architectural practice in 1955. Comprising a multi-disciplinary team working collaboratively, his practice continued designing commercial and residential projects, including for Webb & Knapp. However, their scope expanded in 1966 with his appointment to design the John F. Kennedy Library at Harvard. Immediately, his company was selected to design more prominent and prestigious public and international buildings and museum projects, increasingly using geometric forms in their designs. Kennedy’s widow, Jacqueline Kennedy said that Pei was selected to design the library because his work was “always beautiful.”

 

Pei’s first project in Hong Kong, Sunning Plaza (built 1977-1982) in Causeway Bay, reflects Pei’s designs for similar U.S. projects. It was a quality commercial office tower and residential block with a small interconnecting outdoor plaza, sadly demolished in 2013. The plaza provided the district with a rare outdoor space in which to sit, eat and drink. One late-night bar built its identity by providing live music and free peanuts, with the discarded shells thrown onto the ground, trampled underfoot by customers.

 

 

Lease brochure cover showing an illustration of office tower and apartment tower (detail), Sunning Plaza, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong, 1981. (Printing ink on paper, courtesy of Chien Lee - photo: John Batten)

 

 

 

Bank of China Tower under construction, photographed by Frank Fischbeck. Courtesy of Special Collections, The University of Hong Kong Libraries.

I.M. Pei’s landmark Bank of China Tower (built 1983-1989) with its tall triangular form is one of Hong Kong’s defining images. Seen in advertising and travel promotions, it ranks alongside Lion Rock, the view from The Peak and the city’s double-deck trams as an image that immediately recalls the city.

 

The Hong Kong government’s announcement to sell the Murray House site was controversial. It was accused of favouritism towards China, as the land’s selling price was considerably less, and payment terms spread over thirteen years, overly generous compared to a recent sale to the MTR Corporation for a similar-sized parcel of land in Admiralty. The official spin surrounding this, and similar later land deals, would become familiar - culminating in the agreement to build a new airport at Chek Lap Kok: each deal was promoted as “confidence” by the mainland in Hong Kong’s future.

 

 

Model of Bank of China Tower in lobby of Old Bank of China building, photographed by Bobby Lee. Published in Mandarin Oriental magazine, 1988.

 

 

The Admiralty area, reflected in its name, had been the centre of British armed forces and government activity in the colony and region since the earliest days of colonisation. The Bank of China land sale was the first in the slow transformation of the area’s return to predominantly civilian use. The large Victoria Barracks army site became Hong Kong Park in 1991. H.M.S. Tamar’s naval facilities were returned, and after extra land reclamation, became the new government headquarters and Legislative Council complex in the early 2000s.

 

Surrounded by major roads and on a sloping site, the Bank of China Tower’s location was described at the time of construction as “difficult”. According to Sandi Pei, I.M. Pei’s son who worked on the project, and the M+ exhibition curators, Pei “…negotiated with government officials (and) by exchanging a public area in one (western) corner for another space, the site was reshaped into a parallelogram with the tower framed by triangular gardens.”

 

As the building took shape, its fung shui was questioned, together with the intention of having such angular, knife-like architecture. Pei dismissed such talk, reflecting his banking client, and its majority shareholder, whose mainland campaigns argued against such old-fashioned superstitious ideas. Undeniably, the unique sharp-edged form of the building is strong – especially seen from near the Chief Executive’s residence (the former Governor’s House).

 

Working with long-time structural engineering collaborator, Leslie E. Robertson (1928-2021), I.M. Pei developed the building’s form by constructing four steel corner columns, onto which weight transfers from its distinctive triangular/diamond framework. The building’s great height and angular appearance gives it great presence, alternatively contrasting and blending against Hong Kong island’s mountain-backed and harbour-fronted urban topography. 

 

If there were initial spatial restrictions, these are not obvious now. The tower’s footprint on the renegotiated, reshaped site aligns with Central and the surrounding roads and the tower has good ground-level pedestrian access and an imposing presence. Its architectural height of 315 metres; together with its two distinctive antenna masts, gives a total height of 367 metres.

 

Site model of the Bank of China Tower (detail), with surrounding buildings and environment, acrylic and wood, 1988. (Courtesy of Bank of China (Hong Kong) Limited - photo: John Batten)

 

 

Despite its height, the Bank of China Tower does not dominate Hong Kong like tall buildings in other cities – such as Taipei 101 in Taiwan. The building backs onto The Peak, and with mountains and other high-rise buildings running through Hong Kong island, views of the tower are blocked from even nearby Sheung Wan and Happy Valley. It is the tower’s architecture that has a strong, now iconic, presence.

 

The early controversies are now largely forgotten; however, I.M. Pei ensured the tower’s place in the city’s imagination because he strongly believed that “architecture is not about isolated objects in space. It is a civic art that contains and ennobles human activity in an enduring way that uplifts society.”

 

 

I.M. Pei: Life is Architecture, M+, Hong Kong, 29 June 2024 – 5 January 2025

then travelling to Shanghai, PRC, in 2025   

M+ link: I. M. Pei: Life Is Architecture | M+

A podcast with a discussion about the M+ exhibition, and John Batten reading this article (in English) can be heard at:

Architect I.M. Pei, the Bank of China, Hong Kong and a global legacy: John Batten - The Correspondent | Podcast on Spotify 

 

M+ panel discussion led by exhibition co-curator Shirley Surya and architects Li Chung (Sandi) Pei, partner and founder of PEI Architects; Calvin Tsao and Aslıhan Demirtaş - watch on YouTube: 

M+ Talks | Architecture Is Life: I. M. Pei - YouTube