Kohn Pedersen Fox's Riverside 66 in Tianjin, China is steadily working its way to completion, scheduled for this September. The 10-year retail project will be one of China's longest buildings, with a 350-meter "super shell" made of 22 seven-story concrete ribs and 10,000 panels of glass. At this point, Riverside 66's structure is now complete and its enclosure will be finished in April.

The project is already decked out with numerous awards including the NY AIA Design Award, the Architectural Review Future Award, and a recent pre-LEED Gold certification.

Check out the newest construction photos and images KPF shared with us:

"When it opens this fall, the megastructure of the Riverside 66 retail project in Tianjin will complete a new phase of He Ping Lu becoming the centerpiece of the Hai He commercial district, and will be prominently visible from the Hai He River...

In the words of KPF Design Principal James von Klemperer, 'Now that the structural frame is complete, to wander inside a series of curved concrete ribs is something like it must be to see a whale skeleton from the inside. Herman Melville would have been inspired.' The concrete and glass structure curves dramatically upward from the riverside and converges with the opposing south façade, yielding a six-story building to meet the context of the Heping District. The building materials 'promote transparency and legibility, allowing the interior program to engage the surrounding streets' explains Audrey Choi [Senior Associate Principal at Kohn Pedersen Fox]."


"Located at a pivotal point where commerce and waterfront meet, the building is justified toward He Ping Lu, one of the main shopping streets in china, freeing the Hai He River portion of the site for a public park. 'The building engages the site’s disconnected edges and unites them within a single shell' explains Jeffrey A. Kenoff, Director and Senior Designer at KPF.

Two primary hubs of pedestrian flow at the east and west are connected through a series of public atria. The central atrium in particular 'divides the internal shell and directly links the Hai He River with He Ping Lu,' explains Kenoff. 'It also operates as both a public plaza and a vertical concourse to the building’s upper sky street.'"

"The design allows a variety of uses to be arrayed along two major interior boulevards. This circulation is intentionally porous with frequent active entries along the streets that allow the building to operate as a modern version of a traditional bustling merchant setting. Rather than acting as a terminus, the building becomes an integrated constituent of the urban traffic. With one of the grandest public spaces in Tianjin, Kenoff adds, 'the project aims to activate the regenerated riverfront as it rethinks the role of China’s urban market.'"

Project credits and data:

KPF Project Team and Contributors: Jeffrey A. Kenoff, Audrey Choi, Edwin Lau, Peter Gross, Ciara Seymour, Gary Stluka, Benjamin Albury; Bernard Chang; Hanna Chang; Saera Park; Shang Chen; Sarah Smith; James Kehl; Sandra Choy; Thomas Coldefy; Javier Galindo; Onur Gun; Heejin Kim; Yoojung Kim; Ming Leung; Luis Llull; Manon Pare; Charles Portelli; Samuel Schmitz; James Siow; Kristin Speth; Donald Springer; Kyle Steinfeld; Scott Wilson, James von Klemperer, Paul Katz

Associated Firms: Tianjin Architects & Consulting Engineers (TACE); Local Design Institute; P&T International, Associate Architect; Benoy, Retail Consultant; Arup, Structural; Parsons Brinckerhoff, MEP; ALT Cladding, Curtain wall; MVA, Traffic; ADI, Landscape; BPI, Lighting; Rider Levett Bucknall, Cost

Architects: Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF)
Location: Tianjin, China
Client: Hang Lung Properties Limited
Project Team:
Managing Principal: Paul Katz, FAIA
Design Principal: James von Klemperer, FAIA
Director/Senior Designer: Jeffrey A. Kenoff, AIA
Project Team Leader NY: Audrey Choi
Project Team Leader HK: Edwin Lau
Project Manager: Peter Gross, AIA
Area: 152,800 sq.m.
Year: Completion 2014
Photographs: courtesy of Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF)

Click the thumbnails below for more images.