This sculptural addition to the business district on Guangzhou’s Pazhou Island is the centerpiece of a reconceptualized city block, which combines green space with covered walkways and multiple levels of retail and commerce.

Reshaping Pazhou Island

A historic anchor for trade along the Pearl River, Pazhou Island has emerged as a modern center of commerce. The new headquarters for Star River is an emblem of this transformation. From afar, the tower’s pleated facade ascends in a parabolic taper, creating vertical planes of light and shadow that add to its unique character. Situated near two other SOM-designed towers—the Guangzhou Chamber of Commerce and SANY Irootech Pazhou—Star River Headquarters represents a new class of office buildings reshaping the skyline and reinforcing a new Chinese urbanism that integrates landscape and public space.

Uplifting the pedestrian experience

The Pazhou Star River Headquarters is envisioned as a contemporary centerpiece on a public plaza with lush, native landscaping and paved areas that radiate from its glass-enclosed lobby. The tower’s signature canopy wraps around the base and extends above a retail building. This design conceals mechanical spaces at the block’s edge, while creating a covered pedestrian arcade at the end of the district’s retail street. Through a stair-lined opening carved from the ground, visitors can reach the retail offerings and subway connection below grade.

Engineering seamless spaces

Architectural and engineering designs work in tandem to shape a seamless, high-performing, landmark tower form. The tower’s tapering profile reduces wind loads. Its rounded corners are free of columns, maximizing lease spans to provide bright, open floor plates with views to the Pearl River. The pleated facade creates individual working bays, sized for both open and closed offices at the perimeter. A spectacular latticed structure at the crown contains a greenhouse with heritage specimen plantings and a reconstructed traditional pavilion in a reflecting pool to create a unique public destination. 

Highly efficient building systems

The building is designed to minimize embodied carbon and reduce energy consumption, while creating a pleasant, healthy workplace. The distinctive pleated facade design shades the exterior glazing to reduce direct solar radiation, while at the same time allowing diffuse daylight to reach deep into the interior spaces. Together with high-performance curtain wall systems and thermal insulation, the exterior envelope reduces typical cooling loads and improves indoor comfort in the perimeter zone throughout the year. 

Mullions that extended for the entire height of the building integrate user-operable panels for natural ventilation, giving the occupants direct access to fresh air. The project incorporates a comprehensive, integrated building management system that combines environmental control standards, plant monitoring, and a user interface to improve overall energy efficiency.