Swire Properties Retains Frank Gehry for Stubbs Road Development. First Asian Residential Project for Pritzker prize winning Architect

Swire Properties today announces that it has commissioned Gehry Partners, the firm led by the Pritzker prize winning architect Frank Gehry, as Design Architect for its planned prime residential development at 53 Stubbs Road.

Guy Bradley, Director and General Manager of Swire Properties, says that the commissioning of such a distinguished architect reinforces the company’s brand philosophy of creating distinctive and innovative developments.

“Swire Properties is delighted to be the first to bring Frank Gehry’s exceptional talent to Hong Kong,” Mr. Bradley says. “Together we look forward to creating a truly exciting architectural design, befitting this unique site and Hong Kong as a world class city.”

The renowned architect expresses his delight in this collaboration with Swire Properties and the prospects offered by the site at 53 Stubbs Road. “This is our first residential project in Asia, and we are very excited with the challenges and the possibilities,” says Mr. Gehry, who has been working on the project with his Hong Kong born partner Edwin Chan.. “This extraordinary location, with its vista of spectacular views across Victoria Harbour, offers a unique opportunity to create a very special architectural presence. Gehry Partners is wholly committed to a design that will reflect Swire Properties’ philosophy of delivering truly inspirational living.”

Supplementary Information

• The site: Situated at 53 Stubbs Road, Mid Levels, the site enjoys sweeping views over Victoria Harbour. Swire Group purchased the site in 1920s, and built the first residence of the Group Director there in the 1940s. It will be developed into a single, 12-storey residential building with a target completion date of 2011.

GEHRY PARTNERS

FRANK GEHRY
Noted architecture critic Paul Goldberger once wrote that Frank Gehry’s “buildings are powerful essays in primal geometric form and... materials, and from an aesthetic standpoint they are among the most profound and brilliant works of architecture of our time.”

Raised in Toronto, Canada, Frank Gehry received his Bachelor of Architecture degree from the University of Southern California in 1954, and later studied City Planning at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. His architectural career spans more than four decades, and has produced public and private buildings in America, Europe and Asia. His work has also won numerous significant awards, including the Pritzker Architecture Prize, the Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize in Architecture, the Wolf Prize in Art (Architecture), the Praemium Imperiale Award, the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Award, the National Medal of Arts, the Friedrich Kiesler Prize, the American Institute of Architects Gold Medal, and the Royal Institute of British Architects Gold Medal.

Current projects include the Lou Ruvo Alzheimer Center in Las Vegas, Nevada; the Princeton Science Library in Princeton, New Jersey; the Hall Winery in Napa Valley, California; and the Puente de Vida Museo in Panama City, Panama.

Notable past achievements include: the Hotel Marqués de Riscal in Elciego, Spain; the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in Bilbao, Spain; the DZ Bank Building adjacent to the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany; Der Neue Zollhof, an office complex in Düsseldorf, Germany; the Experience Music Project in Seattle, Washington; the Bard College Performing Arts Center in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York; the Peter B. Lewis Campus of the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio; the Jay Pritzker Pavilion and BP Bridge in Millennium Park in Chicago, Illinois; Maggie’s Centre, a cancer patient care center in Dundee, Scotland; the Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Minnesota; the University of Toledo Center for the Visual Arts in Toledo, Ohio; and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, California.