On November 25, 2015, China World Trade Center topped out and Beijing’s new second tallest building at that time was now structurally at its peak. The mixed-use tower is the latest addition to the Beijing World Trade Center, a complex of buildings with varying heights developed since the 1980’s and containing a mix of shops, offices, hotels and apartments at the center Beijing’s Central Business District.

The tower was built as composite structure with a reinforced concrete core and a steel frame with perimeter columns encased in concrete. The structure rises with 8 perimeter columns on each side, which then reduces to 5 through a load transfer which vertically spans through three floors at the tower’s midpoint. The exterior is clad in a sleek curtain wall of glass with self-shading vertical fins and a canted façade tilting slightly inward. These façade features reduces glare and solar heat gain in the warm summer months, while still allowing for ample natural light in the winter and provides for the façade to have self-cleaning properties during periods of rainfall. The shape of the building is derived from forms found in nature such a bamboo shoot or a conch shell, but could also be viewed as a series of pagoda rooflines turned upside down. The curtain wall then extends well above the main roof line to complete the tower with a distinctive crown

Like the other buildings in the World Trade Center complex, this building is attached to a podium with a mix of uses aligned to the local streets and a series of plazas and open spaces. Phase 3B’s tapering form shows a design relationship to the neighboring China World Tower, also known as Phase 3A, and is the tallest in the complex. The pair of towers sits at the center of the emerging focal point of Beijing’s skyline in a highly visible location along the city’s 3rd Ring Road and across from the iconic CCTV Headquarters.