AIA Central

The AIA Central (Chinese: 友邦金融中心), formerly called AIG Tower (美國國際集團大廈), in Hong Kong is a 185-metre (607 ft.), 37-storey skyscraper that was completed in 2005 and serves as the headquarters of AIA Group. It is located in Central, not far from the landmark Bank of China Tower. The Furama Kempinski Hotel, famous for its revolving restaurant, formerly stood on the same lot that the former AIG Tower rises from, but in December 2001, the 33-storey hotel was demolished to make way for the AIG Tower. The tower was renamed to AIA Central on 9 July 2009. The building was jointly developed by Lai Sun Development, CapitaLand, and American International Group (AIG). The architectural firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill designed the building to look like the Chinese junk, a Chinese sailboat design dating from ancient times and still in use today. Leslie E. Robertson Associates are the structural engineers for this project. As well they included a pedestrian bridge linking the tower to the Hong Kong elevated walkway network. The building has approximately 41,777 m² (450,000 ft²) of office accommodation.