Seven Mega-Projects Due to Complete in 2025

Border-spanning bridges, an airport to handle 25 million passengers a year, and a national capitals’ single biggest apartment development—here’s a a handful of projects among the most significant slated to complete this year. Urban Glen Location: Hangzhou, China Architects: Büro Ole Scheeren The project comprises about 82,500sq m of offices, hotel and leisure spaces across two towers linked by the central Urban Glen—a built topography that blends urban and natural elements. One tower will feature a luxurious Rosewood Hotel under its global lifestyle brand, while the other will house more than 50,000sq m of prime offices operated by K11 Atelier, renowned for merging art, culture and people in next-generation workspaces. The Urban Glen, the architects say, will be “an interactive space featuring the synergetic components of both towers such as ballroom, meeting spaces, bars and restaurants, retail, as well as spaces and terraces for the display of art”. “A network of escalators enables seamless vertical and horizontal circulation between the various functions, while connecting to the central public spine of the wider development and masterplan.” Commissioned in 2020, construction began in 2021 and is on track to complete 2025. The Gordie Howe International Bridge Location: Detroit River, Canada, US border Architects: AECOM chief bridge architect Erik Behrens The cable-stayed bridge will connect Detroit, Michigan and Windsor, Ontario by linking Interstate 75 in Michigan with Highway 401 in Ontario, providing uninterrupted freeway traffic flow, as opposed to the current configuration with the nearby Ambassador Bridge that connects to city streets on the Ontario side. Named after Canadian ice hockey player Gordie Howe, work on the 2.5km-long structure began in 2018 and will cost $6.25 billion. In January of this year, it was announced that the bridge would open by the North American autumn of 2025, a delay of 10 months from the planned opening date owing to delays caused by the pandemic. The two sides were permanently connected during the early hours of June 14, 2024. With traffic crossing the border expected to grow from 18,500 vehicles a day in 2016 to 26,500 by 2025, the Gordie Howe International Bridge will provide an orderly flow of people and goods between the two countries, the project co-ordinators say. Harumi Flag Location: Tokyo, Japan Architects: JMA (master architect for precinct) The large-scale urban development project on the former site of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Village at Harumi, Chuo Ward covers about 18 ha and comprises 24 buildings that include 5632 apartments and rental units as well as commercial facilities. The games were held in 2021, a year later than expected due to the pandemic, which pushed the subsequent conversion of the village to apartments also back by a year. On January 19, 2024 the first residents moved into their homes and in April elementary and junior high schools opened. The last of the buildings will be completed in 2025 and about 12,000 people are expected to be living in the district by year’s end, however, there have been reports landlords are slashing rents due to oversupply issues at what is Tokyo’s biggest single apartment development. Navi Mumbai International Airport Location: Mumbai, India Architect: Zaha Hadid Architects Slated to open in March, 2025, the airport will be the second to service India’s most populous city and is being developed in three phases. The first phase will be able to handle 25 million passengers per annum—by 2032 that will expand to the final capacity of more than 90 million passengers and 2.5 million tonnes of cargo per annum. The $3.1-billion greenfield project comprises three terminals, two runways, 33,000sq m domestic cargo terminal, 23,700sq m international cargo terminal, a 151,000sq m fuel farm and three aircraft hangars. 270 Park Avenue Location: New York City Architects: Foster + Partners Also known as the JPMorgan Chase Building, this supertall skyscraper on the East Side of the Midtown neighbourhood of Manhattan is expected to top 423 m for 70 storeys and offer a GFA of 230,000 square metres. Planned to house 15,000 employees, the skyscraper, which will be all-electric, will also include a food hall, penthouse conference centre and fitness centre. It replaces the 52-story Union Carbide Building, built in 1960 and demolished in 2021—97 per cent of materials from the old building were diverted from landfill. The skyscraper topped out in February of 2024 and is on track for a 2025 opening. Guggenheim Abu Dhabi Location: Saadiyat Island, UAE Architect: Frank Gehry The museum, at 30,000sq m, will be the Solomon R Guggenheim Foundation's largest facility and was first announced in 2006— work on the site began in 2011 but was soon suspended. A series of construction delays followed; the museum is now scheduled to be completed in 2025. It is designed to accommodate about 12,000sq m of exhibition space and Gehry's design features exhibition galleries, education and research space, a conservation laboratory, a centre for contemporary Arab, Islamic and Middle Eastern culture, and a centre for “art and technology”. Flanked on three sides by the Persian Gulf, the site also acts as a manmade breakwater that protects the island’s northern beaches. “The site itself, virtually on the water or close to the water on all sides, in a desert landscape with the beautiful sea and the light quality of the place suggested some of the direction,” Gehry says. The International Land-Sea Centre Location: Chongqing, China Architects: Chongqing Architectural Design Institute Co, LTD.; Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates The 458.2m skyscraper spans 98 storeys and is the main building for the Chongqing International Trade and Commerce Centre, an 11-tower development that is the centrepiece of the 3.6 million sq m Chongqing Tian Di masterplan, a major redevelopment of a downtown core area of the city, which is 1700km west of Shanghai. The tower’s design was inspired by the sailing ships that once crowded the waters of the surrounding Yangtze and Jialing rivers. It will become the tallest building in Chongqing, one of China’s four largest cities, with a population of 22 million. The tower topped out in July, 2022 and includes office, residential, retail, and entertainment components.

Seven Mega-Projects Due to Complete in 2025

Urban Glen

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