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Star River Headquarters

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.
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.
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.