International Commerce Centre, Skyscraper in West Kowloon, Hong Kong.
The International Commerce Centre rises 484 meters (1588 feet) above Kowloon with 108 floors of glass that taper as they ascend. The continuous glass facade wraps around commercial office floors, a luxury hotel in the upper third, and underground train connections to the international airport.
Construction started in 2002 on a site above Kowloon Station that had been reclaimed from harbour water decades earlier. Completion came in 2010 after eight years of building, with the tower continuing to rise throughout the global financial crisis.
The ICC Light and Music Show, an LED animation on the tower's two facades, set a Guinness World Record in 2013 for the largest light and sound show on a single building, using 50,000 square metres of surface. It runs nightly at 7:45 pm and 9:00 pm, with seasonal themes designed by lighting designer Hirohito Totsune, who also worked on the Tokyo Skytree.
Visitors reach the observation deck on the 100th floor through high-speed lifts that begin at ground level and complete the journey in under a minute. Early morning or late afternoon hours often provide clearer views across the bay and surrounding hills.
The tower's lifts use Schindler's PORT1 smart allocation system with access control, the first building in the world fitted with it. The fastest cars climb at 10 metres per second, about 36 km/h, and the longest run covers 374 metres. Floor numbering skips 28 numbers, including all ending in 4, because 4 sounds like death in Cantonese.
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