HONG KONG - The atrium link extension of the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC) was named Grand Award Winner in the Hong Kong Non-Residential Category of the Quality Building Award (QBA) 2010.
The presentation banquet took place at the Conrad Hong Kong, 11 June, for the biennial awards, founded in 2001. The theme for the 2010 QBA was ‘Quality Transcends Time’.
The HKCEC expansion, the QBA jury noted, was “a complex project with extremely difficult site constraints”.
It had been necessary to build over the existing water channel and busy roads with a long-span, mega-hanging structural truss system.
The extension enlarges the exhibition facility by nearly half.
Hong Kong Trade and Development Council director for corporate development, Christopher Jackson, said the HKTDC was “delighted with the response to the HKCEC expansion from exhibitors and buyers from Hong Kong and all over the world”.
“Our vision,” said HKTDC executive director Fred Lam, “is to develop Hong Kong as the trade fair capital of Asia.”
The expansion project, completed in April 2009, is helping to do that, he said. “After the expansion was opened, many public and trade shows have been able to record phenomenal growth despite a rough economic climate.”
These included last year’s HKTDC Hong Kong Electronics Fair (Autumn Edition) and the 2009 Hong Kong Jewellery and Gem Fair, both of which became the world’s largest fairs of their kind following the expansion, Lam noted.
“Our new space is just at the right time in the right place to help Hong Kong capture Asia’s new economic boom,” said Mr Lam.
