Dome

Facade with column groups and triangular trusses; Headquarters building of The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation. At the time, the present building (1985) was the most expensive building in the world (HK$5.2 billion, roughly US$668 million). The building is 180 meters high with 47 storeys and four basement levels. The building has a module design consisting of five steel modules prefabricated in the UK by Scott Lithgow Shipbuilders near Glasgow, and shipped to Hong Kong. 30,000 tons of steel and 4,500 tons of aluminum were used. The building typifies what was known as the High-Tech style because of the revealed support structure. The inverted ‘va’ segments of the suspension trusses spanning the construction at double-height levels is the most obvious characteristic of the building. It consists of eight groups of four aluminum-clad steel columns which ascend from the foundations up through the core structure, and five levels of triangular suspension trusses which are locked into these masts. Source: Wikipedia; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page (accessed 7/18/2013)