Jonathan Cape (UK) and Little Brown (USA) 1989

Hongkong Bank

The building of Norman Foster's masterpiece

In 1978 the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation set out to build itself a new headquarters in Hong Kong. Against all the odds they appointed a British architect who had never built anything over four stories to construct a high-rise building in a way that had never been tried before.

Audacious, verging on the reckless, the result changed the whole direction of architecture in the late twentieth century.

This is the inside story of how it happened.

Reviews

‘Rich drama and suspense... scrupulously objective. You feel at the end of the book that you have helped to build the pyramids, not just another bank.’

Colin Amery, Financial Times

‘Foster Associates ‘Hongkong and Shanghai Bank is stunning, even awe-inspiring as an object, but Williams’ ‘warts and all’ account of how it was created is easily its match.’

Patrick Hannay, Architects Journal

‘Nothing can compete with Stephanie Williams’ racy description through all the trial and tribulations of designing and building... as gripping as a detective novel.’

John Winter, Architectural Review

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