World-renowned British architect Lord Foster, who designed the airport and HSBC headquarters and is in the running to design the West Kowloon Cultural District, is set to add the Kai Tak cruise terminal to his portfolio of iconic buildings.
Foster's shark-like concept - variously described as modern and curvaceous or resembling the remains of a seafood dinner - is the design put forward with the winning bid.
The winner has yet to be announced but a person close to the project said Foster had been working with French construction company Dragages, which has had an office in Hong Kong since it built the Kai Tak runway in the 1950s.
The decision has sparked questions about why the design was not opened up for a public competition as with other major public projects, but the government said the approach taken was better because of the technicalities involved.
Foster's design houses the terminal in a structure resembling a shark skeleton with its mouth open wide towards the sea. Images of the terminal were revealed in a paper submitted to Legco on Wednesday, which the government said were the design from the winning bid. A person told of the tendering result said the government had chosen Foster's design. 'His works are always impressive,' the person said.
A spokeswoman for Foster and Partners did not confirm or deny that it had won the tender.