End of era for a landmark

The announcement by Hongkong Land of a plan to redevelop Swire House at a cost of $2.3 billion did not really come as a surprise to anyone. Swire House is one of the oldest buildings still standing on prime land in Central.

When a building reaches the age of 35 it is regarded as positively ancient in Hong Kong. Sutherland House was only just out of its teens when it was demolished and the Peak Tower did not last a quarter of a century.

Only public buildings such as the Court of Final Appeal (formerly the French Mission) and the Legislative Council Building (formerly the Supreme Court) reach the age of three score years and ten. A few antiques such as Government House, the Man Mo Temple and St John's Cathedral, which were built in the last century, have somehow survived.

Union House, as Swire House was called when it opened in June, 1962, is a mere stripling compared to them, but the site it was built on offers a microcosm of much that has happened in central Hong Kong since the turn of the century. Stand on it 100 years ago and you would have found yourself in the harbour.

It was constructed on the site of three buildings: the Union Building, the King's Building and the York Building, erected between 1904 and 1905.

The Union Building, which faced Pedder Street, was originally Hotel Mansions, and housed the Hotel Maucien and Kruse's curio emporium. They were built in the Italianate style, only there was a total disregard by their architects for the rules of proportion, known as the golden section, which was the glory of Italian Renaissance architecture.