Hong Kong’s Central district doesn’t hand out skyline space cheaply, and The Henderson sits on some of the most expensive ground anywhere. Henderson Land paid a record HK$23.28 billion for the 2 Murray Road parcel in 2017, then handed it to Zaha Hadid Architects, who answered with a tower that looks less built than poured.
Project Scope
The 190-metre, 36-storey office building rises in a stack of curved glass bays, a form the architects traced to a Bauhinia bud opening. Behind the sculpture is a serious piece of facade engineering. The double-curved glass envelope, including the podium and the dramatic tower top, was delivered by the specialist German contractor seele, and the geometry pushes what curtain-wall glass can do. There’s no flat-pane shortcut here; nearly every panel is shaped.
Inside, the tower offers about 465,000 square feet of column-light premium office space aimed at finance and luxury tenants, with floor plates kept open by moving structure to the perimeter. Zaha Hadid Architects led the design with Ronald Lu & Partners as executive architect. Construction ran from 2019 through 2024, and the building welcomed its first tenants on 7 June 2024. It’s one of the last towers carrying a design Dame Zaha Hadid’s studio developed in the years after her death, which gives it a particular weight in the firm’s catalogue.
Why It Matters
The Henderson is a bet on Central as the address that still commands a premium, placed at a moment when Hong Kong’s office market was anything but certain. Spending a record sum on land and then commissioning a building this uncompromising is a statement that trophy space holds its value even in a soft cycle. Whether the rents justify the math is the open question every observer is watching.
As a construction object, the tower shows what’s possible when a developer commits to complex curved glazing at full height rather than value-engineering the curves away. It pairs with a small group of recent buildings testing the limits of facade fabrication. Exchange covers Hong Kong’s landmark builds, including the M+ Museum, and other towers from the same design lineage such as CITIC Tower in Beijing.
Project Team & Details
| Developer | Henderson Land Development |
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| Owner / Client | Henderson Land Development |
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| Architect | Zaha Hadid Architects (design); Ronald Lu & Partners (executive) |
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| Major Subcontractors | seele (Curtain Wall) |
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| Status | Completed |
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| Sustainability Certification | LEED Platinum (targeted) |
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| Funding Source | Private |
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