Gale International
Gateway Center at Songdo City
Incheon, South Korea
3,500,000 SF
The proposed design for the Gateway Center places five office towers atop a three-story retail base and an underground parking facility. Towers B, C, and D are situated to define the street edge along Park Avenue, while Towers A and E form a counter geometry that’s reflective of the street grid to the east. Stretched between these two buildings is an urban plaza that connects the entire Center. Tower A is the most significant and tallest of the five towers, forming a figural gateway into the city. The top 18 meters house a roof garden, offering the building occupants refuge from the city below. The overall impression of the Gateway Center recalls the imagery of mountains that dominate the natural landscape and heavily influence the culture of Koreans. The design is deliberately complex to convey verticality in spite of the height guidelines called for in the master plan.