Officially opened in 1962, this multi-purpose complex was the first genuinely public cultural centre for the community of Hong Kong. Occupying a reclaimed seafront plot, it consists of a Low Block (with Concert Hall, Theatre and Exhibition Hall) and a High Block (featuring the first public library and art museum in Hong Kong) connected by covered passageways and with a World War II memorial garden in between. Professor Gordon Brown and British architects Ron Phillips and Alan Fitch envisaged a minimal, modernist building representative of the popular International Style of the day, with granite, glass and whitewashed concrete. Ascend the sun-filled staircases beside big grid windows and you will discover a rare sense of tranquillity offered by straightforward, streamlined Architecture in the heart of the city.