Now impossible to imagine, the site of Hong Kong’s first fully integrated, mixed-use development complex was once a wasteland accommodating an abandoned barracks. Pacific Place, with its distinctive, curving mall, rose from that Admiralty plot, following its 1985 acquisition by Swire Properties, to combine premium retail, residential, hotel and office components – under one roof. Then in 2004, Three Pacific Place, its extension into Wan Chai, helped regenerate surrounding streets. Meanwhile, a HK$2 billion revitalisation, led by renowned designer Thomas Heatherwick, has given Pacific Place a contemporary facelift. For its Asian aesthetics, the complex won a 2012 DFA Design for Asia Awards Grand Award; and it was an Urban Land Institute Award for Excellence winner in 2019. Its sustainability credentials include progressive energy-saving measures and a cultivation of public transport: aforward-thinking aspect of the original development was its connection to Admiralty MTR station – now Hong Kong’s biggest rail interchange.