In 2000, Terry Farrell & Partners won the appointment to design a £100 million public building in Guangzhou housing both the headquarters building of China's then largest newspaper publisher, the Guangzhou Daily News, as well as cultural and commercial activities. The design was a large-scale scheme for a 250,000 square metre public arts complex that integrated a constructed building with a 1 hectare public plaza, a library, an exhibition hall, an arts centre, a five-star hotel, and retail space which included an ice-skating rink and IMAX cinema complex.

The design concept was based on two interlocking geometric shapes which formed the basis of the building's three main components: a raised cube formed by two angled towers, an L-shaped block, and a podium at ground level. The distinctive form grew out of manipulating blocks in such a way that a corner was extracted from the cube and lifted vertically, creating a grand public square below, described as the 'city room'.

The original plan was for the building to be a partnership between Farrell and a state-run Chinese design institute, with Farrell & Partners handing over responsibility halfway through the working drawing stage. However, in 2002 the practice lost the commission following changes in the developer’s brief for the site’s use. At this point the brief focused on developing a commercial building.

Construction Partners:
Engineer: WS Atkins
Structural Engineer: Schlaich Bergman