Taipei Nanshan Plaza designed by Mitsubishi Jisho Sekkei, The Xinyi district of Taipei, where the building site is located, is a cosmopolitan tourism area that symbolizes the city as a whole. Based on a new urban plan drawn up by the government that encourages cityscape-conscious development, the area has grown into a business center with a range of amenities including shopping, arts facilities, and international exhibition spaces. The building stands on the former grounds of a trade center adjacent to Taipei 101, the tallest building in Taiwan, on the southern edge of Xinyi. Mitsubishi Jisho Sekkei won a government-led development competition to partner on the project with Nanshan Life Insurance, which has a fifty-year lease from the government and planned to construct an office and high-end shopping complex to re-energize the district.The first time our team visited the site?a long, thin, piece of land measuring 100 meters north-to-south and 270 meters east-to-west?we noticed the way the flow of people and energy from the shopping district to the north ended there. In order to attract visitors to the site and create a lively atmosphere, we proposed a new landmark tower to draw people from a distance, paired with a human-scale podium to welcome them in. The idea was for the 272-meter tower to form a set with Taipei 101, creating a new skyline for the city while harmonizing with the existing neighborhood.The tower is occupied primarily by offices, with restaurants featuring...