Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, Hong Kong, China, Elevation and exterior perspective
Norman Foster
British, born 1935
1985
An ink and colored-ink drawing on tracing paper presenting Norman Foster’s elevation and exterior perspective of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, intended to convey the building’s high‑tech, modular structure and surface transparency.
Crisp, mechanical linework and translucent washes on layered tracing paper make the structural grid and external service towers read like exposed machinery, while subtle color suggests glass and steel reflecting light.
The drawing epitomizes high‑tech architecture’s celebration of visible structure and prefabricated systems and served to communicate Foster’s radical vision of a flexible, technologically expressive corporate headquarters in the 1980s.
Medium
Ink and color ink on tracing paper
Dimensions
16 1/2 x 11 11/16" (41.9 x 29.7 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of the architect in honor of Philip Johnson
Accession
356.1996.2
Art Terms
Exhibitions
