嘉德艺术中心

Guardian Art Center stands at No. 1 Wangfujing Street in Dongcheng District, at the junction of Wangfujing shopping street and Wusi Dajie, with the National Art Museum of China next door and the Forbidden City a short walk west. China Guardian commissioned the building from German architect Ole Scheeren; it opened for trial operation in May 2017 and formally in October that year. The complex contains about 56,000 square metres of construction area across eight levels above ground and five below, reaching 33.6 metres in height. It stacks an auction-house headquarters, exhibition galleries, art education, a bookshop, a climate-controlled art storage and restoration facility and the 120-room PuXuan Hotel into one volume. The first and second floors hold professional galleries, with a central column-free hall of about 1,700 square metres and further flexible galleries above; two large multipurpose halls in the basement can be arranged for exhibitions, auctions or banquets. The upper glass volume, which houses the hotel, floats above the base, while the pixel-like circular openings at street level project an image of the classical painting Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains at night. Exhibition and auction space totals roughly 4,000 square metres, allowing major art exhibitions, biennale sections, fair presentations, auction previews, brand launches, dinners and private sales to run on separate routes. As an anchor of the Wangfujing art cluster, it is one of the few Beijing venues that can stage an exhibition, an auction and a formal banquet under one roof. Telephone 010-85928266; email artcenter@cguardian.com.