PolyU's Signature Buildings: The Red-Brick Campus, the Jockey Club Innovation Tower and Its Landmarks

PolyU Integrated Information Database · 05 Campus Module

The previous article, Campus Geography, set out the two governing motifs of PolyU's Hung Hom campus: red-brick façades and elevated podiums. This article builds on that foundation, taking a walk through the campus to survey its buildings and landmarks in detail, following three threads: how a building becomes a visual signifier of the campus (landmark recognition), where its name comes from (naming history), and what is discernible about its form and materials (architectural character). Beyond their letter codes (A–Z, excluding I, K and O), most PolyU buildings are named after donors (per Chinese Wikipedia: PolyU); donors are recorded here as a matter of neutral fact. The campus's most striking contemporary landmark — Zaha Hadid's Jockey Club Innovation Tower — is treated here only in locational terms; its design language, seven-year construction history and award record are covered in the dedicated article The Jockey Club Innovation Tower: Zaha Hadid's Only Campus Work in Hong Kong.

Editorial note: factual statements in this article carry sources at the end. Building dates, floor counts, floor areas and donors follow the current records of the University and of authoritative reference works. Building letter codes and coordinates follow the official PolyU campus map.

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# 1. The First-Phase Red-Brick Complex: Around Blocks CD

The origin of PolyU's "red-brick city" is Phase 1, completed in 1976 — still the core of the campus today. According to the Chinese and English Wikipedias, the first-phase buildings include Blocks CD, CF, DE, EF and FJ^※, built on the site of former warehouses (per English Wikipedia). The buildings — clad in red brick, interconnected and raised on podiums — were designed by Japanese-born architect James Kinoshita (木下一) while at P&T Group (per Zolima CityMag).

• Recognition cue: the red-brick complex around Blocks CD is the purest expression of PolyU's "red-brick university" image — red-brick façades, rectilinear massing, bridges linking the podium level, and small courtyards tucked between buildings (per Zolima CityMag).
• An extensible idiom: this "podium + red brick" vocabulary could be extended with each expansion, allowing the campus to grow through several decades of additions while keeping a unified face (background in Campus Geography).

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# 2. Jockey Club Innovation Tower (Block V): The Building That Looks Least Like PolyU

The most starkly contrasting and most instantly recognisable contemporary landmark on campus is the Jockey Club Innovation Tower (Block V), officially opened in 2014. It is the work of Pritzker Prize-winning architect Zaha Hadid, its flowing, curved surfaces devoid of right angles — a dramatic counterpoint to the rectilinear red-brick modernism around it. Funded by the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust, it houses the School of Design.

James Kinoshita, the architect who led the original campus design, was known to be reserved about the arrival of this stylistically alien building, remarking that the University had "chosen the wrong architect" and that it would force the campus to "possess a different character" — an echo of dissent that set this building apart. The competing voices, the tower's construction history, its scale, interior facilities and awards are covered in the dedicated article The Jockey Club Innovation Tower: Zaha Hadid's Only Campus Work in Hong Kong.

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# 3. Academic and Research Buildings Named After Donors

Many of the campus's principal academic and research buildings bear donor names, recording the commercial and philanthropic forces that have underpinned the University's growth. The following is compiled from the Chinese and English Wikipedias and official sources (letter codes per the official PolyU campus map):

• Li Ka Shing Tower (Block M): per Chinese Wikipedia, Li Ka Shing Tower was completed in 2001, 18 storeys, approximately 22,500 m² in area^※; it is named after a HK$100 million^※ donation from the Li Ka Shing Foundation in June 2000 (per Chinese Wikipedia). The tower is the campus's tallest building and reinterprets the old campus's red-brick aesthetic in a postmodern idiom of "red-brick bands set within a glass curtain wall" — a link between the generations of "red brick to fluid" architecture (see the "Three Generations of Architectural Language" section in The Jockey Club Innovation Tower).
• Lee Shau Kee Building (Block Y): per Chinese Wikipedia, completed 2005^※, named after entrepreneur and philanthropist Lee Shau Kee (per Chinese Wikipedia).
• Ho Iu Kwong Building / Industrial Centre (Block W): per Chinese Wikipedia, completed 1992^※, housing the Industrial Centre (per Chinese Wikipedia).
• Run Run Shaw Building (VA) and Run Run Shaw Sports Hall (VS): per Chinese Wikipedia, part of Phase 2, completed 1978^※, named after Sir Run Run Shaw (per Chinese Wikipedia; the Sports Hall is covered as a facility in Transport & Facilities).
• Chan Lai Ling Building (Block P): per the Chinese and English Wikipedias, Block P is named after Chan Lai Ling (per Chinese Wikipedia).
• Block Z (Phase 8): per Chinese Wikipedia, completed 2013, 15 storeys (including two basement levels and a six-storey podium), approximately 25,600 m² in area^※, built on the site of the former Ho Man Tin Goods Yard, separated from the main campus by Chatham Road South (connection details in Campus Geography) (per Chinese Wikipedia).

Note: beyond their named titles, PolyU buildings are generally referred to by their letter codes (e.g. Block CD, Block M, Block V) in daily use; some blocks (such as those named after industrialist Chiang Chen) have inconsistent naming records across sources. This database records only names with reliable sources; the rest are omitted pending completion. Donor Chiang Chen (1923–2022) was founder of Chen Hsong Holdings and was awarded an honorary doctorate by PolyU; during his lifetime he promoted industrial manpower training through the Chiang Chen Industrial Charity Foundation (per Chinese Wikipedia: Chiang Chen).

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# 4. Library and Cultural-Performance Landmarks

• Pao Yue-kong Library (Block L): the PolyU Library was established on 1 August 1972^※; on 20 December 1995^※ it was formally named after the late shipping magnate Sir Yue-kong Pao (per Chinese Wikipedia). It is the campus's intellectual hub (collections, study places and other facilities in Transport & Facilities).
• Jockey Club Auditorium: located between Blocks S and T, completed February 2000^※; its interior blends antiquarian conceits with a contemporary shell, with a curved staircase in the foyer and two tiers of seating — Stalls and Circle — accommodating 1,084 patrons^※ (per Chinese and English Wikipedias). It is the campus's principal venue for performance and ceremony.

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# 5. The Main Entrance: A Contemporary Gateway of Red Brick and Colonnade

PolyU's most visible entrance landmark in recent years is the redesigned Main Entrance, completed for the University's 85th anniversary in 2022. The entrance sits on the Block A side of Chatham Road South, its design "blending PolyU's iconic red-brick architectural style with a classical colonnade^※" (per the PolyU official press release on the Main Entrance unveiling); alongside it stands a vertical green wall over a reflecting pool, displaying the PolyU logo (per the same release). The entrance was unveiled on 24 August 2022^※, officiated by the Chairman of the University Council (by office title) among others (per the PolyU website and SCMP).

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# 6. An Off-Campus Landmark: Hotel ICON

PolyU's signature architecture is not confined to the Hung Hom campus. At 17 Science Museum Road, Tsim Sha Tsui East, Hotel ICON is a teaching-and-research hotel wholly owned by PolyU, combining teaching, research and hotel operations — per Chinese Wikipedia, it describes itself as "the world's first hotel wholly owned by an academic institution, combining teaching, research and service functions^※" (per Chinese Wikipedia).

• Investment and completion: per Chinese Wikipedia, Hotel ICON involved an investment of approximately HK$1.3 billion^※ and was completed in June 2011^※ (English Wikipedia records its opening as 21 September 2011) (per Chinese Wikipedia and English Wikipedia: PolyU).
• Scale: per Chinese Wikipedia, the hotel is 28 storeys, with 262 guest rooms and 26 suites^※ (per Chinese Wikipedia).
• Design: the building was designed by architect Rocco Yim (嚴迅奇); the lobby's living wall was created by French botanist-artist Patrick Blanc, measuring approximately 230 m² and 18 metres high^※ — at completion, one of the largest vertical green walls in Asia (per Chinese Wikipedia).
• Awards: per Chinese Wikipedia, Hotel ICON has received honours including the 2011 Hong Kong Institute of Architects Annual Award^※ (per Chinese Wikipedia).

Hotel ICON also serves as the teaching-and-research base of PolyU's School of Hotel and Tourism Management (SHTM) (academic home in the Academics module). Fittingly, PolyU's hands-on approach to hospitality education does not stop there: on the Hung Hom campus just across the harbour, students step into real commercial hotels for their practicum, while Hotel ICON itself regularly appears on design-hotel lists in travel magazines — teaching and commercial identity overlap almost seamlessly in this building.

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# 7. The Logic of Naming: Donors and Dedications

PolyU's building names broadly follow two logics; learn these two families of names and you can "read" half the campus's history:

1. Functional letter codes: every building carries a block code from A–Z (without I, K, O), stating its location plainly and aiding navigation through the podium-and-bridge network — a "block-code culture" unique to PolyU (per Chinese Wikipedia: PolyU).
2. Donor dedications: Li Ka Shing Tower, Lee Shau Kee Building, Pao Yue-kong Library, Run Run Shaw Building/Sports Hall, Jockey Club Innovation Tower, Jockey Club Auditorium — named after their benefactors or those commemorated, recording the forces behind PolyU's growth: the Li Ka Shing Foundation, Yue-kong Pao, Lee Shau Kee, Run Run Shaw, the Hong Kong Jockey Club, among others (donation amounts and years in the sections above).

It is worth noting that even the Jockey Club Innovation Tower — the campus's most contemporary symbol — carries both logics at once: it is an architectural work (by Zaha Hadid) and a named donation (by the Hong Kong Jockey Club), yet is still called "Block V" in daily use — a microcosm of PolyU's twin-track naming of "block code + dedication".

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# 8. Research Institutes and Dedicated Named Spaces

Beyond academic buildings, PolyU also hosts a number of research institutes and dedicated spaces named after donors, established in recent years through major gifts:

• Otto Poon SCRI Sustainable Urbanisation and Infrastructure Research Institute: established in 2021 following a HK$100 million donation from the Otto Poon Charitable Foundation^※ (per a PolyU media release), endowing two research institutes and two chair professorships: "SCRI" (Sustainable Cities Research Institute) and the "RISE" institute (per PolyU media release 2021).
• Otto Poon Research Institute for Climate-Resilient Infrastructure (RICRI): per a PolyU 2025 media release^※, RICRI was further established in April 2025 (per the PolyU media release).
• Chiang Chen Theatre: industrialist and philanthropist Chiang Chen (1923–2022) supported PolyU for many years through the Chiang Chen Industrial Charity Foundation; the theatre/performing-arts space named after him on campus is one of his significant legacies (per Wikipedia: Chiang Chen). Chiang Chen received an honorary doctorate from PolyU in his lifetime.
• Jockey Club Design Institute for Social Innovation (JCDISI): a dedicated research and service-design unit within the Innovation Tower (Block V), established with funding from the Hong Kong Jockey Club; its STEAMS education project received HK$16 million over five years from the Shaw Foundation^※ in 2025 (per PolyU media release 2025).

The physical distribution of these named institutes across campus follows the PolyU campus map and each institute's official website; this article records only the fact of donor naming.

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# 9. Building Block Codes at a Glance: The A–Z System

PolyU campus buildings are numbered with the letters A–Z (excluding I, K, O), forming a distinctive "block-code culture" (per Chinese Wikipedia: PolyU):

Note: the letters I, K and O are not used (per Chinese Wikipedia); the functions and completion dates of some blocks are pending further verification and follow the official PolyU campus map. "—" indicates that information is not yet available.

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# 10. Plazas and Outdoor Public Spaces

Beyond its buildings, the PolyU campus features a number of notable plazas and outdoor spaces:

• Ho Iu Kwong Square: per the PolyU official naming-ceremony release^※, the square beside Block W (Ho Iu Kwong Building) is named after Ho Iu Kwong, with a total area of approximately 1,300 m²; its naming ceremony was held on 14 October 2014 (per the PolyU donor-acknowledgement page).
• Podium Courtyards: the core campus is linked by elevated podiums, with small courtyards set between them — enclosed by red brick, planted with greenery and furnished with seating, they are the principal outdoor spaces where students rest between classes. These courtyards were a deliberate "breathing space for the campus" planned by James Kinoshita, designer of Phase 1.
• Podium Green Walls: green installations appear in several places across campus; the most iconic is the green wall with reflecting pool beside the 2022 Main Entrance (see §5).

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# 11. Deep Reading of the Architectural Vocabulary: Red-Brick Modernism

The core architectural vocabulary of the PolyU campus can be summed up as "red-brick modernism":

• Red-brick façades: consistent across the campus. In the 1970s, when contemporary Hong Kong buildings largely used exposed concrete and glass curtain walls, PolyU's insistence on red brick gave the campus a distinctive "sense of gravitas" (per Zolima CityMag).
• Elevated podiums: the main public spaces of the campus are raised above ground level and connected by footbridges. This "podium urbanism" was common in Hong Kong planning thinking of the 1960s–70s (see Kowloon Tong, Tuen Mun and elsewhere), but rarely executed as thoroughly in a university campus as at PolyU.
• A unified face through continuous expansion: from Phase 1 in 1976 to Block Z in 2013, nearly 40 years of campus growth broadly sustained the red-brick-and-podium vocabulary, keeping the campus visually coherent (the Jockey Club Innovation Tower being the notable exception).
• A dialogue with the Innovation Tower: the Jockey Club Innovation Tower, opened in 2014, broke the uniformity of rectilinear red brick with its white, curved surfaces — this "juxtaposition of the heterogeneous" is a common creative strategy in contemporary campus planning (using a signature building to attract attention), and it also drew voices defending "unity", most prominently James Kinoshita's (see §2; deep reading in The Jockey Club Innovation Tower).
• LEED certification: recent buildings (such as Block Z) have sought green-building certification, incorporating sustainable design elements within the red-brick vocabulary (see the green-campus section in Transport & Facilities).

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# 12. Visiting the Campus

The PolyU campus has no closed gates; members of the public may generally enter to look around. Common visitor routes include:

1. Main Entrance (Block A, Chatham Road South side) → Jockey Club Auditorium plaza → Pao Yue-kong Library (Block L) → Li Ka Shing Tower (Block M) podium
2. Innovation Tower (Block V): reached by walking east through the Blocks Y / W area; the School of Design on the ground floor of the tower has open exhibition space.
3. Hotel ICON: in Tsim Sha Tsui East, not part of the main campus; reachable on foot from Tsim Sha Tsui MTR station in about 10 minutes.

Before visiting, check the "Visitors" page on the PolyU website for opening hours; during special events (congregations, major exhibitions) some areas may be restricted.

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# 13. Building Timeline: An Outline of the Campus's Expansion History

Following the expansion history in Campus Geography, here is a timeline of the principal architectural landmarks:

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# 14. Architecture and Donation Culture: The "PolyU Model"

PolyU's building-naming system reflects a typically "PolyU model" of Hong Kong university architecture-donation culture:

1. Business-led benefaction: the major donors are all business elites — Li Ka-shing (founder of CK Hutchison), Yue-kong Pao (World-Wide Shipping), Lee Shau Kee (Henderson Land), Run Run Shaw (entertainment and media), Otto Poon (Analogue Holdings, ATAL). This differs from the Anglo-American pattern of naming primarily after alumni donations.
2. The role of the Hong Kong Jockey Club: as an institutional donor, the Jockey Club has repeatedly endowed PolyU buildings or projects through major gifts (Jockey Club Innovation Tower, Jockey Club Auditorium, Jockey Club Design Institute for Social Innovation, among others) — one of PolyU's most important institutional funding sources.
3. Expansion into research institutes: from the 2020s, naming has extended from "building blocks" to "research institutes" (Otto Poon, Shaw Foundation, etc.), reflecting the University's strengthened knowledge-transfer function.
4. State-level named institutions: PolyU's state key laboratories (National Engineering Research Centre for Power Transmission and Distribution Systems, State Key Laboratory of Fibre Materials and Modern Textiles, among others) occupy physical space partly on campus; as nationally designated units, they stand alongside, rather than within, the commercial naming system above.

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# 15. Q&A: Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Where does PolyU's nickname, the "red-brick city", come from? A: From the visual impression of the Phase 1 buildings of 1976, whose extensive red-brick façades form a contiguous red-brick complex. Compared with other Hong Kong institutions of the same era (CUHK's white modernism, HKUST's grey stone tones), PolyU's red brick stands out sharply, and the popular nickname "red-brick city" stuck.

Q: Why does the Jockey Club Innovation Tower skip certain letters to become "Block V"? A: PolyU's block-code alphabet excludes I, K and O (per official sources), while combined codes such as VA/VS belong to the Run Run Shaw Building/Sports Hall naming set. Block V itself is a number assigned to the Innovation Tower in recent years; because the campus was built up over time, some letters may already have been used or reserved by earlier buildings, leaving V for the Innovation Tower.

Q: Is Hotel ICON a PolyU dormitory? A: No. Hotel ICON is a commercially operated hotel (28 storeys, 262 rooms) wholly owned by PolyU, which also serves as the teaching-and-research base of the School of Hotel and Tourism Management (SHTM). It is open to the public as a hotel, not a student hall.

Q: Where is the Main Entrance, and how do I get there on foot from the MTR? A: The Main Entrance is on the Block A side of Chatham Road South, about a 5-minute walk from exit C of Hung Hom MTR station. It is marked by a red-brick colonnade and a vertical green wall, unveiled in 2022.

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# 16. Further Reading

Data cutoff: June 2026. PolyU building information follows the official PolyU campus map and the websites of individual units; this article is a compiled index, with figures referenced to the sources listed below.

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# Appendix: Brief Table of Building Donors

"Amount not disclosed" means that no credible source states a total donation figure, not that no donation was made. Figures follow the official sources listed below.

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