The Guangzhou CTF Finance Centre was first meant to be similar to the Guangzhou International Finance Center, that is situated on the other side of the central axis of Zhujiang New Town, but it was decided to make the new skyscraper taller and to give it a different shape. The developer of the Guangzhou CTF Finance Centre, New World Development, which is a subsidiary of Chow Tai Fook Enterprises, held a competition to design the building. The American firm Kohn Pedersen Fox won the competition in 2009 and thus became the main architect. The Guangzhou Design Institute and Leigh & Orange became the architects of record and the British Arup Group was chosen to engineer the building. The groundbreaking took place on September 29, 2009 – about half a year after the designing process started. China State Construction Engineering was the contractor. The Guangzhou CTF Finance Centre was topped out in July 2014 and the cladding was finished by the end of 2015. In October 2016, the skyscraper was completed.
