On the evening of 7 April 1986, a dragon danced up the glass-sided escalators of the HSBC Main Building on Queen’s Road Central. Queen’s Road was closed for the night, 2,500 guests filled the plaza, and Hong Kong officially opened what was then the most expensive building ever constructed.
For William Artists, that evening was the culmination of months of work on site — supplying, integrating and installing the luminaires for a project unlike anything Hong Kong had seen before. Forty years on, as the building marks its own 40th anniversary and we mark our 50th, this is one of the stories we’re proudest to tell.
A Building That Changed Everything
When Norman Foster won the commission in 1979, the brief was disarmingly simple: design the best bank headquarters in the world. What emerged over the next seven years was anything but simple.
Foster moved the building’s structure from its centre to its exterior — a revolutionary exoskeleton of prefabricated steel modules, shipped from the United Kingdom and assembled on site. The result was a 44-storey tower with vast, column-free floor plates flooded with natural light. The project required 27,000 tonnes of structural steel and up to 4,500 workers on site around the clock. At the top of the atrium, a motorised mirror system — the “sun scoop” — tracked the sun’s path and redirected daylight deep into the building’s interior.
It was a project that demanded precision at every level, from the structural engineering by Ove Arup & Partners to the lighting scheme developed by Claude R. Engle. And it demanded solution partners who could deliver to a standard that matched the ambition of the design.
William Artists on Site
Our archive photographs, taken during the construction phase in 1985, tell the story of what it took to bring the lighting to life inside this building.
📷 Photo 1 — Architectural model of the HSBC Main Building, showing Norman Foster’s distinctive exoskeleton structure. The model captures the building’s revolutionary concept: structure on the outside, open space within.
📷 Photo 2 — Signages and wayfinders are unpacked and assembled on a lower floor, July 1985. Behind every finished ceiling and illuminated facade, there are moments like this — careful preparation, long before the lights come on.
📷 Photo 4 — Workers on ladders install lighting within the soaring glass curtain wall of the banking hall, June 1985. The transparency of Foster’s design meant every fixture had to perform in full view — nothing could be hidden.
📷 Photo 5 — Installation continues, June 1985. The precision required to mount luminaires on these sculpted forms was painstaking work, carried out by hand across weeks on site.
These images remind us that behind every landmark building, there are people on ladders, on scaffolding, working late — making sure the light is right.
From the Inside
Inside the atrium. By moving the structure to the building’s exterior, Foster left the interior open to its full height — a daylit public space, crossed by escalators and held within the steel that supports the whole.
The Installation of the Ring Luminaire, custom made by ERCO at the main meeting room
The custom ring luminaire made for the main meeting room by ERCO, raised into position by hand. Every fixture was built to the scale of Foster’s architecture, and installed with the same care.
The ring luminaires in place above the meeting room table, the space around them still being fitted out. Two concentric rings, built and installed by our team — made to last as long as the building itself.
Why This Project Matters to Us
The HSBC Main Building was one of the defining projects of William Artists’ early decades. It came during a period when Hong Kong was building at an extraordinary pace, and when the standard for architectural lighting in the region was being set for the first time.
Working alongside Foster’s team and Claude R. Engle’s lighting specification taught us what it meant to deliver at the highest level — not just supplying products, but being present on site, understanding the architect’s intent, and ensuring every luminaire was installed to the standard the design demanded.
That commitment hasn’t changed in the forty years since. The HSBC Main Building still stands at 1 Queen’s Road Central, still one of the most recognised structures in Asia. And the principles we learned on that project — precision, partnership, presence — still guide how we work today.
For us, that’s the part of the story that lasts longest. A lighting installation doesn’t end when the contractors leave the site. It begins. Decades of evenings, meetings, mornings — light doing what it was designed to do, quietly, without being looked at.
Forty Years On, Fifty Years Strong
The HSBC Main Building’s 40th anniversary falls during our own 50th anniversary year — a coincidence that feels fitting. Both milestones are reminders that the best work endures, and that lasting impact comes from the quality of relationships as much as the quality of products.
To the architects, engineers, designers, and contractors we’ve had the privilege of working alongside — on this project and on hundreds since — thank you. Here’s to the next chapter.
William Artists supplied and installed lighting for the HSBC Main Building, 1 Queen’s Road Central, Hong Kong. Architect: Norman Foster (Foster Associates). Lighting consultant: Claude R. Engle. Completed 1985; officially opened 7 April 1986.