The Center is notable for its arrangement of hundreds of neon lights arranged as bars in increasing frequency towards the top of the building, which slowly scroll through the colours of the spectrum at night. During the Christmas season, the building's neon arrangement follows a festive motif and resembles a Christmas tree.
The English name of the building uses the American spelling "The Center" despite the vast majority of similarly named buildings in Hong Kong using the spelling "Centre" as a result of Hong Kong English's British origins. The direct translation of the Chinese name of the building is "Central Centre" or the "centre of Central", even though the building is in fact near the boundary of Central and Sheung Wan (Wing Kut Street).
The elevator system is notable; users wishing to reach the upper floors of the building must make several lifts changes before they can do so. One set of lifts to go from the ground floor to the 6th floor; a second set of lifts from the 6th floor to the 42nd floor and then another set to the floors above.
In addition, several historical structures were demolished from the project. Many cloth shops located on Wing On Street, also known as Cloth Alley, were moved to the Western Market while Eu Yan Sang, a traditional Chinese medicine shop, was moved near the Stag Building to continue business.
The architectural firm which designed the building is Dennis Lau & Ng Chun Man Architects of Hong Kong.[1]
In November 2017, it was announced that The center was sold for HK$40.2 billion, making it the world's most-expensive real estate transaction for a single building. It was reported that Li Ka-shing's CK Asset Holdings sold the building to a BVI company called CHMT Peaceful Development Asia Limited, which is thought to be led by state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation.[3][4]