Construction began on Friday on a landmark building on Shanghai's North Bund shoreline, destined to be the tallest building on the west bank of the Huangpu River.

The 480-meter building, to cover an area of about 450,000 square meters at the junction of Gaoyang and Tangshan roads in Hongkou District, will be completed by 2030 and become a "vertical city." It will have 99 stories above the ground and four underground levels.

It will accommodate malls, offices, hotels and a rooftop sightseeing platform open to the public, according to the Shanghai Industrial Investment Co (SIIC), one of the developers of the project.

"The building will involve the characteristics of both Shanghai and Hongkou, with some icons and history explored from the nearby old neighborhoods," Wang Zheng, director of the key project development of SIIC, told Shanghai Daily.

The building will also feature low-carbon, environmental protection, digital and humanity concepts, he added.

The landmark structure will become the tallest in Puxi, surpassing the 320-meter Sinar Mas Plaza tower, the current tallest building on the North Bund and third-tallest in the city, after the 632-meter Shanghai Tower and the 492-meter Shanghai World Financial Center in Lujiazui.

The following super-tall structures in Shanghai include the 468-meter Oriental Pearl TV Tower and 420.5-meter Jin Mao Tower, both in Pudong's Lujiazui area, as well as the 370-meter T2 tower of the Xujiahui Center, which is scheduled to be completed by 2024 and will become the tallest building in Puxi.

The design of the North Bund skyscraper was unveiled for the first time on Friday, which resembles a magnolia, the city flower of Shanghai.

The crown of the tower, like most other skyscrapers around the world, will become the highlight of the structure, Wang revealed.

The crown section between the 81st and 99th floors will include cafés, tea houses and restaurants, as well as shopping malls and exhibition halls.

A sightseeing platform will be built on the 95th floors, which will be 442 meters above the ground, along with a "sky sitting-room" on the 92nd and 93th floors, he said.

The project is being jointly developed by the state-owned SIIC, Chengtou and Shanghai Construction Group.

A global campaign was launched in 2021 to solicit designs for the landmark building. The US Kohn Pedersen Fox, which took part in the design of he Shanghai World Financial Center, and Shanghai-based ECADI jointly won the bid.

"The rising of the landmark building marks the beginning of a new round of developments for the North Bund," said Chen Qiongchan, deputy director of the North Bund Development Office.

Some 8.4 million square meters of new construction will rise from the waterfront, equal to the total area of the buildings in Lujiazui and both sides of Century Avenue in Pudong.

Construction began on another eight projects on the North Bund on Friday, including commercial facilities, office buildings, a maritime park and a skywalk to connect the landmark buildings.