Yixing Cultural Center, Wuxi, won the 15th National Civil Engineering Zhan Tianyou Prize, the top civil engineering award in China, in Beijing recently.
With total investment of 1.5 billion yuan ($235 million), the buildings at Yixing Cultural Center cover 190,000 square meters along the shore of Dongjiu Lake and are made up of the grand theater, science museum, library and art museum. The buildings resemble four petals lining the shore of the lake.
Of the four buildings, the Poly Theater and the Yixing Library catch people's eyes. The theater covers about 48,000 square meters with a shared hall which is about 4,600 square meters. The theater complex consists of a large theater with 1,203 seats and a music hall with 677 seats, over 500 free parking spots and other public service facilities. Over 100 performances with an average ticket price of 200 yuan ($30) are staged every year.
The culture center opened on Nov 16, 2016. It won the National Construction Project Luban Award last year.
The National Civil Engineering Zhan Tianyou Prize was established by the China Civil Engineering Society in 1999, with the approval of the Science and Technology Ministry and the Housing and Urban-Rural Development Ministry. The award recognizes outstanding achievements in technological innovation in civil engineering.
