The Connaught Centre's site area of 53,000sq.ft is located on the old Bowring Praya, completed in late 1973 it was the tallest building in Asia at that time (52-levels, 686,000sq.ft rentable area for offices and retail). The building positioning on the site was determined by its "Shadow Diagram" by placing the building in an off-centre position on the site, a more favourable shadow pattern was achieved to the acceptance of the board of directors. Although 65% of the total site could have been utilised, the building in fact covers only 31% of the site. The rest of the ground level area was dedicated to the public of Hong Kong in the form of a specially laid out plaza, which was then known as Connaught Plaza.
Renamed Jardine House on the 1st January 1989. The brass lettering "Jardine House" in the main lobby wall were removed from the former Jardin House at the South-West corner of Pedder Street and Des Voeux Road built by Hongkong Land in 1957 and demolished in 1982.
To the left of Connaught Centre are Hongkong Land properties Union Building (later renamed Swire House), Gloucester Building with its iconic clock tower, across the road Jardine House, then the General Post Office (today the site of Worldwide House) and P&O Building also owned by Hongkong Land between 1976 - 1979.
