Ho's Oceanus development centers on a half-kilometer-long main building shaped like a ship's prow pointing into the harbor, adjoined by a two-story shopping arcade leading to the ferry terminal. The 3.3 million square foot project will be topped off by a 180 meter-tall tower.

French architect Paul Andreu, best known for his controversial work on Paris' Charles de Gaulle International Airport and the Grand National Theater in Beijing, designed Oceanus.

The project will sit half on land yet to be reclaimed and the remainder on the site of the New Yaohan department store, which is set to move to a new complex next to the Macau Tower; the Jai Alai entertainment and retail center and an empty lot. Asked when the Oceanus will be completed, Andreu said: ``We all hope we can do it for 2009. That will be quite a challenge.''

Timing is important as the planned Hong Kong-Macau-Zhuhai bridge is also tentatively scheduled to open in 2009, displacing the ferry terminal as the city's main eastern gateway.

The scale and style of Oceanus will mark a strong departure from the grungy, mid-sized commercial blocks that now surround the terminal, and the whimsical Fisherman's Wharf project, nearing completion on the adjacent waterfront. The contrast may be comparable with Beijing, where Andreu's Grand National Theater is almost finished. The modernist Western opera house, known popularly as the ``egg shell,'' sits cheek-by-jowl with Tiananmen Square.

Andreu has worked on seven other projects in China, including Guangzhou New Stadium and Shanghai Pudong International Airport. His futuristic concept for Terminal 2E of Charles de Gaulle is under scrutiny because of the collapse last year of part of its roof, in which four people died.

zach.coleman@singtaonewscorp.com