The design of Phoenix City strives to create a unified campus-like setting. Disparate elements such as a playful retail building and formal office structures are connected by a contemporary language, architectural detail, and welcoming landscape design.

Prominently located in Beijing, Phoenix City is easily viewed by passersby on their way from the airport. The west parcel consists of 3 office towers and 2 hotels, 4-star business class and 3-star. The westernmost building of the west parcel is a 100-meter landmark tower. The closest element to the major intersection, this tower carries the symbolic and representational ambitions of the entire development. Two additional office towers house a semi-private aeronautical institute.

On the east parcel a 3-level retail podium shares the site with two speculative 16-story office towers and a service apartment tower. The retail is focused on the surrounding residential community and targets young, upwardly-mobile consumers. Merchandising is for trendy, lifestyle-focused consumer products and services. The top floor of the retail podium houses a 5-plex cinema and restaurants. The design strategy attempts to weave the retail between the towers while maintaining a simple and clear pedestrian floor. The design maintains good sightlines throughout the retail podium, creating a dynamic activation of the space and ensuring equally good frontage for all tenants. One of the challenges of the site involved shadow and sightline issues stemming from the location of the towers relative to the retail podium. Because the shadow of the development may not impact existing residential, the retail layout is partially governed by the positions of the towers themselves.

Although the retail building is playful in character and the office buildings are formal and corporate, nevertheless the design strives to create a unified campus-like setting, connected not only by the contemporary language and detail of the architecture throughout, but unified by the landscape design. The design is not necessarily trendy, but nicely detailed and finished. The project incorporates energy-conscious design in the use of shadow boxes, or a two-layered glazed skin, to create the look of glass but still offer high levels of insulation and thermal barriers. On the south side of the site, adjacent to the express freeway, is the future location of a subway station that will have direct access to the project through the basement. This subway station will offer express service to the airport, a huge benefit for the people who work and play at Phoenix City.