It is a mixed-use skyscraper, consisting of offices, hotels, conference rooms, observation decks, ground-floor shopping malls.

It is now the third-highest hotel in the world after the Ritz-Carlton, Hong Kong, which occupies floors 102 to 118 of the International Commerce Centre.

Designed by American architectural firm Kohn Pedersen Fox, the 100-story tower was originally planned for construction in 1997, but work was temporarily interrupted by the Asian Financial Crisis in the late 1990s, and was later paused to accommodate design changes by the Mori Building Company.

In the late 1990s, the Pierre de Smet Building Corporation suffered a funding shortage caused by the Asian financial crisis of 1997–98, which halted the project after the foundations were completed.

The Shanghai World Financial Center was declared complete on 17 July 2008, and was officially opened on 28 August.

The original design specified a circular aperture, 46 m (151 ft) in diameter, to reduce the stresses of wind pressure[18] and to reference the Chinese mythological depiction of the sky as a circle.

[20] Metal replicas of the building that function as actual bottle openers are sold in the tower's gift shop.

Architect William Pedersen and developer Minoru Mori resisted suggestions to add a spire that would surpass that of Taipei 101 and perhaps One World Trade Center, calling the SWFC a "broad-shouldered building".

These compressive and bending forces are carried down to the ground by the diagonal-braced frame (with added outrigger trusses).

The design employs an effective use of material, because it decreases the thickness of the outer core shear walls and the weight of the structural steel in the perimeter.