A Decade of Construction in China

When I first went to China in the mid-1990s, I was surprised by the very poor quality of commercial construction. As I crossed the border at Shenzen, I felt as if I had stepped back in time. Most of the buildings were of the post-World War II vintage and most had gone through many years of deferred maintenance. From my perspective, the finest buildings in the country were those built from the mid-1800s to the early turn of the century. Most everything else was poorly designed, poorly constructed, and not worth saving.

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Shanghai Tower: Sustainable Strategies in a Super Tall Building

One of the questions I constantly ask myself is whether a building that has the scale and magnitude of Shanghai Tower can really be considered sustainable in terms of design. From a personal viewpoint, I do not believe the answer to the question of sustainable design is one that is solved by achieving some level of LEED or other certification by an outside agency. I do believe that having these measures forces us to think more clearly about design solutions and provides goals for the design and engineering community. These goals, however, tend to be at a level that rarely challenges us in a significant way.

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Shanghai Tower: Influences on Design

The design of Shanghai Tower derives from three basic ideas related to the city of Shanghai and the rise of China as an economic and cultural influence.

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Construction Update: Shanghai Tower

Shanghai Tower construction charges forward on schedule; we are on track to open by the end of 2014. When complete, Shanghai Tower will be the second-tallest building in the world, at 632 meters and with 121 occupied floors. I sat down with Dick Fencl, technical director for the project, to talk over where we are now.

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Can Super Tall be Super Green? Part 2

Q+A with Peter Weingarten This is the second post of a two-part series. The first post, outlining the reasons why it’s important to pursue sustainable design in super tall buildings. For the first post in the series, click here.

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