Points of light
Amid the gloom there are unexpected signs of boom, especially in energy
THE half-finished Shanghai Tower is a hulking concrete wedding cake, rising out of a dusty building site in the central business district. But when it is finished in 2015 the glittering spiral tower will be China’s tallest building and one of its most striking, with two exterior glass skins enclosing nine different climate zones. It will, the developer boasts, “symbolise the dynamic emergence of modern China.”
Less obviously, it also symbolises modern America. The tower owes its design to an American firm of architects, Gensler. Its structural engineer is another American firm, Thornton Tomasetti. Indeed, American companies have left their mark all over Shanghai’s skyline. Ray Yu, a local supervisor for Thornton Tomasetti, points to the nearby Jin Mao tower and then to the Shanghai World Financial Centre across the street, rattling off the names of their architects and structural engineers. All are American.
This article appeared in the Briefing section of the print edition under the headline "Points of light"
From the July 14th 2012 edition
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