There's an unspoken reality of architecture: when you see a building, you often judge it by its outward aesthetic quality; yet, there so much involved behind the scenes to make it a reality. There's the development planning, financial models, and government approvals. There's the civil engineering, the structural engineering, the HVAC / MEP designs. It's almost if “design” is simply the icing on the cake – and you still need to get the flour, the cake mix, and the baking temperature correct, for the cake to taste as good as it looks. The construction of Frank Gehry's Guggenheim Bilbao was preceded by multi-decade effort by the Bilbao government to clean up the city and attract investments, which created the conditions to allow for the groundbreaking architecture; But no one sees, or cares, about all of that hard work of infrastructure building – give me more parametric steel curves!  

City planning is the same; a great city doesn't spring up over night; there are visionary city “fathers”, there are active officials and planners, and there's a citizen body, willing and ready to take up the challenge of transforming and improving the city, the country. 

Shanghai was always going to be the “model city" of China. During the interwar period, it was the most western, most open city in the country. When China opened up in the 1980's, Shanghai already had the infrastructure, and track record to support and lead the country's economic vision. ​In 1993, Pudong was a cluster of farming land, across the Huangpu river from the prosperous and westernized Bund. In the late 1980's, the city has erected the Oriental Pearl Broadcast Tower, in bright hues of pink and violet, seemingly a collage of Soviet constructivism and part Californian post-modernism. Legend has it that Deng stood up at the center of Pudong and declared the district as the future of China. The tallest building in China will be built here, he said. The New York Times had reported on this, and with their typical western prejudice, balked at the idea. (If you compare the state of the New York Subway with the Shanghai subway, I wonder who's laughing now.) 

What followed was a three-decades-long process of realizing Deng's “Chinese Dream” - and possibly the greatest and most successful urban planning effort since Olmstead built Central Park. City bureaucrats rezoned the Pudong District, including in this new development zone from Lujiazui to the current site of the Pudong Airport, at the edge of the Eastern Sea. Central government orders were sent to establish a new financial district on the farmlands across from the old Bund; and Chinese officials were sent throughout the United States, Japan, and Europe to lobby for world-famous architects to build China's tallest towers and remake Lujiazui. This intense, coordinated, top-down process, comprising of both private and public investments, led to Century Ave, Century Park, and the Lujiazui triumvirate. 

For the Shanghai story, I want to focus on the process of building the three towers of Lujiazui, whose images are so ubiquitous in China you can find them covering trash cans and recycling bins. To be honest, the Image of the Three Towers is more important than the tower themselves. It is a physical embodiment of the central governments' efforts of the past three decades; it is a physical propaganda of where the city is going to in the future, equivalent to the symbol of the Empire State Building, during its construction in Depression America. Here, architecture plays a more important role than merely habitation, or even capital speculation; it can become an important arsenal in nation building – something ordinary citizens can aspire to, or see, as a measurable sign of national progress. 

In an interesting turn of events, American architects also played a huge role in Shanghai's transformation. All three towers in Shanghai are designed by top American architecture firms: SOM, KPF, and Gensler. Here, the Shanghai towers not only mirror the progress of China, but also the rising and changing fortunes of these three mega-architecture conglomerates. 

As western perceptions of China change in the past several decades, so did the architecture. 

Building: Jin Mao Tower
Architect: Adrian Smith and SOM
Design and Construction: 1993-1998

​First, SOM and the Jin Mao Tower. (Blair Kamin, an architecture critic for the Chicago Tribune, did a fantastic series covering the Jin Mao Tower in the 1990's -- see here). For the first tower, Adrian Smith, the Jin Mao's lead designer, had to keep the concept simple: the first supertall tower in China will focus on the number 8. (A series of interesting coincidences, regarding a business lunch and a fortune cookie, can be found here.) An octagonal floor plate, tapering in 8 sections, which terminate at 88 stories. For most western observes in the 1990's, a pagoda shape building seemed the most appropriate. The first building was financed by public and private partners, with a significant share of private investors from Hong Kong, Japan, and the United States. It opened in 1998, although the official first use wouldn't be until 1999.

Building: Shanghai World Financial Center
Architect: KPF
Design and Construction: 1993-2008

​Second, KPF and the SWFTC. As a follow up to the Jin Mao, the competition for the SWFTC was also held in the 1990's, but due to the Asian recession construction wouldn't begin until 2003. At 105-stories tall, the SWFTC was meant to be the tallest building in China, eclipsing the Jin Mao. Moving beyond the pagoda metaphor of the first, KPF designers went for something more traditional: the union of the Earth, symbolized by the Square, and the Sky, symbolized by the Circle. The original tower would have a square base that tapered to a vertical seam, with a circular opening cut through the top to deflect wind loads. (In 2005, intense government and public backlash forced the developer, a Japanese company, to change the circular opening to a squared shape, for its close similarity to the Japanese Rising Sun.) The building was financed 50% by the government, and 50% by the Japanese Mori Building company. The SWFTC opened in 2008, just in time for the Beijing Olympics, closing another decade of double-digit growth. 

Building: Shanghai Tower
Architect: Gensler
Design and Construction: 2008-2015

​Third, Gensler and Shanghai Tower. After the success of the Beijing Olympics, the government expressed interest in building the third supertall in Lujiazui: Shanghai Tower. This time around, the government planners tapped San Francisco's Gensler for the design. The timing was opportune; by seizing key business opportunities, Gensler was one of a few architecture firms to survive – and then thrive – during the Great Recession of '08. The designer behind the tower was Jun Xia, the head principal of the company's Shanghai office; mirroring the story of the tower, the Shanghai native (Xia) obtained his Masters of Architecture in Colorado, later working at Gensler's Denver office before setting up Gensler's first office in Shanghai. (Art Gensler calls him one of his best hires.)

Unlike the first two towers, Shanghai tower has no direct reference to Chinese tradition; besides a vague reference to a “twisting paper scroll”, the tower is sleek and state-of-the art, a confident statement that sheds pastiche references for a statement of the times. At 120 stories tall, Shanghai Tower is twisting, triangulated volume composed of seven “neighborhoods”, each with independent sky lobbies. The distinctive “transparent” quality of the tower is a result of its double facade, with the outer facade detailed as an ultra-clear gossamer curtain, behind which the actual curtain wall for offices exists. The subtle twisting of the form is not for “architectural decoration”, but rather as a direct response to the wind forces at high altitudes.  

As a sign of the changing fortunes, the building was funded 100% by state-sponsored companies. Rents at the tower are exorbitant; at the time of the opening the vacancy rate was still high, with the tower partially occupied by state-owned companies and several multi-national companies. (But, when the Empire State Building first opened, it was almost 100% vacant during the Great Depression.) As a speculative development, only time will tell if the tower will be successful; but, as a marketing tool for state power, with the image of the tower emblazoned all over the subways, recycling bins, and television reports, (as a banner of progress) the tower has paid for itself a hundred times over. 

At night, Shanghai is the present-day “Blade Runner”, the realized Metropolis of Fritz Lang. The elevated highways, often three stories above the ground, hover over the vibrating city like purple neon vessels. A scattering of high rise towers, with distinctive postmodern silhouettes, emerge from the night fog, in flashes of orange, blue, and green. It is no wonder that Spike Jonze shot the exterior scenes of “Her” in Lujiazui; the city is often covered by a grey haze, a moody, humid atmosphere, shimmering in the daylight. 

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​What if global capitalism became a physical model, a series of vertical extrusions highlighting the value of real estate, financial, and economic speculation, where national boundaries do not exist, and the only amiable, respectable patronage is to money? 

​On a cloudy, unsuspecting Wednesday, I returned to my hometown. I landed in the early hours in the morning and made my way to my hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui, and then Central. Nothing much had changed in the two years since I interned there; the city is still the crown jewel of China, built over a hundred years by the British and hardworking locals. The Chek Lap Kok airport, now 20 years old, still feels futuristic, compared to the overburdened, crowded, and disorganized airports of America. 

But time has taken its toll; since the 1990's, the share of Hong Kong's GDP in the Chinese Economy has fallen from 30% to just 3% today. Not did this indicator suggest that China has grown incredibly in the last two decades – but also that the the small city-state has failed to diversify into innovation and technology. Today, Singapore and China surpass Hong Kong in terms of business innovation; conservative practices, lack of investments, and a tradition with core colonial sectors – logistics, finance, and professional services – has diminished opportunity in the city for ordinary people, crushed between the waning British and a growing China. In the very recent years, the skyline in Central has largely remained unchanged; much like Haussmann Paris, I worry that it would largely stay the same, since the heydays of explosive growth in the 70's and 80's will unlikely repeat. A city's buildings are always a record of when it was most successful, of when it generated the most prosperity for the masses. It's definitely not today, or at least not anymore.

The financial district is a giant billboard to global capitalism; just like the numerous churches of Rome during the Renaissance, glitzy banking towers litter the skyline. (There's a distinct parallel between the papal families of Rome, dueling for city influence via Church construction, and corporate banks/governments competing with each other by building more and more exuberant office buildings in Central.)  Many of the towers were influenced by Feng Shui principles, as well-documented by the media; Norman Foster's HSBC building faces the harbour, unimpeded, with its back protected by the hills – an enduring symbol of British presence in the colony; I. M. Pei's Bank of China tower, whose sharp corners project bad feng shui on all surrounding buildings, still pay homage to the form of a bamboo, projecting future Chinese prosperity; Paul Rudolph's Lippo Centre, which exported and styled a Southeast Asian modernism in Singapore, just when brutalism became unfashionable in America; and Cesar Pelli's Cheung Kong Centre, whose understated chamfered block, mirrored facades, and pedestrian “belt” bridge, deflecting the sharp edges of the BOC and the rooftop cannons of the HSBC, is a reminder of how the locals of Hong Kong will always be caught between the conflict of global giants – always a middleman, not in control of its own fate, and always hustling.

(Above) The Feng Shui Wars of Central: Battling Monuments

​What would a modern imperial city look like, in the age of global capitalism?

A: Beijing.
Also acceptable: Something between LA and Shanghai. 

The gridded, ringed sprawl of Beijing is meant to project, awe, and intimidate. The ancient and current capital of China, Beijing is the seat of power, much like L'Enfant's Washington or Hausmann's Paris, but much, much bigger. In plan, it retains a physical center and formal axis, culminating at the Forbidden City / Tiananmen Square. Megascale is the rule and not the exception; when you have the Great Wall 70 kilometers away from the city center, every urban intervention feels small in comparison.

The modern, televised renaissance of Beijing started with the preparation for the 2008 Olympics. When the bid was announced in 2000, city planners got to work, building new airports, train stations, parks, subway lines and stadia. Likewise, private developers followed suit, creating massive housing projects, condos, and shopping malls to boot. This massive influx of construction in the millennium attracted famous architects around the world, from Europe, Japan, and the United States.

While singular “monument” projects like the Bird's Nest, Water Cube, and the CCTV steal the spotlight, there's another class of architecture: megablocks.

Tower and Podium – The common denominator is not the form, but scale.

1. Steven Holl, Linked Hybrid
2. Zaha Hadid, Galaxy SOHO
3. Riken Yamamoto, Jian Wai
4. China World Trade Center, Various Architects 

Projects here are comparable to the Great Pyramids, or the great Silicon Valley headquarters of Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon. Nothing is too big here, if you have a population of over 1 billion.

What really makes sense here in the future? 

There will be a time, when China, and Beijing, can no longer rely on the crutch of Bigness. Bigness is the hobby of the nouveau riche. Bigness is compensating for the insecurities of authoritarian regimes (see North Korea hotel), or a facade to hide illegitimate money. Bigness is the celebration of the developing class, or to mark that you have arrived in society. Once people are comfortable and confident, they will no longer need bigness; they will look at the details. The performance. The real deal. Once the second and third and fourth generations come to maturity, they will want something else; they will desire quality. Are the foundations there, to go beyond bigness and into detail? As the population ages, will there be enough people to occupy all of those large buildings, and afford all of those apartments? Or will the countless big box shopping malls go the way of suburban America's, half-empty and half-dead? 

Opportunity: How do you celebrate smallness and individuality, without compromising the scale and state? 

 Happy New Years!
It's the year of the pig, or I guess - "Jamon" (Ham) in Spanish. 

Looking back at the year of the dog, I have to wonder -- am I expecting too much from life?

2018 was a rough year, full of changes and uncertainties and fears. 
I left my job in Boston to go to China.
I went to Japan, the land of my childhood, and discovered that things look different when you are older, than when you were 10.
I went back to America, to study, to pass those ARE exams I had failed a year before.
I interviewed in Chelsea and Wall Street, in New York City.
I started a new job in New York.
I traveled through Spain. 

Throughout all this, I'm still trying to figure out what I am supposed to do with my time, because it is STILL not clear yet. 
Have I become a more mature person, but a worse designer? Or have my priorities just changed?
Have I become more quiet, or just a worse person in general?
Am I EVEN that competent a person?

There's so much more I need to learn about design, or business, or just simple social situations. 
What does 2019 have in store for me?

A year ago, I had thought that going to China was what I needed to do. But I learned, very quickly, that there is a steep learning curve to foreign business negotiations. Then, I thought that working in New York would give me some answers. But I've now found out -- it's just a job. Nobody cares - only you care about yourself, so look after yourself first.

So what do I really care about?

1) Having some space to think.
2) Making ideas clear. 
3) Having a small, dedicated group of friends, that I can count on. 
4) Being able to surprise and dazzle people. 
5) Be paid to dream a little - because what's the point of anything, if you are not working towards an alluring vision. 
6) Writing stories - something to get people excited, to throw them off their routine, to make them wonder a little.

I also learned that, being unemployed is really tough, but not unmanageable. I learned that, I COULD do stand-up comedy, if I really tried to get good at it. I learned that, I like branding, and I like making pitches and proposals.  I like communicating with people - just not through conventional conversations. I like communicating with them through presentations, speeches, drawings, stories, stand-up acts, etc. 

This much is clear: I am not where I want to be. There is much room for improvement.
Hopefully there is some future gig out there that will let me do the things I love, and then some.

Happy Jamon Year. 

A week ago on the train, I promised myself that in one year's time, I will be much closer to doing what I love, and become a person I want to be. Moving forward, this blog will be a record of all the things I am doing to achieve my goals - to discover who I am, what I like and don't like, and what I want to do with my time. Along the way, I hope to become more conscientious, generous, and courageous, willing to learn new skills, and be helpful to others..

I want to do something interesting that speaks to me. I want to add something new to this world, something that will make me less sad, and hopefully make other people around me less miserable and anxious as well. 

I want to be less afraid of failure and rejection. I want to be bold, to dray myself out of the monotony of daily life, to do something authentic. I will speak up. I will pursue this path rigorously and without hesitation, to dream something big, and to lift those up around me. As Jack Ma puts it: "Don't worry about the money, money follows the people, people should follow the dreams….money will come."

The world is more beautiful and positive than it looks, and beyond the tiredness, the mistrust, and the cynical nostalgia of the ​past, it will get better and move forward. I want to be part of that transformation. 

The MFAA 2009 mantra is: "Don't let anger separate you from the beauties of life".