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 Take that Tapei 101 The new Shanghai Center—a 580 meter skyscraper—will begin construction this year according to reports in Chinese media. Nicknamed the Shanghai Dragon, the building's design by the architectural firm Gensler was selected in a competition, beating a design by Norman Foster's firm.
The Shanghai Dragon stands a small chance of being the tallest building in the world for a little while, unless Dubai's Burj building (636 m, under construction) is completed first. Dubai is also considering a proposal for a 1,200 meter tower of power called Al Burj, which also has a Chinese connection: the design is by Pei Partnership Architects, run by Chien Chung and Li Chung Pei, the sons of the renowned I. M. Pei.
The slightly more modest Shanghai Dragon, with 118 floors of steel, concrete and glass, will tower over the nearby Pudong landmarks Shanghai World Financial Center (492 m, under construction), Oriental Pearl TV Tower (468 m) and the Jinmao Tower (420.5 m), home of Shanghai's Hyatt Hotel.
Beijing's tallest building, currently nearing completion, is the China World Tower 3 at 330 meters, while Guangzhou will soon boast the 437.5 meter tall Guangzhou International Finance Center.
Links and Sources
This article is from Danwei.org
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The images here are from TooManyTribbles.
Real estate developer SOHO's properties are sprouting up all over Beijing. Above is the newly opened and still half-empty SOHO Shangdu (尚都) in Beijing's CBD area. The building was designed by Australian architect Peter Davidson of Lab architecture studio.
This is what SOHO's website says about the design:
The retail space is conceived as a dynamic contemporary interior, a geode with a crystalline galleria over five levels. It contains a programmed bridge to connect the two sides of the development, which exist on separate blocks. The interior galleria spaces will facilitate a range of events from fashion parades to concerts and can be altered to both 'outdoor' and 'indoor' modes, depending on the extreme fluctuations of Beijing's weather.
Below is another image of the Bird's Nest, the Olympic stadium designed by Swiss architects Herzog and de Meuron
This article is from Danwei.org
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This is the new skyline of southeastern Beijing, looking over Ritan Park to the central business district, where the China World Tower 3 and CCTV Building appear to flank Guanghua Road like Scylla and Charybdis.
Click on the photo above for a large version with the major buildings annotated. This article is from Danwei.org
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 You'll have come a long way baby Beijing's Urbane magazine recently profiled the Australian architect John Pauline of PTW, the Sydney-based firm that designed the Olympic swimming venue usually called the Water Cube. The article included drawings of another PTW design, reproduced here: the new Friendship Store.
The Beijing Friendship store opened in 1964 to sell imported and luxury products to the capital's small but growing group of resident foreigners, and moved to its current location at Jianguomenwai in 1973, the year after the next-door Jianguomenwai Diplomatic Compound was built. The area is Beijing's first Embassy District; aside from the embassy buildings, there is also the Qijiayuan Diplomatic Compound, the first buildings of which were completed in 1957.
 Still standing: the Friendship Store today In December last year, the Beijing Municipal Administration of Cultural Heritage declared that 71 'recent era' or 20th Century buildings would be protected as heritage buildings, including the Great Hall of the People, the Beijing Department Store, and the 798 Factory. The Jianguomenwai and Qijiayuan diplomatic compounds on either side of the Friendship Store are included, but not the grand old lady of laowai shopping.
There has been talk about the imminent destruction of the Friendship Store for at least a decade. In May 2005, Danwei reported information from a source who claimed to have seen an agreement for the Friendship Store to be turned into a luxury Conrad hotel and mall.
In August 2006, writing in The Washington Post, Maureen Fan reported:
A $500 million "Friendship Mansion," 15 times the size of the original, will take its place by early 2009. A joint venture led by Stanley Ho, the Macau casino tycoon, plans to erect a 29-story apartment complex and two office towers atop an eight-story retail podium. Parts of the project may open in time to greet visitors for the 2008 Olympic Games.
Well the last sentence has not proved to be true, but it looks likely that the wrecking balls might arrive shortly after August this year at the end of the large sporting event that is apparently taking place in Beijing.
Links and Sources
This article is from Danwei.org
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 The Digital Building TooManyTribbles has uploaded another photo series to her blog: The image reproduced here shows the Digital Building.
The Digital Building is next to the Water Cube in the Olympic Zone and will house the Olympic media operations in August.
The building was designed by architect Zhu Pei (朱锫) of the Beijing-based Studio Pei Zhu. It was inspired by the appearance of a computer chip.
Below is a panoramic shot where you can the Linglong Pagoda, National Indoor Hall, and the Water Cube next to the Digital Building.
TooManyTribbles' Flickr page also has a nice set of photos of Olympic stadium construction workers.
This article is from Danwei.org
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This photo, from TooManyTribbles' blog, shows the progress of construction of the awkwardly-named real estate development called Linked Hybrid, also known as MOMA Phase 2 or 当代MOMA.
The complex was designed by American architect Steven Holl. It was selected at the end of last year by Time magazine as one of ten best new architectural marvels.
If you have Youtube access, below you can a promotional video interview with the architect, and an interview with him on the Charlie Rose Show.
There are more Beijing architecture photos by TooManyTribbles with Danwei annotations: CNOOC building, the National Theater a.k.a The Egg, and China World Phase Three.
This article is from Danwei.org
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CNOOC (China National Offshore Oil Company) has their headquarters in Beijing, just inside the Second Ring Road at Chaoyangmen.
The building was designed by American architectural firm KPF (Kohn Pederson Fox Architects), the firm behind the design of the Shanghai World Financial Center in Shanghai, the Rodin Museum in Seoul, and also the Architect-of-Record for the latest expansion of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City.
The photos here are from TooManyTribbles. She also recently uploaded a set of photos of an old Red Flag (hong qi) sedan car. There's more about CNOOC and its building at this previous Danwei post.
 CNOOC building environs This article is from Danwei.org
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China's new National Theater, a.ka. the 'Egg' and 'National Center for the Performing Arts', opened for its first performances in the last few days of 2007. As even this People's Daily article mention, the design of the theater by Frenchman Paul Andreu has caused a fair bit controversy. Objections have ranged from complaints that the building has destroyed the feng shui of the city's master plan to worries that the pool of water surrounding the building is wasteful in a city that can barely get enough water for domestic and industrial uses.
But the building is quite a sight; from some angles — breathtaking.
Blogger Toomanytribbles has posted a slide show of photos of the building, including the image above. This article is from Danwei.org
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 China World Trade Center Tower 3 Not too far away from the new CCTV building next to Beijing's East Third Ring Road, the third phase of the China World development is nearing completion.
When complete, at 330 meters tall, with 73 storeys and 300,000 square meters of floor space, it will be the tallest building in the capital. It was designed by the American firm Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM) that has been around since 1936 and has some of the world's most spectacular skyscrapers to its credit, including Chicago's Sears Tower, and the Jin Mao tower in Shanghai.
 No. 1 Rite Time Space bu Cang Xin The image to the left of the new China World tower was taken by Beijing-based photographer Tom van Dillen, who shoots architecture, portraits, streetlife and urban renewal (stock) photos. He has published a bunch of images of the new tower, as well as the CCTV building, Bird's Nest and Water Cube Olympic venues, and the new Beijing airport on his Flickr page.
There's an upcoming exhibition at Mook Gallery in Beijing's 798 art area of etchings and other works by Cang Xin, a performance artist who thankfully seems to have given up licking the floors of galleries and gone back to the old-fashioned arts. The charcoal etching reproduced here reminded your correspondent of the new China World tower.
The exhibition starts on March 6. Call 1324 195 7250 for details.
This article is from Danwei.org
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A twisted Yin Yang symbol? China's new National Theater in Beijing designed by French architect Paul Andreu is nearing completion. Yesterday workers removed the blue panelling on the north side of the construction site, revealing the completed exterior of the building and the huge pond surrounding it.
There's more about the Egg on Xinhua here.
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