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In their December 2011 issue, San Francisco Magazine ran a ten page profile on the work of our client Ogrydziak Prillinger Architects. The article included images of the much awarded Gallery House, honighaus, 100foot House and Sonoma Skyspace projects.

When it opened in 2005, Dongguan’s New South China Mall was the biggest shopping mall in the world.  Seven years later it still holds that title though is probably a contender for the loneliest place on Earth as well. In the massive 7.1 million sq ft of lettable space there are slots for 1,500 stores. Of the 386 stores that opened in 2005,  a recent count revealed a total of 30 that were actually operating.

The mall has seven wings, themed on different parts of the world. These include a full size replica of the bell tower of Venice’s St. Mark’s Square, an Arc de Triomphe and various Egyptian motifs. An amusement park buried from view in the center of the mall is called Amazing World and features huge indoor roller coaster (still sitting idle), a multiplex cinema and the essential canals with Venetian gondolas.

The original St Mark’s Square Tower in Venice.

The replica St Mark’s Square Tower at New South China Mall

The full size Arc de Triomphe replica in Dongguan, complete with decorative wreaths commemorating the cities which fell under Napoleon.

Looking closely at the  wreath, one can see the city MOSCOW has been placed upside down by a hapless construction worker. Easy mistake when you think about it.

Elsewhere, the seven year old Egyptian statuary is falling victim to the ravages of time.

The more I looked around the city, the more curious connections to Western icons seemed to pop up. Of course we’ve all read about the volume of cheap Chinese knock-offs when it comes to items like fashion labels and movie titles. But seeing the Haiyatt Hotel I thought, moved things into a much grander scale.

Despite my general distrust of advance meteorological knowledge, the forecast low cloud for Shanghai was indeed coming true. Still, it made for some impressive views from the hotel room while waiting for more favorable conditions. Here, the Jin Mao Building and Shanghai World Financial Center dance majestically in and out of the passing clouds.

In Shanghai, the taller towers of Pudong are quickly stacking up to form canyons of the once empty boulevards. Narrowing down one’s viewpoint provides some interesting comparisons in the skin details employed by different firms.

From Left to right -

Kohn Pederson Fox / Skidmore Owings & Merrill / Pelli Clarke Pelli

“They paved paradise and put up a parking lot” sang the prescient Joni Mitchell in 1970.

Much of the same has been happening in the rapid transformation of Asian cities such as Beijing. What were once smaller clusters of multi-dwelling residential blocks have been razed to make way for exclusive and expensive condominiums.

Until relatively recently, with a few hangers on in residence, this zig-zag design block reminiscent of the 1930’s, sat opposite the sprawling CCTV site in central Beijing. It was demolished during 2008 in the lead up to the Olympic Games.

Any social infrastructure holding the fabric of the community together was dismantled and hauled away, to be replaced by a new vision of paradise.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you Xanadu. Life Beyond Imagination.

Or as the locals would no doubt have figured out, Life Beyond Affordability.

Thirty minutes by fast train south-east of Beijing is the rapidly expanding city of Tianjin. The tallest building in that city, for the moment at least, is the recently opened Jinta Tower, designed by Skidmore Owings & Merrill. Arriving into the city, the tower looms over the lower scale buildings along the river front.

Also known as The Tianjin World Financial Center, the 75 story tower  is situated in the heart of the city’s historic district.

Clad in a pleated glass exterior wall that recalls the structure and lightness of Chinese paper arts, the tower’s uniquely folded surface catches light and maximizes views for occupants. Given that Tianjin is a center for the production of sheet steel materials, the structure of this super-tall building was based on the use of steel plates. The core was designed as a steel-plated wall system, the columns were designed with steel plate “sections,” and the floor framing was designed with steel beam sections.

The structure is the tallest steel plated shear wall building in the world.

It’s just a construction mark, right?

At this year’s American Photographic Artists awards, I was pleased to have been presented with both First and Second prizes in the Architecture category. The winning image was part of our documentation of the University of Minnesota Science Teaching and Student Services building.

The newly opened Terminal B and Concourse at Sacramento International Airport was known as The Big Build, mostly due to the billion dollar price tag. Over the past four years, it has been the single biggest construction project in California. Designed by Fentress Architects in association with Corgan Associates, the new terminal dramatically improves the entire airport experience for travelers

A 56 foot long polygonal rabbit by artist Lawrence Argent leaps through the void towards a giant suitcase on the baggage level below. Though I must admit to conjuring up thoughts of Monty Python and the Holy Grail’s “death awaits you all with nasty, big, pointy teeth…” every time we walked by.

Light entering the terminal through the south facade screens casts an ever-moving variety of shadows throughout the day

How is it I’m always the last to know about these things?

Almost a year after the book was released, I discovered that one of my images was used on the cover of the 2011 Almanac of Architecture & Design.

The project shown was the new Hannon Library at Loyola Marymount Universtity in Los Angeles, designed by AECOM