Nanchang, Dongguan Projects

Jiangxi Province, Guangdong Province, China





























In collaboration with Austin Landscape Architects in Shenzhen, several schemes were developed for clients in Nanchang.

My modus operandi in China has evolved into bilingual Powerpoint presentations: I can have my English captions translated into Chinese characters very quickly, to compensate for my fluent spoken "Chinglish". Viewers can then "follow the images" with minimal verbal intrusion. This also forces me into a logical and more tightly organized visual presentation than would be customary where I can more easily "read" the audience.

The following is a conceptual site development study for a client who wanted some "fresh thinking". This presentation sold the "big boss" and won us the commission. Sadly, the project has since reverted to the "Standard Development Model" as depicted herein:



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The following is an essay on the development of urban boulevards:



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Also with Austin, we developed a remedial scheme for a typical "towers in the park" development already underway in Dongguan, a fast-growing satellite of Shenzhen. This project typifies the mindless development carpeting modern China, where every city now looks the same. Hi-rise buildings are arranged like game pieces, with no consideration of circulation, wayfinding or the ground-level pedestrian experience.







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Out from Behind the Great Firewall...

Updates here have lagged sorely since China has pulled the plug on my blogging activity; I hope to try and catch up with some images of the projects I've been working on over there...



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This is a slideshow of my entry for a design competition for new Hong Kong-mainland border crossing, my last effort before leaving China in April. I had high hopes for this one, since most of the judges were NOT from the mainland; I foolishly hoped for a rational review of functional alternatives for the project. The winning entries proved me wrong: more silly wallpaper-on-a-whale earned the judges' favor. All ten of the finalists offered superficial pretty pictures (where Chinese design begins- and ends), decorating the (dreadful) conceptual scheme provided by the project engineers, without a single thought of an alternative approach. my observation of modern China holds true: one point three billion people- ONE point of view.

Image of my assembled competition entry boards (six panels in all):

Grand Canal International Design Competition

Sanbao District
Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China



The following panels were submitted for consideration on July 31, 2008. The original format was eight A1 boards, continuously aligned horizontally. Project was exhibited in Hangzhou and given the "Encouragement Award" (4th place, and 40,000 yuan in prize money).


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Fountain Cafe

Lincoln Center
New York, New York

In collaboration with James Lamantia, this demountable, seasonal tent cafe was commissioned by Restaurant Associates, Inc., and erected on the Plaza for several summers. With no penetrations of the plaza pavement a condition of the lease, it was held in place with tons of concealed sandbags, and strategically lashed to refrigerators and other equipment.



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photo: Alan Karchmer

The Dairy & Belvedere Castle

Central Park
New York, New York

Restorations in Central Park, and later Prospect Park, were originally undertaken as "moonlight" projects while on staff at Russo+Sonder, then an expanding health-care practice. In collaboration with James Lamantia, they developed into a subsidiary joint-venture practice.

The stone section of the Dairy was a restoration; the wooden Loggia was a re-creation from the ground up.

Similarly, the Belvedere masonry was a reassembly, with some stones retrieved by the temporary draining of the adjacent lake. The "witch hat" tower and decorative pavilions are complete re-creations.



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M-West

Midtown West District, Marietta Road
Atlanta, Georgia

In collaboration with Peter Drey + Company, this former industrial site was redeveloped as an in-town alternative to suburban living. Taking full advantage of the sloping site, and indulging a client who sought a project beyond the ordinary, we developed attached loft-type housing units with three-dimensional interior interest and expansive glazing. Marketed as "different by design" in a conservative market, the first phase of M-West sold out prior to completion.



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Thames Town

Songjiang District
Shanghai, China

Oddly enough, there is ample precedent for this type of theatrical recreation in Shanghai: particularly in the boom years of the 1920's, expatriates took shelter in varying approximations of homeland architecture, much of which remains today. For the development of a new university town on the edge of the city, developers looked to Oxford, Cambridge and other picturesque British towns for inspiration. Retained by Atkins Shanghai, the task here was to assist Chinese staff in the analysis and proportional re-creation of the extensive photography of existing buildings, that were reassembled by the site planners into new configurations as facades for their new mixed-use development. With careful construction and unusual attention to detail, everything in China was replicated in concrete. The project was featured prominently on CNN, NPR and other outlets when it opened. And in the British tabloids, many shopkeepers and landlords were startled to see their premises replicated on the other side of the world.

Odder still, this development has found it's greatest success with Chinese couples- as a backdrop for their "western" wedding pictures...



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Louis Armstrong Park

Treme District, adjacent to the Vieux Carre
New Orleans, Louisiana



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reprinted from Progressive Architecture, June 1981

Oriental Pavilion

Prospect Park
Brooklyn, New York



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reprinted from Architectural Record, July 1989