{"id":1004211486,"date":"2009-03-09T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-03-09T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/cpe-uncategorized\/postcard-from-beijing-city-of-contrasts\/1004211486.html"},"modified":"2022-12-04T16:41:12","modified_gmt":"2022-12-05T00:41:12","slug":"postcard-from-beijing-city-of-contrasts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/postcard-from-beijing-city-of-contrasts\/","title":{"rendered":"Postcard from Beijing – City of Contrasts"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>My travels to Asia over the past few weeks included Seoul, Beijing and Hong Kong,\u00a0intense experiences, leaving me with reflection on the people, the culture, and our work. \u00a0I\u2019m always trying to develop a deeper sense about what is meaningful to the people we are working with and ultimately designing for.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

When I asked a young Chinese colleague about her hopes and dreams for her life and her community, her answer was, \u201c<\/em>I do hope I could leverage my knowledge to beautify our city by building better spaces for better living, working, making more money to help out more poor people, reestablishing China\u2019s image by building a good image of \u00a0myself and\u00a0gradually influencing the people that have a bias\u00a0toward Chinese people. I wish my country could be clean like Switzerland, sophisticated like France, polite like Japan, open like America.\u201d<\/p>\n

In this city of energy,\u00a0where a grand choreography of bicycles, carts, motorcycles, cars, buses and taxis\u00a0mix with\u00a017 million people, somehow a grandfather and child make their way, weaving through an intersection of thousands.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

These ancient places of Beijing are not small, the Forbidden City, the Great Wall, the Temple of Heaven, even the names are big, yet the details are intricate, carved, gilded, and richly painted.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
\"\"<\/a>On\u00a0a cold, sunny, and\u00a0slightly hazy morning, I walk through the gate to the Temple of Heaven. The scale of the compound stretches out and on, the grounds full of\u00a0tai chi and dance groups,\u00a0badminton players, and a gathering of singers at the\u00a0temple gate. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0Beijing is\u00a0city where the most modern international architecture sits next to ancient ruins, where newly sprung highrise residences tower next to dwindling hutongs. The few remaining traditional neighborhoods give a snapshot of life from another century.\u00a0 This is progress, and it is fast. I noted in a previous post that more than half of the construction in the world during the next\u00a0five to 10 years will be in China.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>China <\/span><\/span>presents us\u00a0<\/span> with the greatest opportunity and the greatest challenge for progress in sustainable design –\u00a0to create\u00a0socially, environmentally and economically relevant built environments. In the past 5 years since I have been working on projects here, there has been a great transformation.\u00a0 It is overwhelming to see the pace and scale, and witness\u00a0the realization of the vision of developers and architects who concurrently wrestle with the demands for faster, cheaper, bigger.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The construction site for this new luxury retail and residential development that I toured is marketed<\/span> to be the first LEED Platinum certified mixed use development in China. Another leading retail developer tells me that sustainable design is not that critical, that efficiency in energy consumption is just good basic design, and the government requirements are enough.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Beijing’s\u00a0old warehouse district 798 has been converted to art galleries, shops and cafes, where the young and fashionable of Beijing stroll. It’s\u00a0an early and successful example of adaptive re-use, along with a few of the restored hutong districts, now full with small designer boutiques and popular clubs.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span>A new challenge of the day is to re-purpose the Olympic site for economic and social relevance beyond the events of last year.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\"\"<\/a>Here the people of this city tell a powerful story of great contrast, as the designer-label clad\u00a0couples pass by new immigrants, their large woven-plastic duffle bags holding all the hopes and dreams of their families back home in the country.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My travels to Asia over the past few weeks included Seoul, Beijing and Hong Kong,\u00a0intense experiences, leaving me with reflection on the people, the culture, and our work. \u00a0I\u2019m always trying to develop a deeper sense about what is meaningful to the people we are working with and ultimately designing for.\u00a0 When I asked a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1323,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39372],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1004211486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cpe-blog"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nPostcard from Beijing - City of Contrasts - Commercial Property Executive<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/postcard-from-beijing-city-of-contrasts\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Postcard from Beijing - City of Contrasts\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"My travels to Asia over the past few weeks included Seoul, Beijing and Hong Kong,\u00a0intense experiences, leaving me with reflection on the people, the culture, and our work. \u00a0I\u2019m always trying to develop a deeper sense about what is meaningful to the people we are working with and ultimately designing for.\u00a0 When I asked a…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/postcard-from-beijing-city-of-contrasts\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Commercial Property Executive\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CPExecutive\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-03-09T08:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-12-05T00:41:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/64.70.41.242\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2010\/01\/Dawn-Clark.bmp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"billsugino\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@cpexecutive\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@cpexecutive\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.commercialsearch.com\\\/news\\\/postcard-from-beijing-city-of-contrasts\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.commercialsearch.com\\\/news\\\/postcard-from-beijing-city-of-contrasts\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"billsugino\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.commercialsearch.com\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/d3431f94015b0bc63e0fd29058020108\"},\"headline\":\"Postcard from Beijing – City of Contrasts\",\"datePublished\":\"2009-03-09T08:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-12-05T00:41:12+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.commercialsearch.com\\\/news\\\/postcard-from-beijing-city-of-contrasts\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":581,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.commercialsearch.com\\\/news\\\/postcard-from-beijing-city-of-contrasts\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/64.70.41.242\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/46\\\/2010\\\/01\\\/Dawn-Clark.bmp\",\"articleSection\":[\"Blog\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.commercialsearch.com\\\/news\\\/postcard-from-beijing-city-of-contrasts\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.commercialsearch.com\\\/news\\\/postcard-from-beijing-city-of-contrasts\\\/\",\"name\":\"Postcard from Beijing - 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