China's skyscraper boom buoys global industry

Associated Press ^ | December 5, 2010 | JOE McDONALD

[Hotlanta Mike]

BEIJING – The 121-story Shanghai Tower is more than China's next record-setting building: It's an economic lifeline for the elite club of skyscraper builders.

Financial gloom has derailed plans for new towers in Chicago, Moscow, Dubai and other cities. But in China, work on the 2,074-foot (632-meter) Shanghai Tower, due to be completed in 2014, and dozens of other tall buildings is rushing ahead, powered by a buoyant economy and providing a steady stream of work to architects and engineers.

The U.S. high-rise market is "pretty much dead," said Dan Winey, a managing director for Gensler, the Shanghai Tower's San Francisco-based architects. "For us, China in the next 10 to 15 years is going to be a huge market."

[Hotlanta Mike]

"You can do a lot more experimentation here," he said. "It's an amazing place to be, because you can do things here that you can't do anywhere else in the world."

[Niuhuru]

Mainly because the Chinese learned the hard way about hatred of business and they don’t have massive red tape blocking the way.

[sinanju]

I got an uneasy feeling here. But for now, let a hundred white elephants bloom!

[Leisler]

Upper Chinese leadership is mostly engineers, science and finance guys, not lawyers.

( Imagine being stranded on a island with just lawyers)

[Niuhuru]

I know, which is probably why the country is run in a sensible manner. They’re analytical and know what the problem is, pinpoint it, then work on it instead of arguing.

[Mr. Jeeves]

"There are cities in China that most Western people have never heard of that have bigger populations and more tall buildings than half the prominent cities in the U.S.," said Antony Wood, executive director of the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago.

Google "Chongqing skyline" for an example.

For an American, a visit to Asia these days is humbling. They are pulling ahead of us in every area except military hardware.

[MissyMack66]

Plus China would never allow the muzzies to fly planes into thier buildings.

[UCFRoadWarrior]

I guess this is what happens when you ship American wealth to Communist China via bad Liberal Free Trade deals....they can build skyscrapers.

When you have a trade surplus with America that runs 100’s of billions of dollars per year...you can do this

[todd_hall]

I wish someone would actually COMPETE and win back those jobs instead of collectively engaging in finger pointing.

[mulan]

I would have agreed with your point if China were a free country just as USA. China only cares about what is the best to its own financial interests. Chinese rulers opine other countries are supposed to treat them special because these rulers are narcissistic. They do not use the same fair trade/finance principles as free world has been using (free currencies/markets). If other countries do not boycott them for their unfair practices, they will definitely take advantage of that and no mercy! If free world tolerates them, we will only suffer from it. In the meantime, egos of Chinese communist rulers together with its ever-growing and strong PLA (its military force) have been growing and have made China such a threat to our free world. BTW, all the wealth it has gained does not go to common Chinese people! It goes to it military force and those banks owned by the communist government. Most Chinese people, even in a moderately developed city, are not enjoying the life style most Americans can enjoy. Generally speaking, they are still slaves of their slave master, their communist rulers! A goverment functions the best only when most people are happy. Happiness is too far to reach when people bascially have no control over their destinies and they choose to be "satisfied" when they have good food to eat and do not have any notion that life/being a free man means much more than good food.

[todd_hall]

” if China were a free country just as USA.”

You actually believe that the U.S is free....

“They do not use the same fair trade/finance principles as free world has been using (free currencies/markets).”

And who does practice fair trade? I seem to recall that we(America) were a pretty aggressive mercantile power in our day.

“China only cares about what is the best to its own financial interests.”

That is what any SANE country is SUPPOSED to do, mind their own business. Nobody owes you a living, deal with it.

[mulan]

You are a big commie!

[familyop]

"I wish someone would actually COMPETE and win back those jobs instead of collectively engaging in finger pointing."

Meanwhile, at another commissioners' meeting, fake environmentalist front witches appear for their globalist sugar daddies to stop another small business start. And while some government employees are laid off, the dollars for the VAWA, Internet regulation, public education, etc., continue to flood to all locales to bust families (to keep potential competition down).

I'll enjoy seeing this great whorehousecleaning through. We'll be better off after the big default.