NBBJ designs big projects in Far East

Real Estate Weekly, Nov 26, 2008

The New York studio of NBBJ has designed three large-scale, mixed-use projects in China totaling 14.5 million square feet in size.

The three mega-projects include the 6.6-millionsquare-foot Dalian Center in Dalian, the 5.7-millionsquare-foot Yanlord Landmark in Chengdu, and the 2.2-million-square-foot Zhuhai Yanlord Beachfront in Zhuhai.

"Leading urban planners in China look to NBBJ to deliver mixed-use mega-complexes that will accommodate rapid growth and also stand as thriving city centers," said NBBJ partner Timothy Johnson. "China is grappling with a countryside-to-city migration that ranks as the largest of its kind in human history. NBBJ's urban design approach helps ensure that urbanization plays out in an efficient way but also in a way that remains sensitive to urban interaction at a basic, human level."

"NBBJ's track record in China goes back many years," Johnson said. "While many US-based design firms are relative newcomers to China, NBBJ has been playing an active role on the Chinese urban design front since the early 1990's."

In the northern city of Dalian, NBBJ has designed an iconic, 6.6-million-square-foot, mixed-use development that will represent the centerpiece of this coastal city 290 miles east of Beijing. Five separate towers will rise from a five-stow, multi-use podium that contains retail, entertainment, exhibition/convention and performance venues. When completed in 2010, Dalian Center will integrate residential, office, retail and hotel space into a vibrant urban hub. The site's sloping nature enabled NBBJ to create multiple entries into ground-level retail space connected through an intricate series of atriums.

NBBJ's New York studio also is designing the monumental Yanlord Landmark, a 5.7-million-square-foot. mixed-use development in Chengdu, one of southwestern China's key economic hubs. The two-part project is designed to encourage urban life and 24/7 vitality in a city experiencing enormous population growth.

The New York studio's third, large Chinese project is Zhuhai Yanlord Beachfront in the southern coastal city of Zhuhai. Distinguished by a highly futuristic design, the five-tower complex will bring more than 2.2 million square feet of residential, office, retail and hotel space to a prime oceanfront site by the end of 2011. Construction is expected to begin at the end of this year.