The three leading reader questions received via the Shanghai Scrap contact form are: Can you get me into the Expo grounds? [What do I look like? A ticket broker? No.] Will you ship your large inventory of e-waste to me? [I don’t have any e-waste (except for that Dell in the closet). So, no.] What…
All posts in Architecture
If you write it, I.M Pei will come? Not exactly.
Earlier this week I was skimming my favorite state-owned Chinese newspapers when I came across this rather startling People’s Daily headline regarding I.M. Pei, the last of the great modernist architects: According to the article, the developer of the museum “has invested 50 million yuan to invite Pei to design the museum” and “[r]eporters also…
100 Days Out from Expo 2010, and the Critics are Starting to Speak (about the US Pavilion)
Today begins the 100 day countdown to the largest World Expo – or World’s Fair – in history. Lots of reasons to note this moment, but if you’re a US citizen, I suggest three, all related: first, the folks behind the US pavilion haven’t managed to complete fund-raising for the structure; second, the US State…
A (Second) Cavalcade of (under-construction) Expo 2010 Pavilions.
A few weeks ago I posted some images (“A Cavalcade of under-construction Expo 2010 Pavilions“) from a few of my December visits to the intensely busy Expo 2010 grounds. Readers – or viewers, in this case – seemed quite interested in them, so I’m going to follow-up on that post with another set of images…
Meanwhile, at the Polish Expo 2010 Pavilion …
Apropos of really nothing, a photo of workers burnishing the exterior of the Polish Expo 2010 pavilion late this afternoon. After a very early morning spent viewing the triumph of truth and justice over evil, I spent most of the afternoon down at the exceptionally busy Expo 2010 site. And, within the next day or…
The Miracle Cure for All that Ails China
[UPDATE 1/8: The Red Plus Yellow blog has just posted a wonderfully useful item on how to winterize your Chinese apartment without replacing the windows. If you’re cold, you should read it. Great stuff.] This morning I woke up shivering in my bed, too cold to go back to sleep, and logged onto my laptop…
A Cavalcade of (under-construction) Expo 2010 Pavilions
Over the last two weeks, I’ve made several trips down to the sprawling 5.28 sq km Expo 2010 grounds on the Huangpu riverbanks. For my American readers, this revelation likely doesn’t generate much excitement – even if I tell you that – in scale and historical importance – Expo 2010 is designed to evoke and…
The lines are already forming …
On Friday I had the opportunity to tour both sides of the sprawling, 5.28 square km Expo 2010 site. I’ve been down there before, but only to individual pavilions on discrete trips, and seen it from above, but I must admit that I never really appreciated the shear size of it until I had the…
Honkgkou Falls
Last month I posted at length on the accelerating demolition of historic architecture in Shanghai’s Hongkou District (following on several good posts from Paul French at China Rhyming). This area, best know as the “Jewish ghetto” during World War II, has a far richer history, and architectural heritage, than that interlude might suggest. Thus, it’s…
East Seward Road Elegy: Shanghai’s War Against Its Architectural Heritage
[UPDATE 10/19 – Paul French of the excellent China Rhyming blog just posted some heartbreaking history and images of the White Horse Inn, on the former Ward Road, which was taken down during the recent Hongkou demolitions. ] [UPDATE 10/22 – Leading the pack on Hongkou-related news, Paul French just posted a very fine item…