After a year of kvetching and moaning about the USA pavilion for Expo 2010 (World’s Fair), this afternoon Shanghai Scrap finally had the opportunity to go inside the nearly complete pavilion, and have a look at how – precisely – the US will be representing itself to China, and the world, beginning May 1. Regular…
All posts in Expo 2010
The Gun Almost Smokes: Two once-secret documents related to the USA Expo 2010 pavilion
Over the next two days, representatives of the USA pavilion for Expo 2010 (ie, the 2010 World’s Fair) will be rolling-out the USA’s building and programming for the event, to open May 1. Tomorrow, Tuesday, media will have the opportunity to interview members of BRC Imagination Arts, the company that produced the “4-D” film to…
An Even Sorrier Spectacle: “Defending” the USA Pavilion
On March 8 Foreign Policy published “A Sorry Spectacle,” my reported essay on the serious problems, allegations, and questions, that have plagued the USA pavilion for Expo 2010 since the 2006 “request for proposal” [RFP] to build, design, and fund-raise the structure was issued in 2006. Yesterday, April 2, the Commissioner General of the USA…
How is Expo 2010 changing Shanghai? One blogger’s perspective.
Just got off the phone with a reporter interested to know how the Expo (ie, World’s Fair) is changing Shanghai. No offense to this particular hack, but I’ve been having that conversation a whole lot recently, and it usually goes something like this: “Lots of new infrastructure, great new subways, but please stop demolishing all…
It ain’t no handstand: last [updated: not] thoughts on the USA pavilion at Expo 2010
Last year, Clive Grout, the Canadian architect commissioned to design the USA pavilion for Expo 2010, spoke to a US trade journal devoted to theme parks, about his design: “The building is designed here the way we’d do it if it was in downtown Philadelphia or in Los Angeles,” he explains. “It’s a model for…
About that lousy Expo 2010 billboard in Times Square.
The other afternoon I tweeted an image of a billboard promoting Shanghai’s Expo 2010 in New York’s Times Square. I was surprised (in a not good way) when I came across the sign, and if I hadn’t been completely occupied with my reasons for being in New York, I would have written slightly more than…
The Sorry Spectacle of the US Pavilion at Expo 2010. But I still like the Expo, anyway. [UPDATED]
Today Foreign Policy publishes “A Sorry Spectacle,” my history of the regrettable and often bizarre effort to build a USA pavilion for Expo 2010 [a/k/a, the World’s Fair] to begin on May 1, in Shanghai. Some of the material has been aired on Shanghai Scrap and elsewhere over the last year; much of it has…
Resumption of Transmissions …
The Chinese New Year holiday is coming to an end, and so is this blog’s reticence on a range of issues. We should be back to full-strength – or pretty close – early next week. For now, one quick Chinese New Year item that I meant to post before the holiday, and forgot. Here’s the…
The US Pavilion at Expo 2010, Conflicts of Interest, and Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce, Dr. Ira Kasoff – UPDATED
[UPDATE – February 22, 2010. Three weeks later, Tim Stratford accepts a job in the Beijing law office where Dr. Kasoff’s wife is a partner.] Tomorrow at 12:30 PM, the US-China Business Council [USCBC] and the US Information Technology Office [USITO] in Beijing will host a luncheon briefing featuring Tim Stratford, an assistant US Trade…
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…