The 2008 Beijing Olympic Games have become history, but the Olympic spirit of "Citius, Altius, Fortius" appears to have been instilled into China's building industry. The 2009 Green Building and Energy Efficiency International Conference hosted by McGraw-Hill Construction in Shanghai in August showed that more Chinese developers embrace the concept of green buildings, and many would use "green" to justify taller and bigger construction plans. Almost all the development projects presented at the conference were exceptionally jumbo-sized buildings or communities.

Although energy efficiency and GHG emissions reductions are of equal importance in the central government policies, the building industry seldom touches upon the issue of climate change as evidenced in the conference. My presentation, Building Solutions to Climate Change, was the only one focusing on how the building sector can contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation.

[A rendering picture of upcoming Shanghai Center (632 meters), adjacent to China's current two tallest buildings: Shanghai World Financial Center (492 meters) and Jin Mao Tower (421 meters). The famous Oriental Pearl TV Tower (468 meters) is in the background]

One eye-catching presentation previewed China's next tallest building, the 632-meter (2,073 feet) Shanghai Center featuring 30,000 square meters (323,000 square feet) of offices, shops, hotels, and recreational facilities, with a price tag of more than $2 billion U.S. dollars. The skyscraper is already under construction and will eclipse China's current tallest building, the 492-meter (1,624 feet) Shanghai World Financial Center, in 2014. What amazed the audience was that these two highrises and another giant, the 421-meter Jin Mao Tower, are all located in the same district: the Lujiazui Financial and Trade Zone in Shanghai. The three giants are close to one another and are commonly termed "the three big brothers" in China's priciest area, which is sure to become Shanghai's new landmark.

Let's put everything into perspective. The 83.8-meter Shanghai Park Hotel had been the tallest building in Shanghai for half a decade since it was built in 1934. It was rumored--and testified by this WSJ article--that young I.M.Pei was so awed by the height of the hotel at first sight that he quitted Saint John's University in Shanghai and went to the U.S.--first UPenn and then MIT--to study architecture. In 1978, China committed to the open door policy. Just five years later, in 1983, the Shanghai Hotel passed the Park Hotel by a height of 91.5 meter, which officially kicked off a race for the highest. In 1999, Jin Mao Tower became China's tallest building. In 2008, Shanghai World Financial Center grabbed the title.

[The Shanghai Park Hotel was once known as "the tallest building in the Far East"]

Due to its booming economy, China has been known as "an architects' heaven" and has attracted almost every renowned international architectural firm, whose wildest and sexiest dreams can come true here. Interestingly enough, the three big brothers were all designed by American firms: the Shanghai World Financial Center by KPF, the Jin Mao Building by SOM, and the Shanghai Center by Gensler.

The biggest selling point for China's next tallest building is that it aims to be the world's tallest green building (though not the world's tallest building). The developer is probably aware of the controversial issues around this project. Some have criticized that the Financial Zone is already too crowded, and that a 632-meter giant would inevitably put too much strain on the area's already stressed transit systems and infrastructure. Some have argued that Shanghai has fallen over two meters during the past four decades, and that this upcoming giant may expedite the ground-sinking phenomenon.

To remove these "original sins", the developer's presentation revealed the Shanghai Center's objective of pursuing LEED-Gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) as well as Three-Star certification from China's Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development (MOHURD). Implementation strategies to obtaining the two certifications were also discussed. For such an extraordinary skyscraper, receiving either certification would be quite an accomplishment, and receiving both would be, to many, nearly a mission impossible. But I wouldn't doubt the Shanghai Center's potential to achieve this goal: its green building consulting team consists of Chinese experts who participated in writing the Chinese Green Building Standard, and Gensler itself received a USGBC's Leadership Award in 2005 and is quite knowledgeable about the LEED criteria.

Two claims in the presentation caught my attention: that "skyscrapers are the choice of future city development" and that the project aims to "provide and demonstrate best practices for green skyscrapers." While North American and European countries are not so enthusiastic about skyscrapers any more, Asian countries are still fascinated with them. Currently there is only one 600-plus-meter skyscraper in the world (the Burj Dubai in UAE, 818 meters). But according to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, the world's Tallest 10 in 2020 (including Burj Dubai and Shanghai Center) will all be over 600 meters, and eight will be in Asia and three will be over 1,000 meters. Therefore, Shanghai Center could lose its tallest-green-building crown to others soon after earning it.

According to a Caijing article, the project's environment impact report only briefly discussed air, water, noise and light pollution. The entire report has never been open for public comments, and only the introduction part was posted online for a short period of time. Will the two popular green certifications in China environmentally condone--or should we say legitimate--such an extraordinary development in this special area? A further relevant question: were the two green building standards meant to certify such a super-tall building? Even a scientific law has its domain and constraints. In my previous blog, In Green We Build, I expressed my concern that many developers would use green certification to get green lights from the administration-a potential greenwashing.

Mr. Qingwei Kong, Chairman of the Shanghai Center Construction Development Co. Ltd, provided another perspective: during the economic downturn, the project would "simulate domestic market demand and lessen economic volatility."