Sep 2005 - Parsons Brinckerhoff

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preliminary and detailed design for MEP systems; constructionphase services; and systems testing and commissioning. Construction was completed in August 2005. Trusted with a National Treasure PB’s record of performance on modern buildings led to its involvement in rebuilding a part of China’s imperial past. For 500 years, 24 Ming and Qing emperors ruled China from the Imperial Palace in the Forbidden City, a 9,000 plus-room complex in the heart of Beijing. Though secured by a moat and high walls during its days of imperial use, the Forbidden City, now known as the Palace Museum, has been open to the public since 1924. Portions of the Forbidden City, however, were in need of restoration. In 2000, the China K. Wah Centre is a new office building in one of Shanghai’s upscale shopping districts. Heritage Fund, a Hong Kongbased nonprofit organization, began reconstructing the Garden of the Palace of Established Happiness. The Garden— comprised of nine buildings linked by covered pavilions and pebbled walkways—was built in 1740 and destroyed by fire in 1923. PB was invited to provide MEP services when the China Heritage Fund and the Palace Museum decided to outfit the nine authentic Qing dynasty structures for contemporary use. PB Project Manager Shiu-Wo Lam says, “It was challenging to design the systems to fit inconspicuously within the traditional wooden structures— especially because the systems were added after the pavilions were constructed. The team ALL PHOTOS THIS SPREAD (EXCEPT CHARGO LEUNG) © 2005 DAVID SAILORS They make escalators, too, at a new facility of the Xizi Otis Elevator Company in Hangzhou. PB provided design/build services. honored both history and current building codes with efforts such as modifying historic light fixtures to accept modern fittings.” The project is on track for completion this October. Lam notes, “It is an honor to have been trusted to help rebuild one of China’s national treasures.” Complete Facilities Services PB is expanding its facilities services in China to encompass all aspects of design and construction. Among the projects is development of an escalator and elevator manufacturing facility in Hangzhou for Xizi Otis Elevator Company. “PB provided master planning and conceptual design services for the 43,240-squaremeter (465,430-square-foot) complex beginning in January 2003,” says Jerry Lieu, Manager responsible for Shanghai’s Project/Construction Management Group. “The building had to adhere to both international building codes and Otis’s corporate standards.” Under a separate contract, PB provided design-build services for the escalator facility—the largest such factory in the world. The PB’s roles ranged from master planning to construction management services for the Delphi China Technical Centre in Shanghai, where automotive components are developed. schedule became tight because permitting procedures delayed the construction start more than four months. “Through hard work, overtime, and careful planning, PB managed to cut down the schedule extension to only two months,” Lieu says. Design began in April 2004 and construction was completed in January 2005. Richard Chen, Factory Relocation Director for Xizi Otis, notes, “PB provided a cost-effective solution and value-added construction services that exceeded our expectations, and the team demonstrated an outstanding ability to meet challenges.” In 2004, PB was awarded a contract for conceptual design and design management of the elevator manufacturing facility, to be completed in 2006. In Shanghai, PB has a comprehensive role on the Delphi China Technical Centre, a complex designed to accommodate several operating units of U.S.-headquartered Delphi, the world’s largest automotive components supplier. Project Manager James Tang explains, “Delphi’s goal is to create a world-class technology development center that enables teams to work with maximum efficiency.” Beginning in 2004, PB provided master planning and conceptual design in support of that objective for the 87,170-square-meter (938,290- square-foot) site. To facilitate completion of the complex in three phases and enhance future flexibility, each phase is a standalone structure. The buildings surround a courtyard garden and are linked by bridges. For Phase 1—which was occupied by Delphi employees in July 2005—PB provided engineering design, procurement support and construction management services. Ongoing Opportunity “PB is breaking into the program management market in China, which complements our design expertise,” reports Chargo Leung, PB’s Operations Manager for Shanghai and Project Director for the Nanjing International Centre. Currently under construction in Nanjing City’s central business district, PB provided program management for the Centre as well as MEP services for the first phase of the project, scheduled for completion in mid-2007. Nanjing International Centre, in the city’s central business district, is a multiuse megastructure for which PB provided program management services. PB Project Manager Alan Lau explains, “Phase 1 of the 370,000- square-meter [4 million-squarefoot] complex includes two towers providing luxury apartments and hotel and office space, along with other structures housing a shopping mall, recreation center, and conference and exhibition center.” Phase 2 includes a 60-story five-star hotel and an “intelligent” office building. “All sectors of the buildings market—institutional, commercial, industrial and residential—show strong growth,” says Keith Hawksworth, President and Chief Operating Officer, PB Asia-Pacific. “In China, PB has the opportunity to participate in the development of some of the world’s most prestigious and fascinating buildings.” • Larry Chan Shiu-Wo Lam Jerry Lieu James Tang Chargo Leung Alan Lau 16 • Notes Notes • 17
1898: PB's Founder Charts a Railroad in China All photos from An American Engineer in China, by William Barclay Parsons, McClure, Phillips & Co., 1900. P arsons Brinckerhoff’s history in China dates to 1898, when the founder of the firm, William Barclay Parsons, surveyed the route of a railroad from Hankow (Wuhan) to Canton (Guangzhou) on behalf of an American syndicate granted a concession by the Chinese government. A prolific writer, Parsons wrote a book, An American Engineer in China, published in 1900, in which he gives his impressions of Chinese culture and civilization at the turn of the century. An arch bridge near Beijing admired by Parsons. Travels in Hunan Parsons entered China at a time when foreign influence was deeply resented—the Boxer Rebellion broke out just two years later, and Chinese officials cautioned him about traveling in Hunan, the so-called “closed province,” where most of the 1,448-kilometer (900- mile) route lay. Parsons reports that he was treated kindly and with respect by virtually all the Chinese with whom he came in contact, although he and his party were most definitely William Barclay Parsons (fourth from left) and his American engineers in the field. outsiders. “For five hundred miles I was the first foreigner ever seen,” he wrote. Despite his apprehension about traveling in Hunan, as he left the province Parsons reflected that he had been treated with “kindness, courtesy, and attention by both officials and people.” He bade farewell to Hunan sadly, and with particular affection for what he called his “two faithful friends” who had served as his bodyguards. Railroads Interestingly, Parsons writes little about the enterprise for which he worked or the surveying itself, preferring instead to comment on the customs of the country and people. But in a brief discussion of his work he writes: “In addition to determining the general location of the railway, we established the longitude and latitude of the various cities, discovering, as was expected, differences in their locations as usually plotted … we established the lines of drainage, both north and south of the Nan-ling Mountains, correcting many errors; but above all, we discovered the true pass across the range connecting the headwaters of the Yu-tan with those of the Wu-shui.” Parsons devotes an entire chapter to railroads generally, and in his view the development of rail lines would be critical to China’s development. According to Parsons, in 1900 there were 1,310 kilometers (814 miles) of constructed railway, 1,023 kilometers (636 miles) under construction, and 9,141 kilometers (5,680 miles) under concession, including the route that Parsons was surveying. Noting the poor condition of roads in China, Parsons predicted that railways would be developed first, followed by modern highways and finally by improvements in the navigability of rivers, at that time the principal means of transportation in China. Engineering and Construction As an engineer, Parsons was interested in the design and construction of structures in China, and he expressed admiration for Chinese pagodas, walls Parsons (at right) with a Chinese Hsien magistrate (under the umbrella). (not only the Great Wall but others surrounding cities) and bridges. He was especially impressed by the Chinese use of the arch in bridge construction, which he asserts preceded the use of the arch by the Romans. He singles out two arch bridges and writes: “Either of these beautiful structures would have done credit to any architectural engineer brought up in the most fastidious school of Europe. They both are of essentially Chinese origin, the former of some antiquity. Probably neither of them was ever seen by foreigners before my trip.” ments in the West, but also argues that Western influence would help China progress to a leading nation in the 20th century. He notes that for the great majority of Chinese at that time, life was a daily struggle. “Not that there is suffering or want, for everybody seems to have a home and enough to wear and eat, but it is life reduced to its simplest form,” he writes. The Development of China In Parsons’s view, improved transportation, reform of the imperial system of government (China was then under the reign Chinese Culture and Civilization Throughout the book, Parsons’s principal subject is Chinese culture and civilization. He demonstrates a deep respect for Chinese achievements in art, literature and commerce that in many cases preceded comparable developof the Empress Dowager in the Qing Dynasty) and Western-style education “will enable China once more to take her place among the great nations of the earth.” In a remarkably prescient observation, Parsons writes: “The development of China, assisted at first by outside influence, but eventually carried on by the impulses of her own people, is as sure to come to pass as in the case of other nations; and when at last it has broken down completely the wall of exclusion and isolation, the progress that will follow will produce great results, aided as it will be by the mineral wealth of the country and the industrious habits of the people.” • A wooden cantilever bridge in Hunan. Parsons admired it for its “extraordinary design” and the use of wood, then rarely used for heavy construction in China. 18 • Notes Notes • 19
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Page 5 and 6: Shanghai and Shenzhen: A Tale of Tw
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Page 12 and 13: Notes on Projects Merseytram, Liver
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Sep 2005 - Parsons Brinckerhoff

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