Shanghai, China’s skyline
with Shanghai Tower
under construction
Reaching New Heights
Building China’s tallest skyscraper pushed
project managers to the upper limits.
BY SARAH PROTZMAN HOWLETT
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Spires,
spheres and glossy skyscrapers punctuate the
skyline in Shanghai, China’s Pudong district. Its
futuristic landscape has provided the backdrop for
death-defying leaps and cataclysmic destruction in
blockbuster action films. But the city’s latest architectural star aimed to test local limits and reach
new heights.
Designing and building the Shanghai Tower,
the world’s second-tallest building, came with its
own real-life drama. Given the building’s dizzying
height, project managers had to make life-ordeath safety decisions and navigate unique shortand long-term construction challenges—all at a
high-speed project pace.
The 632-meter (2,073-foot), US$3 billion tower
was designed by Gensler, an architecture firm based
in San Francisco, California, USA.
Delivering on an ambitious design, which
included a virtual curtain wrapping the tower
in glass, required the careful management of an
80-person team and an extended group of worldwide design sub-consultants. Success was due in
part to the co-location of the entire team in Shanghai during the design phase, which accounted for
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IMAGES COURTESY OF © GENSLER
Shanghai Tower’s ambitious
design includes a virtual curtain
that wraps the tower in glass
and a podium-like base, right.
two of the seven years of the project, says senior
project manager Grant Uhlir.
“Having the core design team in residence in
Shanghai afforded timely reviews, consensus building and efficient and effective decision making,” Mr.
Uhlir says. “Keeping our global team on the same
page with constant communications, project task
tracking, scheduling and monitoring required a
savvy and experienced management group.”
FIRE DRILL
The most serious project challenge revolved around
developing an effective protocol that would allow
everyone to evacuate the building in less than two
hours in the case of a fire or other emergency.
When the project started in 2008, no fire safety
codes existed in China for structures over 200
meters (656 feet), so the project team developed
their own solution.
To protect individuals on the uppermost floors of
China’s largest building, the team studied the safety
plans of other super-tall buildings around the world
such as the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, United Arab
Emirates and One World Trade Center in New
York, New York, USA. From there, Gensler used
extensive simulation to monitor different evacuation scenarios, says Xiaomei Lee, PMP, co-managing director and principal at Gensler. Project leaders
also consulted with both Chinese fire marshals and
“Having the core
design team
in residence
in Shanghai
afforded
timely reviews,
consensus
building and
efficient and
effective decision
making.”
—Grant Uhlir, Gensler, Chicago,
Illinois, USA
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Construction started
in November 2008
and is scheduled to
be completed late
this year.
Talent
Spotlight
Grant C.
Uhlir,
principal/
senior project
director,
Gensler
Tall Orders
The view from
the 110th
floor during
construction
in July 2014
n
n
n
Location: Chicago,
Illinois, USA
n
Experience: 28 years
n
Other notable projects:
1. Block 37, an urban retail
center in Chicago, Illinois,
USA, which opened in
July 2008
n
2. One Indiana Square, a
36-story office building in
Indianapolis, Indiana, USA,
which opened in 1970 and
was renovated in 2008
52
n
n
the New York City Fire Department in New York,
USA to develop the most effective approach. Based
on the results of this research, the team decided
to make 13 of the tower’s 108 passenger elevators
pressurized, fireproof and smoke-proof to support
emergency efforts in case of a fire.
And the planning didn’t stop there. To come up
with a safe and efficient elevator design, the project
team also held several meetings with the elevator
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company and vertical-transportation experts, as
well as the leasing company, a program management group, the design department within the
client group, the construction team and the facilityoperation group.
“We had to build consensus [with this entire
client group],” Mr. Uhlir says. “My project manager role was to consolidate all the comments
and concerns.”
PHOTO COURTESY OF © GENSLER
Career lessons learned:
“The opportunity to live
and work in Shanghai was
amazing. The rigor of the
design process, construction
site collaborations and
management were in
balance. Experiencing both
the beauty of the Chinese
culture, and energy and
spirit of Shanghai is both
humbling and inspirational.”
n
n
April 2008: U.S. architecture
firm Gensler chosen to design
Shanghai Tower.
June 2008: Schematic design
of tower begins.
November 2008: Project
breaks ground for construction.
April 2009: Gensler completes
final design.
March 2010: Construction
formally begins and foundation
is poured.
June 2011: First 100 meters
(328 feet) of construction
completed.
May 2012: Construction
reaches 300 meters (984 feet).
January 2014: Construction
reaches 600 meters
(1,969 feet).
August 2014: Building crown
completed to reach maximum
height of 632 meters
(2,073 feet).
Late 2015: Full tower
scheduled to open.
OCTOBER 2015 PM NETWORK
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The tower’s signature feature is a
twisting top designed to reduce
wind impact.
Race to the Top
“We had to build consensus
[with this entire client group].
My project manager role
was to consolidate all the
comments and concerns.”
Three skyscrapers
Kingdom Tower
Suzhou Zhongnan Centre
Ping An Finance Center
LOCATION
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
Suzhou, China
Shenzhen, China
HEIGHT
1 kilometer (3,281 feet)
729 meters (2,392 feet)
660 meters (2,165 feet)
COST
US$1.23 billion
US$4.5 billion
US$1.46 billion
SCHEDULED
TO OPEN
2018
2020
2016
WOW
FACTOR
Would supplant the Burj
Khalifa (828 meters/2,716 feet)
in Dubai, United
Arab Emirates as
the world’s tallest
building.
Would become
China’s tallest
building.
Rapid
construction
pace means
one floor will
be built every
four days.
FEEDBACK LOOP
Glare from the building’s
20,589 customized glass
panels was a concern
for owners of adjacent
buildings.
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Two other signature design features—the tower’s
glimmering glass skin and the building’s sheer
size—required additional coordination with local
stakeholders, Mr. Uhlir says.
For instance, owners of adjacent buildings worried that the reflection from the building’s 20,589
customized glass panels—which serve as a seethrough curtain—would create a disruptive glare.
So Mr. Uhlir’s team produced a report detailing
how the shape and placement of each panel would
address this issue. Laser technology also was used
to detect spots that created the greatest risk of glare.
But that solution required the team to place lasers
on neighboring buildings, which required working
with the owners to get approval.
In public meetings, pedestrians who frequent the
area expressed concerns that, in proximity to so
IMAGE COURTESY OF © GENSLER
—Grant Uhlir
One option was to follow the lead of other supertall buildings such as the Willis Tower in Chicago,
Illinois, USA and use double-decker elevators that
allow two cabs to run vertically in the same shaft—
a design that takes up less floor space than other
options. However, some of the project consultants
were concerned about the cost implications of this
approach. To stay on budget, the team chose three
single-elevator cabs to serve the observation deck—
but this solution created a problem of its own.
“It took up additional floor space,” Mr. Uhlir
says. As a result, the tower’s twisting tapered top—
designed to reduce wind impact—suddenly became
a huge liability. To avoid having to resort to removing an entire floor, the design team made an atrium
taller, which reduced the floor-area square footage
and kept both the tapered top and the additional
elevator shafts intact. The solution was the result
of a combination of creative thinking, good communication and understanding individual skill sets
among team members, Ms. Lee says.
under construction or in planning stages are scheduled to eclipse the Shanghai Tower’s height.
many other tall buildings, the tower would create
a wind-tunnel effect. So the project team studied
ground-level wind condition simulations to peg
which areas were most likely to encounter increased
wind speeds. To add another twist, these conditions
vary seasonally, in direction, speed and peak gusts,
Mr. Uhlir says.
The team mitigated this risk by installing tall
plants and canopies that redirect wind and reduce
the impact on people who walk past the tower on
blustery days, Mr. Uhlir says.
“It took a lot of community building, meetings
with the public and their neighbors,” he says. “It was
about being a good listener.”
COMING TO CONSENSUS
Constant and deliberate communication throughout the project helped Gensler mitigate a primary risk—falling behind schedule. The team was
required to translate Mandarin to English and
metric units of measurement to imperial (and vice
versa), as well as build a consensus for each decision
before taking action, Mr. Uhlir says.
“Rarely would we go in, present an idea, and the
client would say ‘Yes, we agree. Move forward,’” he
says. Instead, his team would often present multiple
ideas for the Chinese stakeholders to pore over,
allowing them to discuss the merits and drawbacks
of each and building consensus to define a common design direction. During the design phase
in particular, he led daily meetings with the Chinese government’s program management team that
included daily action lists. He also offered a big picture perspective by using a large display wall in the
Gensler studio to list all new project work, design
tasks, schedule and project progress.
Mr. Uhlir says he kept the project on track by
keeping a close eye on the client’s expectations—
and gauging how well the team was meeting them.
Although Mr. Uhlir isn’t fluent in Mandarin, he
watched body language, gestures and facial expressions during meetings. Afterward, the project
managers were able to measure the cadence of the
meeting, identify key issues requiring follow-up
and use those skills to move the client toward a
final decision. With these processes in place, the
team is on target to close the project by the end
of this year.
“I always told my team, ‘This is a once-in-a-lifetime project,’” he says. “It taught us the importance
of timely and constant communication—keeping
everybody on the same page.” PM
“I always told
my team, ‘This
is a once-in-alifetime project.’
It taught us
the importance
of timely
and constant
communication
—keeping
everybody on
the same page.”
—Grant Uhlir
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