CHAPTER
Architecture, Media, and Real
Estate Speculation
Te CSD we osig Er Guo tou qos ary The ce veri
mom ong ident frie
Sie cmon SOHO Ch
97, ar
less than
NewTown
i two office skyscrapers,
shops, al
designed with ultramodern, minim Jianwai SOHO is one of th
few building projects in Beijing to have eliminated bulky balconies. The
propel e priced at the highest level at the time in B
but they were sold out long before the projects were completed. Fi
ing the success of SOHO NewTown and Jianwai SOHO, the company
has continued to use design—mostly from prestigious internat
chitects—to brand its projects. As of 2009, SOHO China has expandey
real estat jon to the entire CBD with seven SOHO projects,
ithas developed more commercial space in Beijing’s CBD than any
ARCHITECTURE, MEDIA, AND REAL ESTATE SPECULATION, or
cis the most pub-
intensive and concept-driven development
del. Every SOHO project is packaged as
urban work and I
ncept—of new styles of
—to the growing Chinese middle class, Along with
gin real
estate, and dreams of Londoners,
ive in their global cities.
This chapter will frst take a historical detour
ler ofeconomic act
and Parisians
examine how the cen:
1 older inner city to
Iwill then examine the
Js, writers, and
we how the symbolic capital of architec-
linked to the accumulation of economic, poli
ler creative types:
(ural design is ul
1ave produced a fragmented city of wi
pockets of the dispossessed,
glamour zones surrounded by
From Peking to Beijing: A Genealogy of Downtowns
‘market reform in 1978 and
transformed by institutional re-
1 economic center, of the
city, Throughout mucl history, the political and economic centers
Beijing have often been two separate spheres, In the imperial and so-
periods, downtown Peking was the political center of the empire
it was largely defined ae ccuarrer THREE
‘on the existing scholarship about the urban and soci
this section will trace how downtown Peking has cor
its location, function, and meaning from the imperi r
and how the downtown(s) has/have been made or unmade by local and
translocal processes throughout this history. Then I
-mporary period and examine the efforts by the city government to use
tional design firms to promote the new CBD.
(ory of Peking,
nuously changed
Imperial Peking, 14008-1911
‘Peking/Beijing is an ancient city that has served as the capital of five
imperial dynasties and one modern regime.‘ Imperial Peking—during
the Ming and Qing dynasties from 1403 to 1911—was the node of the
government and administration networks of the Chinese Empire.’ The
1, and cultural resources commanded by
Imperial fami
we city, and their
overflowed into many aspects Economie cen-
ters were submerged under the shadow of the political center, the imperial
domain. The dominance of political spheres over economic spheres left
clear imprints on the cityscape.
Ming and Qing Peking consisted of several walled cities nested in
‘concentric rings (fig, 3.1)” The Forbidden City, as the residence of th
he geographic ce!
local urban
rial City surroundin,
and workspace exclusively reserved for the ruling family and high-ranking
bureaucrats. The sparsely populated palaces and the eunuch-managed Im-
petial City were off-limits to the public, This inaccessible space occupied
a large proportion of the built-up area of the city, and it was both the
geographic center of Peking and the political heart of the empire. Com-
tion by walls and gates was fundamental in organi
City in the north and the rectangular Outer Cit
jor commercial center of imperial Pe
\WCHITECTURE, MEDIA, AND REAL ESTATE SPECULATION 6
\e Outer City was smaller than the Inner City and lacked the majes-
imperial center. Owing to the presence of the imperial palaces, there
‘more residences—mostly of noble families and high-ranking
and more commerce in the Outer
period, as the né
ents and commerci
sic center of gravity further shifted to the Outer:
imposed significant barriers to traffic, and city gates became major
‘A downtown section appeared near the streets and markets in the
ly populated area just outside Qianmen in the Outer City, Here devel-
‘a great congestion of merchants, shopkeepers, peasants, workshops,
the Inner City and the Outer
Although other subcenters also emerged during the
-1 occupied the top rank
ands of the
own of imperial64 (CHAPTER THREE
Peking, the commercial and entertainment quarter at Qianmen attracted
sojourners from throughout the empire and beyond.
The political and economic system of the imperi
duced an imbalance between the Inner and Outer Ci
economic activities in the downtown Qianmen atea, residents
that the Outer City could not match the elegance of,
the palaces and imperial domains in the Inner City. According tobi
‘Susan Naquin, the local urban life in the Outer City was only sketchily
represented in visual media before the nineteenth century, and the recom-
‘mended tourist sights in popular guidebooks in this period were mostly
limited to places in the Inner City and the countryside.” Downtown,
Peking, was conceived by its residents as an
inferior secular space, in sharp contrast with the sacred imperial domain,
The physical and symbolic centrality of the imperial domain skewed the
locations of markets and defined the meaning of downtown in imperial
Peking.
period thus pro-
In spite of the
burge:
of imperial Peking f
as the economic center
Republican Peking, 1911-1937
The t nn from tradi
‘of the Qing dynasty in r9r4 marked Peking’ trans
tion and imperialism to modernity, and Wangfujing emerged as the new
downtown commercial center in sepublican Peking. The republican period
‘witnessed major changes in the market system and the locations of dot
towns in Peking, with the Inner City gaining an upper hand over the Outer
City." The Oing-era restrictions on Inner City commerce had vanished,
and the concentration of wealthy families there provided the
for high-end markets, The variely and number of businesses increased,
and old and new styles of commercial establishmen jerated. Host
ing new styles of specialty shops, department stores, and indoor market
‘Wangfujing surpassed Qianmen and became the emblem of new consum-
erism and cosmop
proximity to the foreign c
in semicolonial republican Peking that redefined the economic geography
and reordered power relations between places in the city.
istory of Wangfujing is the history of Peking’ encounter wit
West.” After its defeat in the Opium War e Chinese go
‘ment signed the Treaty of Ti
65
‘icians in the early 1900s contributed further to the growth of Wangtuj
cosmopolitan marketplace, Many of the
Wangfujing were owned by
imported goods
ymmercial establishments
nets, and almost all of them sold
Europe, Japan, and the United States, Wangfujing’s
e economic clout and tastes of foreigners from
was the key clientele at
-al Chinese bourgeois
joulders with foreigners while strolling along its
ng promenades.
Oianmen formed a triangle of commercial cen
aristocrats rubbed
wed and we
ist Peking, 1949-1978
us republican
e, corruption, and class
the CCP was active in the cities in its early days,
927 it was driven into the countryside by the Nationalist Party and
watching the
* After the CCP came to power in 1949,
i urban evils and to
list product
minating foreign control
‘se measures included, for example,
deporting foreign residents, bui
ers, reducing service sectors, and eliminating private
had a devastai
We 1970s, Pekin6 cuaPren THRE
poor quality of goods and services. Many stores were closed down,
land those open were often staffed with unfriendly clerks. According to
(0,200 restaurants in 1949,
But by the 1970s, when the
the number of restaurants shrank
when the pop
total popul:
to only 656. The number 1ed from 70,000 in the early 19508,
centers invariably suffered from the
socialist period, Wangfu-
onal character quickly
ivate shops were replaced wit
mes were changed to Ch
street of Wang-
located through
owned
Earlier downtown commer
anti-urban disinvestin
department stores. ese
‘names with strong soci
establishments lacked
ids of the former Imps
sacred site in the country. With the iconic
portrait of Mao and m
revolutionary histor
socialist China and a highly ly
‘complex and Tiananmen Square forme
exes narrating Chinese
of the new
nizing the urban society and spatial
Global Beijing, 1978-Present: Making thfa cnarren 1HREx
largest concentration of spe-
ized buisiness services firms. The development of the CBD is @ product
‘used urban mas-
of targeted state policies. The city government strategical
design firms in the pl:
in 1993. It stated that
e functions of fins
tion, commerce, culture, and entertainment should be
n 1998, the Beijing city government issued the Specific
g that the CBD would be located in Chaoyang
.¢ city government established
the CBD Administration Committee to supervise all development act
ties. In 1999, the central government appointed Wang Oishan, the former
.e of the China Construction Bank, as the mayor of Beijing. Since
of the city administration
{national firms and financial
istrict with mul
hen, it has become one of the primary go
to build a financial district that can
institutions to Beijing.
“The arca allocated for the CBD is
at the crossing of Fast Third Ring Road and Jian’guomenwai Boulevard.
“The site used to be an industrial area with a number of large manufaetur-
ng facilities. Approximately fifty-four thousand families worked and lived
in the area.” However, the city government envisioned a new modern
business district emerging from there. The existing manufacturing fac
ties had to be relocated elsewhere, old residential buildings demolished,
‘and residents evicted. The first step in turning the area into a modern
business district was to draft a master plan accommodating global busi-
ress functions.
the preparation of the CBD master ph
practice of inviting international architect
1 square kilometers
|_ Beijing followed Shan,
08 for publicity" In 2000,
st international desig
eight international
1 participation
together a jury committee of international experts. The cor
selected the design by Johnson Fain & r the
093, the city government
competition to select a deta
chose the desig
ARCHITECTURE, MEDIA, AND REAL ESTATE SPECULAI
6
Ithough two American
their designs was used as the
mn Institute, an af
‘ms won the design competitions, neither of
final master plan. Instead, Beijing
ate of the city government, combined
Irom different proposals and made the final master plan, For the city gov
resulted from international design compe
it was a global product. As with the development of Pudong financia
in Shanghai, the city government in Beijing used inter
sign firms in the first publicity campaign to promote the new CBD.
In contrast to older coi
re is litle cultural heritage or history associ
tare-kilometer site
¢ cultural vacuum, p
with the four
hosen by the government for the new CBD. To
mned prestigious internat
projects. In the few s
i
" yt years leading up to the 2008 Oly
UBD saw construction of dos
h
c
4
sof signature buildings —office sl
uury hotels, shopping plazas, high-rise apartments,
—from various ren
ed by local boosters for place making,
¥y government officials used a ric oire of images of other
in their discursive construction of the
in the West,
an in New York City. On the official website of the CBD.
ittee of Beijing, a lashing picture of Manhattan’ sky-
inently displayed.” Under the gleaming image reads a slogan:
Beijing/Chaoyang, Downtowns and CBDs—in
of urban modernity for city
imagined modernity is centered on office sky~
new infrastructure, and the priority of attra
city government clearly
ing investment. In
‘companying the masteris to create a perfect urba
0 forma
ing municipal government issued a series of policies designed
and Fortune Global 500 companies to establish
sadquarters in the CBD. These policies aimed to reduce
to attract mi
their regional
inferior space submerged under the pol
tional space of global flows. The CBD is a
'
ARCHITECTURE, MEDIA, AND REAL ESTATE SPECULATION ™
‘1980s and 1990s, the new CBD.
the city to the global financial
st government compounds,
have been re
power and cent
houses the work of
new CBD.
Architectural Spectacles: From SOHO NewTown to the
Commune to Ji OHO
SOHO China distinguished itself from other real estate firms by cre
)per with his property de-
ly 1990s, when the state had
ed the property market and r
if, Zhang Xin, studied econ
fe 1980s and worked on Wall Street hefore coming back to China in
carly 1990s. The hus team used innovative architecture
‘ban design extensively in the building of their real estate empire in
cijing
ist major project in Beijing—SOHO New-
he late 1990s—is a high-end resident
‘ment units located within
inese developers paid scant at
Most new apartment bui
$s" works in its pub-
concept to Beijing’ricvas 3.4. SOHO Newiwn, Bejing. Photograph courtey of SOHO China,
in the West. The individual apartment units at SOHO New Town, many of
‘which are as large as 250 square meters, combine dwelling and work areas
few fixed partitions ants can divide the space as they
York, a reference frequently made by Zhang Xin when