Who is Shanghai Construction Group?

Surely you've seen the side-by-side photos of Shanghai in 1987 and Shanghai in 2013. It's a remarkable portrait of ambition, energy, and progress of a people.  It brings to mind the building of Hoover Dam, or Baron von Haussmann's reconstruction of Paris.   On August 3, 2013, the final beam was placed to top out China's tallest, and the world's second tallest building, the Shanghai Tower. It's stylish, it's green, it's sophisticated. It has 121 occupied floors and more than 4 million square feet of space.  

American companies are well represented in this construction.  Gensler is the design architect, Thornton Tomasetti are the structural engineers, and Cosentini is providing the MEP engineering. Autodesk Consulting provided the BIM strategy, training and implementation of Navisworks, Revit, and a host of other programs.   Elevators are provided by Mitsubishi.  

There is the local design institute, Architectural Design and Research Institute, at Tongji University, presumably trying as hard as they can to appropriate the knowledge.  The general contractor is Shanghai Construction Group and the MEP contractor is Shanghai Installation Engineering, a subsidiary of Shanghai Construction Group, and the local engineering consultants also appear to be a subsidiary of Shanghai Construction Group.  The Owner is Shanghai Tower Construction & Development Co., Ltd, .... also a subsidiary of Shanghai Construction Group.

Who is Shanghai Construction Group?  They are big and they seem to have a huge piece of construction, not only in Shanghai but throughout China.  And they are competing for international business.  In 2011 they were listed in the No. 54 spot of top international contractors by ENR Magazine.

Below is a promotional video for Shanghai Construction Group.  They were founded in 1953, just four years after the foundation of the People's Republic of China.  They started out as a state organ, and so they seem to be still.  The company website lists a board of directors of two:  chairman Jiang Zhi-Quan and President Xu Zheng.  Jiang is Secretary in the Committee of Communist Party of China.  Xu is a Deputy of the 11th National People's Congress.

Here is a Forbes profile of Chairman Jiang:

Jiang Zhiquan, 60, is Secretary of the Communist Party Committee and Chairman of Shanghai Construction (Group) General Company. In June 2005, Mr. Jiang was elected Independent Director of the Company. Mr. Jiang started work in December 1968, and has held various positions including a cadre and Deputy Director of Shanghai Construction and Industry Bureau, Manager of the Fourth Construction Company of Shanghai, Deputy Secretary of the Communist Party Committee of the Shanghai Construction Engineering Administration Bureau (being in charge of the overall work of the unit), Deputy Secretary of the Communist Party Committee (being in charge of the overall work of the unit), Vice Chairman and General Manager of the Shanghai Construction Group. In March 2001, he assumed the current positions as Secretary of the Communist Party Committee and Chairman of Shanghai Construction (Group) General Company. Mr. Jiang is experienced in operational decision making and large-scale enterprise management. Mr. Jiang graduated from the Shanghai-Hong Kong Management School jointly run by the University of Hong Kong and Fudan University in July 2000 and obtained an MBA. He is a senior economist by professional title.

The video below is remarkable, and jarring, by Western standards.  As you listen, it dawns on you, this is not a private company talking, this is the government of China talking.   "All these high rises," with a wave to the Shanghai skyline, "were built by the Shanghai Construction Group."  "Many beautiful sceneries, one scene after another, were painted with a giant pen used by the Shanghai Construction Group."  

As the music on the video changes from British Newscast, to Chinese symphonic, to Chinese pastoral, to Chinese patriotic, the commentary waxes eloquent:  "the attractive tune of fixed music is struck by the Shanghai Construction Group.  All the architecture, which will be passed down from generation to generation, are done with wisdom and intelligence by the hand of the Shanghai Construction Group. They are really art treasures, epic and monumental."  

How do they see the legacy this will create?  "All these classical buildings are top notch work contributed by Shanghai Construction Group to the people of Shanghai, and have won the appreciation of Shanghai people."    "Forging steadily ahead in the course of business expansion ... Shanghai Construction Group now boasts proud competition power in the construction market.  The annual turn-over has increased a yearly increase of over 20 percent."  

It's the Chinese government competing as a private enterprise. 

"Aiming at the world wide trend of general contracting, and facing different demands of clients and domestic and overseas markets, Shanghai Construction Group has adopted various engineering contracting ways, such as the turnkey method of the Chin Mao Tower, and others like BOT, BT, general contracting, construction management, etc. It is a manifestation that the management and service of Shanghai Construction Group have ascended to a higher level....  Shanghai Construction Group possesses a State Level Technical Research Center. ..... Shanghai Construction Group has been growing steadily with the development of our country, and in the course of world wide competition. ....With fruitful development over the past fifty years, at a time of peace and prosperity, armed with advanced science and technology of our time, always pursuing the best Shanghai Construction Group is looking into the bright future and marching towards its goal of becoming a large construction group in the world of international competition. 

Armed with science and technology, looking into its bright future, and its goal of dominating world competition, Shanghai Construction Group.

 

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