After winning two rounds of international design competitions, we worked with Chan Krieger Sieniewicz, now nbbj, to create a new vision for the Bund, Shanghai’s iconic waterfront district, for the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai.

The Bund’s origins lie in an overtly European architectural and park expression for the budding financial center in what became China’s busiest port. Following those precedents, the river's edge evolved into an important civic promenade and park for the city.  By the early 2000s, its character had changed dramatically to include a twenty-five-foot flood embankment supporting ten lanes of traffic, cutting Shanghai off from the river.

Our design renews Shanghai’s iconic waterfront connections by burying six lanes of traffic and integrating the flood levee into a nearly mile-long promenade with periodic connections back to the city. The sequence of plazas, gardens, and tree-lined spaces attracts more than one-million visitors each year, and plays host to the country's largest New Year festival. The project preserved China’s first public park, Huangpu Park, while creating new public space and facilitating key connections at Nanjing and Yan’an Roads. The final design provides contemporary ground plane conditions, site utilities, and circulation routes while restoring the historic connection between the riverfront and the city.