^ Yes, Shanghai is in China. What is your opinion of the new Shanghai Tower by Gensler? I don't think it's too over the top and will be one of my favorite towers when it's finished.
As for designs in China, the reason they look more radical is because this area is the new mecca for designs and developers pay good money to have these towers built. They usually want a groundbreaking design regardless of the cost, so some firms roll with it and go a little crazy. Some work out, some don't. My company is paying Cesar Pelli to do a 300m tower here in Nanjing. The design is more tame and doesn't push the envelope as much. But we are still paying him handsomely for it. Most developers don't care about the cost and only recently have become more price sensitive as the economy slows. China is where the $ is.
As for Greenland Plaza, I think SOM did a marvelous job on it and it looks much more attractive than Trump Tower. Unfortunately, all those pictures on the last page are rarely what my view of the tower is here. The air pollution sucks here 80% of the time and I can hardly see it from more than 3 miles away. It's usually just a semi-reflective silhouette in a haze of brown.
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