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 Shanghai Center has passed the test of time. Its success exceeded the Portmans’ wildest expectations,
and China Daily has described it as no less than "one of five architectural stars in China
mainland." Portman and Associates International opened an office led by Jack Portman in Shanghai in
1993 and develops projects there including cultural centers, office towers, hotels, marts, and large
residential developments in cities and provinces throughout China. The firm is also active in other parts
of Asia from India to Indonesia, Japan to Malaysia, Singapore to Thailand.
John Portman’s career at home and abroad has involved visionary thinking on a large scale and ahead of
its time. Already in the 1960s, he was trying to guide Atlanta toward a pedestrian-oriented city with a
central core. He attempted to develop housing in the Techwood area next to downtown with other interested
businessmen, but at that time, they couldn’t get permission or access to the land. These 40+ years later,
he is heartened to see the redevelopment of Techwood Homes as well as a growing intown residential
population. Infrastructure improvements are also being contemplated, among them the Beltline Project,
which proposes to spur development by connecting intown neighborhoods with parks, transit, and trails
along a loop of unused rail lines. "How Atlanta reacts to that project will influence the future of
the city," he says. "I think we’re moving in the right direction."
"We wanted our architectural forms to have a continuum with the past,
yet be an abstraction of the spirit of the culture and recognize the time and place with an eye to the
future."
When Portman first made plans for the downtown area, he hadn’t anticipated the change in demographics and
the move to the suburbs. A rising interest in city living has surfaced in the last five years and reflects
another shift in the demographics. Portman describes Atlanta’s population now as a barbell, on one end a
large group of young people who are delaying marriage and children, on the other end an aging
population—"like me," says the 81-year-old. In the middle is a shrinking group of families with
young children who favor suburban living. On the ends of the barbell are people who want to be intown for
convenience and access to services, healthcare, and entertainment. "Young people are flocking to the
inner city," Portman says. "That gives us the opportunity to create great environments."
Environments that in Portman’s mind, no doubt, enhance the people using them, that revel in connections
to nature, that have a connection with the past while capturing the spirit of the future, where buildings
serve the people.
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Photograph: Shanghai Center, Shanghai, China, Photography by Michael Portman.
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