Hong Kong | New York - Vertical Density | Sustainable Solutions

Registration will open September 2, 2008. All events are free, though space is limited. In conjunction with the Vertical Cities: Hong Kong | New York exhibition, The Skyscraper Museum has organized an international symposium examining the dramatic vertical urbanism of Hong Kong and exploring comparisons with New York City. Three separate programs will be held in partnership with The Regional Plan Association, The New School's India China Institute and The Tishman Environment and Design Center. There are two ways to conceptualize urban density: in the ground plane and in the skyline. Statistically, the world's densest major cities are Hong Kong, Mumbai, and Dhaka - examples of wildly disparate models of urban development in the vertical and horizontal dimensions. New York has historically been the world's premier skyscraper city, but it has recently been eclipsed by Hong Kong in both the number of towers and average height of new buildings. What is vertical density? Is it a product of rampant capitalist markets, of particular cultures, or can it be planned? Is it a positive goal for cities old and new? An international panel of architects, developers, planners, and government officials who have been responsible for many of Hong Kong's largest skyscraper and mixed-use projects discuss the private and public infrastructures that allow the city to function at its extreme levels of density. The vital role of mass transit infrastructure as a tool of urban planning, expansion, and concentration will be examined. Hong Kong's recent history shows that planned urban growth can accommodate the pressures to intensify central districts while creating commuter communities of dispersed, but remarkably dense housing estates of the outer districts and the New Territories. Does Hong Kong's past three decades of vertical development echo the evolution of New York over the past century, or does it represent a new model? The programs explore past and future urban models of vertical density. FOR WEB LINKS FOR PARTICIPANTS AND OTHER RESOURCES, click here. Tentative Schedule of Events On Wednesday, October 15, The Skyscraper Museum will host an opening reception and viewing of the exhibition Vertical Cities: Hong Kong | New York. Thursday, October 16: LEARNING FROM HONG KONG Location: To Be Announced Co-sponsors: The Skyscraper Museum and The Regional Plan Association Using the Venturi and Scott-Brown model of Learning from Las Vegas, this program will examine Hong Kong's extreme density and development model of transit and towers and asks: What can New York learn? This session will bring together the RPA's constituency of professionals in the business community, planners, public officials and academics for a high-level discussion of transit-based economic and urban development. Friday, October 17: DEBATING DENSITY Location: Tishman Auditorium, The New School: 66 West 12th Street, 1st Floor, Room 106 Co-Chairs: Nicholas Brooke, Chairman, Professional Property Services Group, Hong Kong Paul Katz, Principal, Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates, New York Carol Willis, Founder and Director, The Skyscraper Museum Developers love density: urban activists generally decry it. Government officials try to find a balance between revenues generated by private development and the high costs of infrastructure and public amenities. Does density pay? Or does it cost? Hong Kong and New York leaders from development, design and government will discuss the private and public infrastructures that allow the city to function at its extreme levels of density. Topics to be covered: Housing 7 Million @ 250 Units an Acre: Hong Kong's Mansions Harbor, Heritage and Hong Kong's Future Sustainable Solutions Saturday, October 18: DESIGNING DENSITY: THEORY AND PRACTICE Location: Tishman Auditorium, The New School: 66 West 12th Street, 1st Floor, Room 106 Co-chairs: Ben Lee, Senior Vice President, The New School and Co-founder of the India China Institute (ICI) at The New School; Professor of Anthropology and Philosophy, The New School for Social Research Carol Willis, Founder and Director, The Skyscraper Museum In Delirious New York, Rem Koolhaas admired Manhattan's "culture of congestion." Hong Kong has had the most densely-inhabited districts in the world, first by lack of regulation, then by design. An afternoon of discussion among academics and architects examines concepts of density and extreme urbanism in theory and practice.
In addition to the symposium, receptions will be held, offering speakers and guests an opportunity to meet their professional counterparts in a relaxed, intimate setting. The Skyscraper Museum