![]() ![]() They later patented a non-electric air chiller with a distinctive design: instead of using Freon like a typical air-conditioner, it relies on a natural gas flame or another heat source to expand a gas solution that cools air. Zhang studied art in college and worked as an interior designer before joining his brother Jian, an engineer, in business selling boilers. Some critics have called Zhang’s approached cultish, but there’s no doubt it has produced successful businesses. (Click photo to enlarge.) Courtesy of The Broad Group (The writer James Fallows spotted the pyramid while flying across China and wrote, “There are things both admirable and creepy about this utopia.”) An aerial view of ‘Broad Town,’ the Broad Group’s corporate headquarters, including its replica of an Egyptian pyramid (far left) and its meeting hall modeled after Versailles (center). On one end of “town” stands a replica of an Egyptian pyramid across from it is a management meeting hall resembling the Palace of Versailles. There are 43 life-size bronze statues scattered across the grounds, chosen by Zhang himself, including depictions of Aristotle, Abe Lincoln, Charles Darwin, and the Wright Brothers, who greet viewers with outstretched arms. Twelve hundred employees live and work here. What went wrong? How did Zhang, so successful over the previous quarter-century, so badly misjudge government regulators? And what does it say about China’s economic future that a project of major significance-and a potential solution to the country’s overcrowding and pollution woes-has been stymied so easily?īroad Group’s headquarters are located on a 250-acre campus on the outskirts of Changsha, called “Broad Town”-easily the most unusual corporate home base in China. Today, two years later, as other Chinese towers begun in the summer of 2013 near completion, Sky City remains a dream and a patch of dirt. Zhang eventually stopped talking publicly about when the project would be finished. Stories of intrigue circulated local Chinese news reported permitting problems, government delays, and safety fears. Construction on Sky City’s foundation stalled. ![]() But the triumphant follow-up hasn’t materialized. ![]() News of the groundbreaking ran in newspapers and blogs around the globe. ![]() Zhang imagined a tower that no one would need to leave. Broad said Sky City would take 2,000 cars off the road and cut carbon dioxide emissions by 12,000 metric tons a year-about the annual electricity usage of 1,600 U.S. The rectangular tower would house a hospital, a school, shopping centers, grocery stores, even a running track that spiraled upwards for 170 stories. Behind its design was an ambitious plan to dramatically reduce emissions by creating a city-within-a-city for 30,000 residents. On paper, it was one of the most innovative construction projects in the world. Courtesy of the Broad Groupīy 2013, China was building 60 of the world’s 100 tallest buildings under construction, a pace that dotted its skylines with construction cranes even in far-flung metropolises that didn’t seem to have an economic need for skyscraping towers. An artist’s rendering of Sky City, the eco-friendly, 202-story skyscraper designed by the Broad Group. Since the late 2000s, he had been designing eco-friendly buildings, and he had proven he could build them quickly: In 2011, Broad erected a 30-story building in just 15 days. He was also one of China’s biggest names in green technology, having gotten rich by selling efficient air chillers worldwide. In the 1990s, Zhang was one of China’s first minted billionaires, and the first to buy a private jet. The man behind the promise was Broad’s founder, Zhang Yue, a dashing business leader with a record of success and a flair for the dramatic. (It had taken laborers six years to build the Burj Khalifa.) It would not only top the Dubai tower by 10 meters, but would do so in just seven months, using a special construction method that assembled prefabricated pieces of steel as if they were Legos. Sky City, as Broad called it, was to be a 202-story glass giant that ascended in tiers like a wedding cake. ![]()
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