In the News

Songdo International Business District - An Ultra-Modern Futuristic City

information@galeintl.com (Carolyn J. Dawson) — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 12:00:00 EST

ABC's "Good Morning America" has presented Songdo International Business District as an example of a futuristic city that professionally combined the latest IT and environment-friendly technology.

"Good Morning America" officials announced that the Songdo IBD development project is exceptional.

It is considered as the foremost private real estate development project across the world, according to officials. In addition to that, the city looks identical to those futuristic cities portrayed in the movies "5th Element" and "Minority Report." The program unveiled the way in which the facilities such as parks and waterways are arranged after iconic features of well-known cities. Apart from that, the city offers a Golf Course that is designed by Jack Nicklaus and a newly constructed international school that can be simply accessed on foot or by bicycle. This city's utmost power is that it is aiming for global acceptance.

Juju Chang, a news anchor for "Good Morning America," biked around Songdo IBD's facilities, with real estate developer Stanley Gale. This helped Juju to identify the innovative changes that are possible in urban technologies. Juju got the opportunity to visit Gale's Songdo residence. There, Juju was able to experience the central waste collection system that thrashed the garbage to a recycling center without the help of any trucks or personnel. Also, Juju took time to perform a health checkup and body fat analysis with the U-healthcare system installed in each house. The program also explained the methods for residents to consult with their doctors by means of its video conferencing system.

In the interview with Juju, Stanley Gale said that "Songdo will be a success when it's fully populated with residents, businesses, and young people who are full of confidence. I am very sure the magnificent dream of this futuristic city that began with desolate reclaimed land will come true."

Good Morning America is the American morning news and talk show that is broadcasted on the ABC. Some of the features of the program include news, talk, weather and special-interest stories.

ABC "Good Morning America" Selected Incheon's Songdo International Business District as High-Tech Futuristic City

information@galeintl.com () — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 12:00:00 EST

On the 12^th, ABC's major morning program, ‘Good Morning America' introduced Songdo International Business District (hereinafter, referred to as "Songdo IBD") as the example of a futuristic city that efficiently integrates the latest IT and environment-friendly technology.

Good Morning America pointed out that Songdo IBD development project is unprecedented. It is the biggest private real estate development project in the world and looks like the futuristic cities depicted in the movies 5^thElement and Minority Report. The program revealed how facilities including the parks and waterways are being patterned after iconic features of famous cities. There's also a Jack Nicklaus-designed Golf Course and a newly constructed international school that are easily accessible on foot or by bicycle. This city's greatest strength is that it's targeting the world.

Good Morning America's news anchor, Juju Chang, biked around Songdo IBD's facilities with real estate developer Stanley Gale and experienced first-hand the revolutionary changes possible in urban technologies. Juju visited Gale's Songdo residence, The # First World, and watched as the central waste collection system whisked the trash to a recycling center without any trucks or personnel. Juju had a health checkup and body fat analysis with the U-healthcare system installed in each house and explained how residents can consult with their doctors via its video conferencing system.

Juju asked, "Is Songdo IBD a success?" Stanley Gale said, "Songdo will be a success when it's fully populated with residents, businesses, and young people who are full of confidence. I am very sure the magnificent dream of this futuristic city that began with desolate reclaimed land will come true."

Chadwick International School to Open in Songdo, Incheon in September

information@galeintl.com (Sung-Young Kim) — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 12:00:00 EST

Chadwick International, an international school in Songdo, Incheon, obtained a preliminary approval from the Korean Ministry of Education, Science and Technology and will begin operating in September. Being run by Chadwick School, a prestigious private school in Los Angeles, U.S.A., Chadwick International will start to recruit students from kindergarten through 7^th grade (full 12 years old) in Korea and overseas at the end of June.

Two additional stages of review must be completed by the free economy zones (FEZ) committee of the Ministry of Knowledge Economy and approval by the Minister of Ministry of Education, Science and Technology. The school will be granted autonomy in selecting students, setting tuition, and formulating the curriculum.

In May 2009, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology implemented a policy in accordance with the ‘Service Progress Plan in Education' that for five years from now 30% of the total enrollees may be Korean students who have not lived overseas. The yearly tuition is USD 26,000~28,000. The admission process consists of a 1^st phase where report cards from a certain period of schooling are evaluated along with the recommendation letter from a teacher, and a 2^nd phase where students must sit for a written exam in English and be interviewed.

"We are committed to developing cosmopolitan students through our world-class educational curriculum delivered at the unrivaled facilities in Korea's Songdo Campus in the Songdo International Business Complex," said a representative of the Chadwick School.

Megaprojects: Songdo International Business District

information@galeintl.com (Scott Lewis) — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 12:00:00 EST

A new urban center is rapidly taking shape in Incheon, Korea, a port city 30 miles west of Seoul. Work is under way on 100 buildings across 1,500 acres reclaimed from the sea. The First World apartment complex is currently home to Songdo's first 12,000 residents.

The development's population is expected to reach 65,000 upon completion in 2014. The Convensia Convention Center, the Convention Center Hotel, an international school and the 100-acre Central Park have been completed. The construction workforce currently numbers 20,000 and is expected to peak in late 2010 at 25,000.

The developer is New Songdo International City Development LLC, a 70%-30% partnership of New York-headquartered Gale International as the majority partner, and POSCO Engineering and Construction Co., a unit of Korea's largest steel producer. The master plan was developed by New York based Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates. Incheon Bridge, with both cable-stayed and cantilever sections and viaducts totaling 7.6 miles, opened last year, connecting Songdo to Incheon International Airport.

The centerpiece is the 65-story Northeast Asia Trade Tower. It recently topped out, with completion expected early next year. It will be South Korea's tallest building at 305 m.

The master plan calls for two fifths of the site to be devoted to green space-parks, wetlands and canals-far greater than most other urban centers in Asia. It is pedestrian-friendly, with walking/biking corridors and public gathering spaces.

Phase Two construction is under way now. When complete, there will be nine tall residential buildings, designed by such firms as HOK and Kohn Pedersen Fox. Seven of them are currently under construction. Five major mixed-use office/hotel/retail buildings are expected to be built during coming years. When finished, Songdo will contain 30 million sq ft of residential space, 45 million sq ft of office space, 10 million sq ft of retail and five million sq ft of hotel space.

Songdo is already connected with downtown Incheon and Seoul via subway, with three stops serving Songdo. This connectivity will be ever more vital, because 300,000 office workers and students are expected to commute into Songdo daily upon completion. There is also extensive water taxi service. (ENR Global Sourcebook, Dec. 2005, p. 45, enr.com 8/19/09)

Location: Incheon, South Korea

Estimated Cost: $35 billion

Construction Period: 2004-2016

Developer: New Songdo International City Development LLC

http://www.suntimes.com/news/sneed/2417426,CST-NWS-SNEED22.article?stanley

information@galeintl.com (Anders Bylund) — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 12:00:00 EST

Have you ever been to Epcot? The Walt Disney theme park was built to reflect Uncle Walt's vision of the ideal community, using cutting-edge technology and social innovation. That experimental prototype community of tomorrow is pretty much a reality today, but I'm not talking about Epcot itself, or even the nearby master-planned city of Celebration, Fla.

Disney has passed the torch, however inadvertently, to IBM (NYSE: IBM) and Cisco Systems (Nasdaq: CSCO). With a trillion-dollar pot to share this decade alone, and more beyond that, you can expect a feeding frenzy of epic proportions. Building smart cities is a whole new ballgame, and Cisco CEO John Chambers has said that the business opportunity "may be bigger than the whole Internet."

Meet the players
IBM's travails in the "smart community" arena have been widely documented; Big Blue is a major player in hyperconnected community infrastructure and green IT operations. Cisco's presence is not as paparazzi-laden, however. And maybe we should be paying closer attention to this side of the networking giant, because the company sees an addressable market of at least $40 billion of business here over the next 10 years.

Cisco is putting the finishing touches on the data infrastructure in New Songdo, South Korea. Wired to the hilt, New Songdo is meant to become a template for ultramodern insta-build cities. This one cost $35 billion and took the better part of a decade to complete; the development team hopes to learn from the experience and then cut down on both costs and building speed.

It also didn't help that the ground under New Songdo was open water at the start of the project -- it takes a while to raise artificial islands. Cisco and its allies have the first Songdo clone under construction already, and wants to spit out at least 20 more of them just for starters. When the process becomes more refined and standardized, there's no telling how many modern, quick-build cities could pop up in New Songdo's wake. Population growth is a real problem in many parts of the world, and standard of living matters everywhere.

Cisco's globalization chief Wim Elfrink calls this "the industrialization of the Internet. First voice became a packet in a network; video is a packet in a network. Now, electricity, safety and security can also become packets in a network." And so it goes. Elfrink sees a $1.2 trillion global investment in "smart" urban infrastructure and is happy to grab a few percent of that. IBM is a sometime partner already, and Cisco also works arm-in-arm with more tangible technology giants like 3M (NYSE: MMM) and United Technologies (NYSE: UTX) to complete the information-packed framework of tomorrow's quick-build cities.

When tomorrow comes
Whether you think of Cisco's turnkey Tomorrowlands as a utopian fantasy, as the next logical step in suburban sprawl, or as the best way to corral and house everyone in a growing world, there is clearly big business at stake. I'm only surprised that more multinational giants haven't jumped into this market with both feet.

Cisco beat out Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) to land the New Songdo contract, and now you don't hear a peep about smart grids out of Redmond. If anybody knows how to analyze endless piles of seemingly random data, it would be Google (Nasdaq: GOOG), but the closest thing Big G has to a "smart city" project is its investments in green energy generation. Close, but no cigar. These sharks must eventually join the feeding frenzy. The longer they wait, the more time IBM and Cisco will have to establish larger mindshares and market shares in this crucial, formative period.

Uncle Walt's Epcot dream is becoming a reality, under the stewardship of others.

Cities, Buildings are becoming smarter

information@galeintl.com (Leslie D'Monte) — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 12:00:00 EST

Technology firms like Cisco, IBM, Microsoft and Google, besides research institutes, are helping make cities more responsive to the needs and desires of inhabitants

The 250,000 citizens of Songdo, a business district which borders the Yellow Sea in Incheon, a free economic zone in South Korea, are seeing hectic activity. Every nook and corner is being wired. The idea is to have everything connected - buildings, cars and even energy grids.

Networking technology from Cisco is being embedded into buildings, and every home, school and government agency is being equipped with telepresence video technology. Cisco, which is helping build a prototype of an ‘intelligent city' here, has sold 20,000 units of telepresence - its advanced videoconferencing system. Much of Songdo will have been wired by 2014.

Cisco and New York City-based Gale International hope the $35 billion Songdo project will soon lead to similar developments in China, India, Vietnam and other countries. A start has been made. Chinese officials have evinced interest in the project. So has India.

Cisco, for instance, signed an agreement with the Karnataka government this February to help develop a roadmap for an intelligent, smart and sustainable Bangalore city. The timeline for this project has not been made public. Meanwhile, it has also signed an agreement with Lavasa Future Cities (Pune city) to build a city on the backbone of technology.

Building these technologies into new constructions adds relatively little to the overall construction costs. The technologies could vary. "For instance, you could be ill at home and a doctor could diagnose you using the telepresence facility. Similarly, a yoga class could be beamed into your living room or medical check-ups done remotely," explains Naresh Wadhwa, president & country manager, Cisco India & SAARC.

All of these would be managed through a single internet network. Cisco would collect a recurring fee for maintaining the services, similar to a utility. It would be similar to paying a maintenance fee once a month, says Wadhwa, adding: "Some personalised services will be online and others can be push services. Every service in a smart city is a revenue opportunity. For instance, one can offer security monitoring services for a nominal fee."

Technologies for smart buildings and cities include Radio frequency identification (RFID) chips and Cisco Digital Signages for location-based identification, tracking, and personalisation. Employees and visitors, for instance, can receive targeted, customised content on strategically-placed Cisco Digital Signages inside buildings. Moreover, by showing power consumption, carbon dioxide emissions, water usage and other information on the Cisco Digital Signage, people can become environmentally-aware, believes Wadhwa.

Asset management and tracking can also be enabled throughout a building, enhancing safety and security. And while Cisco can give a complete office experience including cubicle-style work environments, office rooms, meeting rooms, boardrooms, and a telepresence room supported by an operator, it can also help increase occupancy rate of commercial buildings, claims Wadhwa. "Our solution allows users to adjust their office environment, set up network services, personalise desktop displays, and use an internet protocol (IP) phone," he adds.

The ‘smart city' concept is gathering momentum. Smart systems are transforming energy grids, supply chains and water management, as well as helping to confirm the authenticity of pharmaceuticals and the security of currency exchanges. Stockholm, for instance, has used smart traffic systems to cut gridlock by 20 per cent, reduce emissions by 12 per cent and increase public transportation use dramatically. Smart healthcare systems can lower the cost of therapy by as much as 90 per cent.

University research labs, too, have developed prototypes and solutions for intelligent cities. MIT Smart Cities Lab, for instance, focuses upon intelligent, sustainable buildings, mobility systems (including a GreenWheel Electric Bicycle, Mobility-on-Demand, Citycar and Wheel Robots). The IntelCities research consortium developed solutions for electronic government, planning systems and citizen participation. The Smart Cities Academic Network is working on e-governance and e-services in the North Sea region.

Simultaneously, billions of dollars are expected to start pouring into ‘Smart Grid' development from companies like IBM, Intel, Cisco, Oracle and Google too, as well as from governments which are expected to spend billions of dollars for the same. Microsoft, on its part, is working with Coventry University and Birmingham City Council on the Intelligent City Proof of Concept which is an interoperable technology platform focusing on transport.

IBM, too, is installing a smart grid at Malta - a group of islands in the Mediterranean sea - which will integrate both water and power systems and be able to identify water leaks and electricity losses in the grid.

IBM is intent on using information technology to create many such ‘smart grids' all over the world, including India, in a bid to create a ‘smarter planet'.

The reason is simple: Every minute during the next 20 years, 30 Indians will leave rural India for urban areas. India will need some 500 new cities. If they are smarter, the better for us.

Cisco helps build prototype for instant cities: Cisco and Gale build Songdo City in S. Korea

information@galeintl.com (John Boudreau) — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 12:00:00 EST

It's a product like no other - a complete city for a million people.

As tens of millions of people across the developing world migrate from the countryside to new cities, Cisco Systems is helping build a prototype here for what one developer describes as an instant "city in a box." Cisco is wiring every tech nook and cranny of the new city, making it one of the most technologically sophisticated urban centers on the planet.

Delegations of Chinese government officials looking to purchase their own cities of the future are descending on New Songdo City, a soon-to-be-completed metropolis about the size of downtown Boston that serves as a showroom model for what is expected to be the first of many assembly-line cities. In addition to state-of-the-art information technology, Songdo will emit just one-third of the greenhouse gasses of a typical city of similar size.

Cities of a million-plus population are popping up across the developing world, but the foremost market for the prototype here is China, where a massive demographic shift from rural to urban already is under way, requiring hundreds of new cities.

"They come in here and say, 'I'll take one of these,' '' said Richard Warmington, the former head of Hewlett-Packard's Korea operation and Saratoga resident who is now president of Chadwick International School, which is setting up a campus in Songdo.

The potential is so big that executives at

Cisco, the key tech partner for the development, get giddy talking about what could be a $30 billion business over coming years for the San Jose networking giant. Just a year ago, the usually button-down Cisco CEO John Chambers engaged in a night of "love shots" - locked elbow drinking toasts - with President Lee Myung-bak to seal the Songdo deal Korean style.

Heady possibilities

It's easy to see why Cisco is intoxicated with the possibilities: According to a study by investment bank CIBC World Markets, governments are expected to spend $35 trillion in public works projects during the next 20 years. In Songdo alone, Cisco sold 20,000 units of its advanced videoconferencing system called Telepresence - a billion-dollar order - almost before the ink had dried on the contract, said developer Stan Gale, the chief visionary of the project.

"Everything will be connected - buildings, cars, energy - everything," said Wim Elfrink, Cisco's Bangalore, India-based chief globalization officer. "This is the tipping point. When we start building cities with technology in the infrastructure, it's beyond my imagination what that will enable."

The audacious plan is rising up from former mud flats along the Yellow Sea. Cisco and New York City-based Gale International hope the privately funded $35 billion Songdo project leads to at least 20 similar developments in China, India, Vietnam and other countries in coming years. Much of Songdo will be completed in 2014.

"Five hundred cities are needed in China; 300 are needed in India," said managing partner Gale, an exuberant, arm-waving developer who believes Songdo will be his legacy.

The project calls for wired everything - an urban center where networking technology is embedded into buildings from the ground up and every home, school and government agency is equipped with sophisticated Telepresence video technology - what in Cisco mantra is called Smart+Connected Communities.

The idea was 10 years in the making for Gale, though Cisco signed on just two years ago. The concept was inspired not just by mass demographic shifts but also new technology that can significantly reduce energy use and pollution while transforming how people interact with the world around them.

For Cisco, Songdo represents more than a chance to sell hardware. The San Jose company envisions its technology as the connector for all aspects of urban life: government services, utilities, entertainment, health care, education. The company envisions new business models built around its Telepresence technology - say a yoga class beamed into living rooms or medical checkups done remotely. All of these would be managed through a single Internet network, and Cisco would collect a recurring fee for maintaining the services, almost like a utility.

"It will be like paying a maintenance fee once a month," said Christopher Khang, a Cisco vice president based in Singapore. "It's a radically new business model for the company."

Building this technology into new construction adds relatively little to the overall construction costs, he said. "But the benefits are going to be huge. I believe we are the only company that can provide this holistic (technology) environment."

It looks good on paper. But will those Chinese officials buy this tech utopian vision?

"It seems a little speculative," Broadpoint AmTech analyst Mark McKechnie said. Still, he added, "If you want to be around, you have to have a 10-year plan. If this doesn't develop, at least they'll learn something new they can apply to different businesses."

Risk in grand plans

There's also a question of how many whistles and bells developing countries are willing to pay for. For some local officials from China and elsewhere, Songdo, which has a 100-acre Central Park and Jack Nicklaus Golf Club, is a bit like visiting a luxury auto dealer when all you can afford is a Honda Civic.

Even Gale, who hired premier American architects to design the master plan and buildings, admits there are risks.

"This could be an international travesty if it goes wrong," said the developer, whose project is funded by South Korean investors. "It's the largest project between the United States and the Republic of Korea."

When Gale first dialed up Cisco with his project five years ago, it wasn't ready for such grand plans, Elfrink admitted. When it was approached again three years later, Cisco was ready to go.

That was about the time Saudi Arabia handed Cisco a contract to help create four new cities around the country, an overall $70 billion deal to jump-start a tech sector in a country awash in oil revenue.

Cisco, hoping to dominate in the new build-it-and-they-will-migrate business, has been enlarging its tech catalog in preparation.

It acquired Santa Barbara-based Richards-Zeta Building Intelligence, whose software enables building systems, from lights to air conditioning, to be managed over the Internet, making them more energy-efficient. Cisco invested in Australian startup Majitek to create a platform for delivering multiple services over a digital network. And the company's just-completed $3.4 billion deal to buy desktop videoconferencing maker Tandberg adds to its Telepresence business.

Now Cisco is using its Shanghai World Expo pavilion, which displays a compelling video detailing a totally linked city, to sell its technology. Government officials are then invited to hop on a plane for the hour-and-a-half flight to Incheon.

"There will be at least 100 new cities with a minimum population of 1 million each being built in China in the next three years," said Anthony Elvey who, as director of Cisco's Expo pavilion, gives tours to Chinese provincial officials, each hoping to outdo the other in creating an instant city that will attract job-creating investments.

That's like building a city with the population of San Jose virtually overnight.

So far, Cisco has signed deals with two Chinese municipalities. It will be the main networking infrastructure provider for Chongqing, which has a population of more than 31 million in southwestern China. And Cisco and Gale will provide a city-scale development in Changsha in Hunan province.

"These guys can snap their fingers and put all this infrastructure in place," Elvey said.

Contact John Boudreau at 408-278-3496.

New Songdo City at a glance

Location: beside the Yellow Sea in Incheon, South Korea.
Cost: $35 billion
Population: 250,000 residents
Footprint: 40 million square feet of office buildings; 35 million square feet of high-rise residential; 10 million square feet of retail; 5 million square feet of hotel space; 10 million square feet of public space.
It has a 100-acre Central Park modeled after the one in Manhattan, a Jack Nicklaus Golf Club and the tallest building in South Korea.
Architects include Kohn Pedersen Fox, HOK and Daniel Leibeskind, who drew up the blueprints for the new Twin Towers in New York City.

China"s growth
by the numbers

Number of rural residents who will move to cities by 2025: 350 million
Number who will live in cities by 2030: 1 billion
Number of 1 million-plus cities by 2025: 221
Number of skyscrapers expected to be built by 2025: 50,000, equivalent to 10 New York Cities
China"s GDP is expected to multiply five times by 2025.
Source: McKinsey & Co.

The Heart of Songdo Internation City, Songdo ConvensiA

information@galeintl.com () — Fri, 07 May 2010 12:00:00 EST

Located at the heart of Songdo International City, Incheon, Korea, the Songdo convention center-ConvensiA-is conceptualized as a series of folded roof planes that contain the main program areas articulated as a series of freestanding blocks, above which the curved roofs floats like a series of upturned boat hulls.

What makes Songdo ConvensiA significant is that it stands at the heart of Songdo international city where the Korean government designated it the first free economic zone in Korea. Thanks to the development project of Songdo International city, ConvensiA can be reached by a fifteen-minute ride from the Incheon International airport and six hotels with 1,790rooms will be provided at visitor's choice. Moreover, diverse amenities including Northeast Asia Trade Tower (NEATT), Jack Nicklaus Golf Course, Central Park, Incheon Tower, museums will serve those who visit 'Songdo ConvensiA'.

Songdo ConvensiA will be the most innovative and technologically advanced convention center of its kind. Its exterior has been designed by world-famous design company, Kohn Pederson Fox(KPF) encapsulating the beauty of Korean skylines of hills and mountaintops. The main Exhibition Hall is 8,416m²and can be partitioned into two exhibition rooms upon the client's request. Multi-function conference rooms of 2,304m² can be divided up to 10-23rooms in diverse sizes.

Also there is 1,716m² Premier Ballroom designed for the functions and events for 2,000 people at the maximum. To ensure the success of every event, the center provides exceptional support facilities and services including voice recognition cameras, 28' LCD projectors and simultaneous interpretation system for eight countries. There are a number of mega-conventions to be held in Songdo ConvensiA. Starting off with the opening event, 'Incheon International Logistics and Materials Handling Exhibition (Oct. 7-10, 2008)' global conferences of 'World Water Forum (Aug. 16-22, 2009)', 'UN Environmental Forum (Aug. 16-22, 2009)', 'International Telecommunications Energy Conference 2009 (Oct. 18-22, 2009)' are waiting in the wings.

Not only this, 'International Road & Traffic Expo 2009' and global conferences of 'Head of Road Authorities' and 'Road Engineering Association of Asia & Australia' will take place on Sep. 23-26, 2009 in the presence of 20,000people worldwide. For more events scheduled in Songdo ConvensiA, visit www.songdoconvensiA.com .

Public Transportation Information

From Incheon International Airport to Songdo ConvensiA, it will take only 15 minutes by car. Songdo ConvensiA can easily by reached by public transportation such as Bus, Subway, and KTX(Korean Train Express)

For more detail, please refer to Songdo ConvensiA: www.songdoconvensia.com, Incheon Free Economic Zone: www.ifez.go.kr, Global Fair & Festival 2009, Incheon, Korea: www.incheon.org

How Asia Is Paving the Way for Cleaner, Greener Cities

information@galeintl.com (Dave Thier) — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 12:00:00 EST

For the first time in human history, there are more people living in urban environments than in rural ones. This monumental demographic shift has come as cities in growing nations are growing at a breakneck pace, and not always with an eye toward efficiency and sustainability.

Environmentally, these quickly expanding cities can prove problematic, to say the least, generating massive waste management difficulties, air quality problems and traffic that would make even L.A. blush.

But giant cities don't have to be a pox on the planet. If done a certain way, densely packing people into concentrated areas can be the best way of managing the needs of a human population that's been growing exponentially since the Black Death. And that's just what some developing countries are attempting, with new cities being built to offer green living to teeming masses of future urbanites.

One of the most ambitious of these green development projects is New Songdo International Business District, a city being built from scratch on 1,500 acres of fill near the city of Incheon, adjacent to Seoul in South Korea. The developers, an American company called Gale International, are betting that it will serve as a model of green development than can be transplanted across Asia, particularly to city-hungry China.

Gale envisions New Songdo as a business hub and a "smart and sustainable city," featuring extensive public transportation, open space, water management and a centralized pneumatic waste-disposal system. Every building in the city will be certified by Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) for energy efficiency.

"What we do is borrow the best from the best and intertwine those," Tom Murcott, executive vice president of Gale International, told AOL News.

The city will feature bike paths a la Amsterdam, pocket parks a la Savannah, Ga., canals a la Venice and a 100-acre central park a la New York City, albeit one that waters itself. The city will also be wired to a degree that would surely have Americans crying Orwell: One example cited by The New York Times involves recycling bins that use identification technology to credit recyclers for disposing of bottles.

Of course, New Songdo is far from the first city to make almost-utopian promises about building the great city of tomorrow. Its designers say they hope to learn from the mistakes of other planned cities like Brazil's Brasilia to answer the complex challenge of building a city that didn't evolve organically but still feels human and livable.

And while high-profile, ultra-green projects like New Songdo attract attention, its planned capacity of 67,000 residents will barely dent the housing needs of a region that's expanding by millions every year.

"It's a small step, and it's not gigantic in the scheme of things," Songdo Master Plan Architect James Von Klemperer and principal at international architecture firm Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates told AOL News. "But it's such a compelling paradigm that the mayors of Chinese cities, pretty much unsolicited, have come to visit New Songdo City as a kind of living instruction manual."

Any discussion of Asian population growth inevitably comes back to China. The surging economic powerhouse doesn't have the best record with environmentalism. Deforestation, overgrazing and urban sprawl have led to a desertification crisis that threatens an estimated 20 percent of the country's land area, and booming megacities like Beijing are plagued by smog and traffic.

But some also hope the Chinese government will embrace sustainability and take the opportunity to grow the country in more energy-efficient and carefully designed ways than it has in the past. According to Murcott, Gale has already entertained more than 40 offers from Chinese municipalities that are hoping for developments similar to New Songdo in their own areas, and the company has plans for several new projects throughout the country. One project in Meixi Lake will feature a five-mile-long network of urban farms.

China's centralized government power and planned economy give selected urban planners strong-arm control over the character of new developments, which -- while eschewing the public input that's an often messy but democratic part of building in the U.S. -- can lead to a strong focus on sustainable building.

At the same time, the Chinese government also hopes to raise the standard of living for its 1.3 billion people to something closer to what's enjoyed in the Western world. Some, like Lester Brown, author of "Who Will Feed China?," have painted a grim picture of what the world would look like if the entire population of China (along with that of India) began consuming like Americans.

The question, then, is whether rapidly developing countries will be able to grow in such a way that they provide their people with Western luxuries without the same kind of environmental impact people associate with Western development. And that's where the planned green city could play a role.

"I think there's tremendous potential in China now for real change at a macro level. It will be very interesting to see what the balance is of those divergent forces," says Von Klemperer.

Convensia Cited as Green Building

information@galeintl.com () — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 12:00:00 EST

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) has awarded the Songdo Convensia a LEED NC 2.2 "Certified" rating, making it the first building in Korea, over 1,000 square meters and the first convention facility in Asia, to achieve this prestigious certification of sustainable design.

LEED is an internationally recognized green building certification system, providing third-party verification that a building or community was designed and built using strategies aimed at improving performance across all the metrics that matter most: energy savings, water efficiency, CO2 emissions reduction, improved indoor environmental quality, and stewardship of resources and sensitivity to their impacts.

The $35 billion, Songdo International Business District is one of the most ambitious developments in the world. Over 80 percent of the project's 100 million square feet, representing more than 250 buildings is pursuing LEED certification. Other Songdo projects expected to complete LEED certification this year include the Sheraton Incheon Hotel, the clubhouse at the Jack Nicklaus Golf Course Korea, and the Songdo International School.

Songdo Convensia is a world-class convention center built at a cost of over $150 million and donated to the city of Incheon for its operation and use. The building's undulating design is iconic and has already become a symbol of Songdo IBD as it reflects the beauty and skyline of the mountainous Korean landscape.