ATA project helps China ready for Summer Games

From the St. Louis Business Journal. Friday, March 7, 2008
by Jeff Ricker

Lawrence Group subsidiary partners on $30 million plaza project

Austin Tao & Associates is creating a landscape redesign for one of the most popular plazas in Beijing as part of the city's urban beautification project in advance of the upcoming Summer Olympics.

The firm was asked by the Beijing Institute of Architectural Design, a state-owned architectural design and consulting institute, to partner with it on the $30 million project to redesign Xi Dan Plaza, a few blocks west of Tiananmen Square. Austin Tao & Associates (ATA), now a subsidiary of the Lawrence Group after the two St. Louis-based companies merged in January, has had an office in China for four years.

More than 300,000 people pass through the four-acre plaza each day, said Wei Zhang, architect and planner in charge of ATA's Beijing office. It's the most high-profile project the firm has undertaken in China.

"If you look at the Beijing map, it's a big cultural plaza for local people to use and is one of the biggest shopping areas in the city," Zhang said.

ATA's design had to accommodate not only the people who use the plaza as a meeting place and venue for cultural events like concerts, but also the large volume of commuters using the plaza's three subway lines, taxi stops and bus transfer points. In addition, the plaza is situated above an underground shopping area and is surrounded by numerous large department stores, as well as the headquarters of the Bank of China and the largest branch of China National Bank.

The existing plaza, which was developed in the 1990s, was prone to bottlenecks because of the high volume of traffic and the multiple uses for the area. "One thing we want to make sure we do is move people through that space easily," said ATA founder Austin Tao. To accomplish that, the new design adds to the system of elevated walkways connecting the plaza with adjacent buildings, and it reorganizes the entrances to the shopping area and subways.

Construction is under way with completion anticipated in time for the Summer Olympics, which begin Aug. 8.

Working in the Chinese market is a unique experience, Tao said. The design expectation is very high, and competition from local and international firms is intense.

"Working there, you have to be the best, really," he said. "The amount of time you have (to work on a design) is much shorter, maybe less than half the normal time that we would think of."

At the same time, he said, the Chinese market is very receptive to contemporary and Western styles of design and also very interested in the process of design, how a project goes from concept to implementation. "I think there's really more freedom over there in terms of expressing your creativity," Tao said. "I think they're more receptive to that."

At the same time, Zhang said, it's important to respect the local culture. While the overall design is very contemporary for functional reasons, traditional touches are included in the details, from patterns in the paving materials and benches to the style of light fixtures.

ATA averages $700,000 in revenue annually, and the Beijing office generates an equal amount as well. It has a staff of 15, which Zhang expects to grow to 20-22 employees in the next few years.

China is big business for Missouri. The state exported more than $1 billion in goods to China in 2007, a 32 percent increase over 2006 and more than double the amount exported in 2005, according to data from the Missouri Department of Economic Development and the World Trade Center St. Louis. That was enough for China to rank fourth among nations receiving Missouri exports.

Those figures, however, don't include service business such as the design work performed by ATA, which is more difficult to track because it does not involve paying customs. Tim Nowak, executive director of the World Trade Center St. Louis, said expanding into an international market such as China offers both manufacturing and service companies great potential, but not without risk.

"It's a bureaucracy that still tends to protect local firms and local companies and makes it difficult for foreign firms to succeed," Nowak said. Navigating that bureaucratic maze can be a challenge.

"Your first effort has to be to find the right partner," Nowak said. A local business that understands the regulations and the approving agencies can help a firm avoid getting mired in red tape.

A successful expansion into the international sector, particularly for service businesses, has to begin with people, said Fred Bartelsmeyer, partner at St. Louis-based law firm Bryan Cave and president emeritus of World Trade Center Saint Louis. "Your most important asset, your most important expense, is the people," he said.

A clear understanding of client needs and regulatory issues is also necessary, as is having the right telecommunications and technology infrastructure in place, he said.

"What I tell companies is, don't look at going internationally until you succeed domestically," Nowak said. However, the expanding Chinese market offers considerable potential for companies that have done their homework, he said, with its growing infrastructure, high construction volume and expanding middle class.

Whether ATA's design for the Xi Dan Plaza will translate into an increase in the firm's work in China is not as important as being selective in which projects the firm takes on, Tao said, and the agency wants to be strategic about its growth.

"Getting work in China is sometimes not the issue," he said. "There's plenty of work. The key is who you work for and what kind of projects you do. You have to be a little bit more careful who your clients are in order to do good projects."