Architects capitalize on opportunities in China

Butler, Rosenbury & Partners Inc. has been working for more than a year on the design of a major project in Dongguan, China.

During an Oct. 17–21 Springfield visit by BRP’s Chinese partners from Dongguan-based Walford Architects, U.S. Rep. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., was invited to a presentation at BRP’s downtown offices to learn about the progress of the frim’s 1.2 million-square-foot design project in China for Landwa International.

The briefing was part of Blunt’s effort to examine opportunities available for American businesses in China, according to Blunt spokesman Dan Wadlington.

“Many people aren’t big on international trade, but when international trade can develop local, high-paying jobs, that’s something the congressman likes to tout,” Wadlington said. “And that’s what the Butler, Rosenbury project is going to do.”

He added that the government is constantly working on breaking down barriers that keep American companies from being able to compete in foreign markets.

“The government is looking at travel, tariffs and trade,” Wadlington said. “Those are the things we need to work on to make our products and services in this country compatible and competitive with what you find in other countries.”

The Dongguan project, tentatively dubbed Pasadena IV Commercial District, features a hotel, office space, a retail shopping mall and three condominium towers. Construction should begin next year and could be complete by 2010.

Butler, Rosenbury and other design firms, such as Pellham Phillips Architects & Engineers and Buxton-Kubik-Dodd Interiors & Architecture, have built a foothold in the China market by partnering with existing China companies.

When it’s time to build

For the companies that do the actual building, however, getting into the China market is much more difficult – and many local contractors aren’t interested in going there.

Jerry Hackleman, president of DeWitt & Associates, said he doesn’t anticipate a large influx of Ozarks builders doing business in China.

“There aren’t contractors in southwest Missouri, even the regional ones with field offices here … that would even try to take that on,” he said. “It would have to be the Top 100 nationally, and I don’t even know if they would.”

Jim Blose, vice president and Springfield head of Tulsa, Okla.-based Flintco Inc., said the construction company doesn’t have plans to extend beyond U.S. borders.

“Flintco doesn’t really do any international work to speak of,” Blose said, adding that the company has worked in Russia and Puerto Rico in the past. “There’s enough work in the United States to be sufficient for us.”

The company is licensed to do business in 34 states, according to its Web site, and has worked in 27 states during the last five years.

Abundant work force

One drawback is that China doesn’t need extra manpower. The nation of more than 1.3 billion people also has a much different approach to the physical act of building.

“They build quite rapidly – they put a lot of manpower on a project because they have it,” BRP principal and architect Geoffrey Butler said, referring to the estimated 12-month construction schedule for the massive Dongguan project. “They work seven days a week, and often, they’ll work 24 hours a day.”

Joyce Buxton, partner with Buxton-Kubik-Dodd, added that construction techniques used in China also are foreign to American companies. Buxton’s firm does most of its work in southwest Missouri, but interior design work for a 20-story residential building in Dongguan is taking the company into international territory. Buxton-Kubik is working on a multibuilding development by Chinese developer Hua Gian Real Estate Investments.

One example is wall structure; she said most buildings in China use solid concrete rather than metal studs and gypsum board.

“The buildings are not old-school – they’re doing some beautiful buildings – but a lot of the techniques are so different,” she said. “It would be like learning a new vocabulary on doing your job.”

Another obstacle for general contractors is the Chinese legal structure; an organization that wants to operate under its own company name has to organize as a wholly foreign-owned enterprise, which comes with additional costs and legal hurdles associated with government regulations and red tape. Butler said that’s why his company operates through Walford Architects.

Hackleman said those partnerships make China’s business climate more conducive for designers than for builders.

“For architects, it’s easier – they produce the plans and designs, and then the builders there build it,” he said. “But for us it’s not even fathomable – you don’t know what the talent pool is, and it’s so far away.”

Despite the differences, Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Vice President Brad Bodenhausen thinks there are opportunities abroad for local construction companies, namely construction management.

“I don’t think the challenges are insurmountable, because there is an openness to doing things in a different way and using a more Western style,” Bodenhausen said. “From the project management and efficiency side, there are a lot of things a company from here can take over there. The key thing is that you need to find a Chinese partner.”

Designing in China

The Pasadena IV Commercial District project, designed by Springfield-based Butler, Rosenbury & Partners Inc. in Dongguan, China, comprises slightly more than the 1.1 million square feet of Battlefield Mall, but the Battlefield Mall is located on more than 30 acres, while the China project covers just 3.5 acres.

The development comprises 44-story hotel and office complex along with three condominium towers, all of which will sprout from a three-story base containing a retail mall.

“The Chinese tend to build vertically,” said Butler, Rosenbury architect and principal Geoffrey Butler during an Oct. 19 news conference with U.S. Rep. Roy Blunt. “Space is really at a premium over there.”

Butler said he’s not sure what the project’s final cost will be, mainly because the cost of doing business in China is so different from the process locally.

“If we were to build that project here, that could cost about $200 a square foot – that’s about $200 million, if it were built in Springfield or Kansas City,” Butler said. “But over there, I don’t know.”

The project is one of the largest in Dongguan, which has a metro area population of more than 7 million people. Dongguan is not even one of the 20 largest cities in China.