"Central Ohio architects win major airport project in China"

Wednesday, July 7, 2004

Central Ohio architects win major airport project in China
The Columbus (OH) Dispatch


When the first passengers arrive at Shanghai Pudong International
Airport's new terminal in 2007, they'll enter a building designed in
Columbus.

It's the second Chinese airport to choose a terminal design by Yang
Molen, a small architecture firm that's leaving its mark on Asia and
hopes to do the same in the United States.

The two-year-old firm recently won an international design competition
for the Shanghai project, beating out noted architects Helmut Yahn, Paul
Andreu and Sir Richard Rodgers.

Yahn designed the United Airlines terminal at O'Hare International
Airport in Chicago and Rodgers Rogers did the Pompidou Centre museum in
Paris. Andreu is well-known for airport designs.

"It shows that people from Ohio, people from anywhere, can go out and
compete and win, and that's an exciting thing," said Mark Molen, a
partner and co-founder of the firm. "It's the flip side of global trade.
We're not worse than anyone else. In fact, we're as good as anyone
else." 

Molen and partner April Yang were invited to participate in the Shanghai
competition after winning a contest to design the New Baiyun
International Airport in Guangzhou, China. That terminal is scheduled to
open in August.

Molen and Yang spent eight months designing the terminal for Pudong
International, which outgrew its original building. The two made 15
trips to China in the past six months.

A 4 million-square-foot building will connect with the existing terminal
in a U-shaped structure. The new terminal's design is dramatic, with a
winged roof and sails inside the ticketing area.

A Chinese company will do the actual construction drawings, but airport
officials have asked Yang Molen to serve as consultants.

The firm prefers to focus on the design aspect and is preparing to enter
another Chinese airport competition.

Yang and Molen began designing the Guangzhou terminal when they worked
at the Columbus office of URS, a multinational architecture firm.

When URS decided not to pursue the project, the two decided to finish it
themselves on their own time. They formed Yang Molen with Molen's wife,
Jules Knowlton, in 2002.

In 2003, Yang and Molen left URS to work at the firm full time.

Their company is small, with four employees (including the founders) and
less than $5 million in annual revenues.

Winning the Shanghai airport competition is significant for a firm of
that size, said Robert Livesey, director of the Knowlton School of
Architecture at Ohio State University.

"They competed against some huge firms with hundreds, if not thousands,
of employees," said Livesey, who knows both Molen and Yang, a former
student. "The fact that they could be competitive is fairly
extraordinary." 

Yang Molen also won design competitions for a maintenance hangar at New
Baiyun for Lockheed and China Southern Airlines, a five-star hotel in
Beijing and a space-museum/amusement park.

The two hope to gain clients in the United States, where design
competitions are fewer and decisions are more bottom-line driven than in
Asia.

"They're not as well-known as the larger firms, but a project like this
gets them some recognition as they try to build their business," Livesey
said.

Yang, a native of Taiwan, has done projects in China for 10 years. She
worked at NBBJ in Columbus before Molen hired her at URS. While at NBBJ,
she helped design Cardinal Health's corporate headquarters in Dublin.
She earned a master's degree in computer-aided architectural design from
Ohio State in 1992.

Molen, a Salt Lake City, Utah, native, holds bachelor's and master's
degrees in architecture. While at URS, he designed the atrium and a
parking garage at Port Columbus.


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