Workers secured the final beam of the ten-story steel frame for NYU Shanghai’s new campus in Pudong’s Qiantan neighborhood this week, marking the latest milestone in the construction project that kicked off in the spring of 2019.
“The past year has been very challenging for the entire world. But for all of us at NYU Shanghai, one of the true bright spots has been the construction of the new campus at Qiantan,” Vice Chancellor Jeffrey Lehman said in a brief “topping off” ceremony at the construction site.
Despite a nearly three-month work stoppage due to the COVID-19 pandemic last winter, construction of the 115,000 square meter campus, which will consist of four interlinked structures surrounding a 9,000 square meter courtyard reminiscent of both a traditional U.S.-style college quad and Chinese scholar’s garden, is on track for completion in the Summer of 2022.
The last beam is lowered into place.
At the ceremony, Chancellor Tong Shijun said he was looking forward to the day when the campus will serve as a center of education and cultural life in Shanghai. “We will be so proud to welcome students, faculty, and scholars from all over the world. The new campus combines features from the East and the West. It connects the present with the future. With such a great campus, I am confident that we will make a lasting and vital contribution to Pudong, to Shanghai, to China and to the world.”
Both Chancellors expressed the university’s thanks to the Lujiazui Group, architects Kohn Pedersen Fox, the Shanghai Institute of Architecture Design and Research and all the construction workers and staff for their support and hard work.
Following the completion of a three-story basement, above ground construction of the steel frame started on December 8, 2020. In just three months, workers were able to put in place some 18,000 tons of steel beams. Some 138 workers stayed on the job throughout the Spring Festival holiday in February, taking just a half day off on Chinese New Year Eve, to keep the project on schedule.
Left: Chancellor Tong and Vice Chancellor Lehman capture the “topping off” of the steel structure.
Right: Chancellor Emeritus Yu Lizhong and Provost Joanna Waley-Cohen also attended the topping off ceremony.
“The speed of this construction has been amazing,” said Li Jin Zhao, president of the Lujiazui Group. “I feel like travelling in a time tunnel!”
The construction has already benefited from many innovations. Due to a shortage of space on the construction site, there was no room to store sections of the steel frame. As a result, sections of the frame were manufactured offsite in five production workshops in Jiangsu Province and shipped only on the day they would be put in place. An average of fifteen trucks arrived each day with sections of the day’s frame.
The next phase of construction will consist of the installation of a frame supported glass wall, the pouring of concrete floors, and wall masonry.
The new campus is scheduled to be completed in the summer of 2022.
For more on the new campus:
NYU Shanghai Breaks Ground on New Campus
Construction Resumes on Qiantan Campus Site