Premier Dalton McGuinty Visits B+H Architects' Shanghai Office During His
Mission to China

The Firm's Experience in China Shows How Canadian Businesses Can Succeed Abroad

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TORONTO, Nov. 1 /CNW/ - B+H Architects is honoured to announce that Premier Dalton McGuinty toured its Shanghai office on Sunday, October 31, as part of his third mission to China. The Premier put the spotlight on how the government is helping Canadian businessesstay competitive abroad and recognized B+H as a success story.

"We are delighted to have the support of the Ontario government at a time when Canadian businesses need to step up and become competitive on a global scale," said Bill Nankivell, Chief Executive Officer, B+H Architects. "The Premier's visit underscores our standing as a leading, Canadian multinational architecture and design firm.Official government visits, like this one from Premier McGuinty, carry great symbolic value in Chinese culture and help us finalize contracts with key clients." 

B+H was one of the first Western firms to establish a presence in China, opening an office in 1992 after having won a competition to design the Xiamen Gaoqi International Airport. Since then, the Shanghaioffice has evolved into a full service architecture, master planning, interior and landscape design practice with more than one hundred employees and projects coveringcommercial, mixed use, residential, transportation, industrial and lab/pharmaceutical facilities. To date, the firm has completed 87 projects in China totaling nearly 84 million square feet of built space.

Notable projects include Microsoft's Zizhu Campus [Shanghai], General Motors Administrative Office Building [Shanghai], New Erdos Airport [Inner Mongolia], Nike Retail Store - 512 Nanjing East Road [Shanghai], Dow Corning Block 3300 3rd Pillar Project [Shanghai], You You International Plaza [Shanghai], Hong Kong New World Tower [Shanghai], New Shanghai International Tower [Shanghai], Celestica Shanghai Research and Development Centre [Shanghai], Xiamen International Conference Centre [Xiamen],Beijing Automotive Exhibition Centre [Beijing], Changning District Central Hospital [Shanghai], Top of City Lights Residential Development [Shanghai] and the Tianjin Lake Parkave Residential Development [Tianjin].

"Our success in China is based on our understanding of local construction methods, culture and aesthetics," stated Karen Cvornyek, President Asia, B+H Architects. "This knowledge has allowed us to broaden our Chinese client base. We work with multinational corporations, but a large percentage of our projects now come from local developers, institutions and governments."

B+H also offers its Chinese clients decades of expertise in highly technical projects and the ability to adapt production to tighter timeframes. Project schedules in China are more compressed than elsewhere in the world and B+H has developed processes to deliver work that is innovative, high-quality and precise - while meeting Chinese clients' schedules.

In addition to understanding clients' unique needs and preferences, B+H is cognizant of the role its work plays in the country's changing built landscape."As our practice in China evolved, we came to realize that our work was doing more than simply meeting our clients' needs," explained Dan McAlister, Chairman, B+H Architects. "In a larger sense, we helped establish standards for architectural and urban planning projects throughout China."

B+H is now using its experience in China as a blueprint for expanding further into Asia. "We have opened offices in Delhi, Ho Chi Minh City and Singapore," said McAlister. "We look forward to expanding our market presence in China and beyond."

About B+H 

With a fifty-seven year legacy of achievement in the built environment, B+H [www.bharchitects.com] is an award-winning full-service architecture and design firm recognized for the delivery of sustainable design, problem-solving and construction administration skills to large-scale, technically complex projects around the world. A global practice with offices in Toronto, Vancouver, China, India, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates and Vietnam, the work of B+H spans all sectors - office towers, commercial, retail, hospitality, healthcare, institutional, residential, mixed-use, renewal/renovation, interiors, urban design, planning, transportation and infrastructure.

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For further information:

or to arrange an interview, contact

Johanna Hoffmann,
Global Director of Marketing,
B+H Architects,
647-404-5794 or
[email protected]m