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Cass Gilbert's Woolworth Building

Yingxian Timber pagoda, Shanxi, China, 1056

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Reinterpreting Traditions : Jin Mao Tower and Historical Pagodas
The Jin Mao Tower mainly takes two Chinese ancient Buddhist pagodas as its models: Songyue Pagoda (520) in Henan Province and Yingxian Pagoda (1056) in Shanxi Province in China. These two pagodas are indeed important in the architectural history of China; Songyue Pagoda is the earliest surviving pagoda in China, and Yingxian Pagoda is the largest surviving wooden structure pagoda in China.[1] The massing of Jin Mao Tower primarily recalls the shape of Songyue Pagoda. Songyue Pagoda’s dodecagon symmetrical form inspires the Jin Mao Tower, which also has a square biaxial form that can respond to viewers from all different perspectives. The dodecagon shape of Songyue Pagoda is actually the rotation of a square which symbolizes Mount Meru, the sacred mountain in Buddhism that contains ultimate wisdom and an elixir for immortality. The pagoda form is normally designed in a biaxial form so that it may welcome Buddhists from all around the world. Jin Mao Tower also borrows this idea of welcoming people from everywhere to Shanghai as the face of China. Songyue agoda also features a smooth curve connecting each tier of bracketing from the bottom of the pagoda all the way to the spire on the top, and the diameter of the pagoda gradually decreases. Similarly, Jin Mao Tower also features a smooth and gentle curve. The facade of Jin Mao Tower has been divided into sixteen tiers, which echoes with the facade form of Songyue Tower, representing the important sixteen teachings of Buddha and stepping to the ultimate wisdom.[2] Jin Mao Tower’s gently stepping and undulating setbacks ascend in a progressively rhythmic way, increasing the sense of height through the use of a forced perspective and also recalling the sixteen tiers on Songyue Tower. The number of floors has also been reduced for each setback zone by one-eighth until reached the hotel level (sixteen, fourteen, twelve, and ten). At each eight-floor zone, the pace of setbacks was changed to single-floor increments at the hotel, or one-eighth of eight by the number from eight to one.[3] On the first floor, the section plan is square with two entrance way on two opposite sides of the square plan; then from third to thirtieth floor, the square plan becomes smaller; starting from fifty-sixth floor, the plan slowly evolved into an octagonal form with four outreaches on four sides. In the center of each side, Such arrangement again strengthened the verticality of the building.
Adrian Smith uses granite, stainless steel, and glass on the surface of the building, then he picks out the main structural lines of Songyue Pagoda, eliminating all the irrelevant details and transforming them into straight lines. He also put the typical grid-like structure to Jin Mao Tower, with vertical mullions spaced at .75 meters, horizontal beams spaced at on 4.5 meters on a regular floor, and other horizontal beams spaced one-fifth height as a concentrated area to indicate the sixteen setbacks.[4] The architect takes Songyue Pagoda to a geometrical abstract form, using modernism designs and skyscraper materials to reinterpret the ancient form. Jin Mao Tower is more of an anthology of the traditional pagoda, but not a copy.

The detailing of Jin Mao Tower further looks back more to Yingxian Pagoda. On each setback area, an outward slope of three degrees are used to represent the bracketing system on Yingxing pagoda, giving it a strong upward visual rhythm. The spire at the top of the building is set on a square shape pedal with four inward hollows on each side, resonating with the spire on the top of Yingxing Pagoda, which is a multi-layered shield also set on an octagonal lotus pedal. According to the Buddhist stories, this shield Mount Meru and the deities who live on the mountain. Here, these details are also rendered in a simple and geometrical way, only using stiff lines to cut through the original forms.

[1] Nancy Shatzman Steinhardt and China House Gallery, Chinese Traditional Architecture (New York City: China Institute in America, China House Gallery, 1984), 114.
[2] Ibid, 187.
[3] Adrian D. Smith, The Architecture of Adrian Smith: the SOM Years, 1980-2006: Toward a Sustainable Future (Mulgrave, Victoria: Images Publishing Group Pty Ltd, 2015), 90.
[4] Mark Sarkisian, "Jin Mao Tower’s Influence on China’s New Innovative Tall Buildings" (2006 Shanghai International Seminar of Design and Construction Technologies of Super High-Rise Buildings, 2006), 3.

Qisen Song