US authorities to re-route controversial North Dakota pipeline

Yahoo – AFP, Jim Watson, December 5, 2016

US military veterans joined protests against a controversial planned oil pipeline that
have led the Army Corps of Engineers to rethink the route (AFP Photo/JIM WATSON)

Cannon Ball (United States) (AFP) - The US Army Corps of Engineers nixed plans for a controversial oil pipeline crossing in North Dakota, a major victory for Native Americans and environmentalists who had staged months of protests.

The pipeline had been set to cross under the Missouri River and man-made Lake Oahe, which are drinking water sources for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.

"It's clear that there's more work to do," Jo-Ellen Darcy, the US Army's assistant secretary for civil works, said in a statement.

"The best way to complete that work responsibly and expeditiously is to explore alternate routes for the pipeline crossing."

The Standing Rock Sioux objected to building the 1,172-mile (1,886-kilometer) pipeline underneath the river and lake because of fears of possible leaks. The tribe also said the route would cross through areas with sacred historic artifacts.

The conflict between the tribe and pipeline operators Energy Transfer Partners and Sunoco Logistics Partners galvanized North American native tribes and supporters, who have camped in the thousands near the construction site for months in an effort to block it.

'Do the right thing'

Some 2,000 US military veterans joined the protest this week in a symbolically important move before a deadline for demonstrators to vacate the area on Monday.

"We wholeheartedly support the decision of the administration and commend with the utmost gratitude the courage it took on the part of President Obama, the Army Corps, the Department of Justice and the Department of the Interior to take steps to correct the course of history and to do the right thing," Standing Rock Sioux chairman Dave Archambault said in a statement.

"We are not opposed to energy independence, economic development, or national security concerns but we must ensure that these decisions are made with the considerations of our indigenous peoples."

Map charting the route of the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline

(AFP Photo/AFP)

Pipeline operator Energy Transfer Partners did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

However, a group representing the pipeline operators, the Midwest Alliance for Infrastructure Now, condemned the decision, blaming it on President Barack Obama.

"This purely political decision flies in the face of common sense and the rule of law," it said in a statement. "Unfortunately, it's not surprising that the president would, again, use executive fiat in an attempt to enhance his legacy among the extreme left."

Violent standoff

The Dakota Access Pipeline would snake through four US states, delivering oil from North Dakota to Illinois, where it can be shipped to other parts of the country.

It could help reduce the cost of transporting North Dakota oil, enabling it to better compete with cheaper oil from Canada.

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe filed a lawsuit saying it was railroaded by the pipeline's developer and the US Army Corps of Engineers, responsible for approving construction under the river, but a federal judge denied its request to halt construction in September.

However, the government suspended the pipeline construction project last month, saying more analysis and debate were needed.

Energy Transfer Partners and its co-operator Sunoco Logistics Partners struck back, asking a court to stop regulators from further delaying the project.

The standoff turned violent at times, including last month, when hundreds of protesters clashed with police who fired tear gas, rubber bullets and a water cannon, soaking the crowd in subfreezing temperatures.

Protest organizers said 167 people were hurt, including three Native American tribal elders, and that seven people were hospitalized for severe head injuries.

Activists celebrate at Oceti Sakowin Camp on the edge of the Standing Rock

 Sioux Reservation outside Cannon Ball, North Dakota, after hearing that the Army

 Corps of Engineers has denied the current route for the Dakota Access pipeline

(AFP Photo/JIM WATSON)

Nationwide protests

The standoff has prompted sympathetic protests nationwide, with celebrities, politicians and environmental activists joining the cause.

News of the Army's decision prompted celebration and relief among those who opposed the pipeline route.

"Today, the voices of indigenous people were heard," Rhea Suh, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, tweeted. "The Standing Rock Sioux & indigenous communities remind us of power of individuals to stand up to demand environmental justice."

Among the project's supporters, North Dakota's Republican Governor Jack Dalrymple, who had ordered the protesters to evacuate on Monday, called the decision a "serious mistake."

He was joined by the state's sole member in the House of Representatives, Kevin Cramer, who said in a statement, "I’m encouraged we will restore law and order next month when we get a president who will not thumb his nose at the rule of law."

But Vermont Senator and former presidential candidate Bernie Sanders praised Sunday's decision, saying, "I appreciate very much President Obama listening to the Native American people and millions of others who believe this pipeline should not be built."

Native Americans ride with raised fists to a sacred burial ground that was

disturbed by bulldozers building the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL)

September 4, 2016 near Cannon Ball, North Dakota (AFP Photo/Robyn Beck)

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Members of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe confront bulldozers working on the

Dakota Access Pipeline in an effort to make them stop near Cannon Ball, North

Dakota on September 03, 2016 (AFP Photo/Robyn Beck)

Canada approves tripling capacity of Trans Mountain pipeline to Pacific pic.twitter.com/MF6eOdTBV1

— AFP news agency (@AFP) November 30, 2016

ING, ABN Amro urged to pull out of controversial US pipeline project

DutchNews, November 28, 2016

Amsterdam’s Zuidas business
district. Photo: DutchNews.nl

Dutch banks ING and ABN Amro are being urged to end their investment in a controversial oil pipeline project in the US. 

The construction has prompted violent clashes between the army and the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe who say construction of the pipeline through northern Dakota could affect its drinking water supply and put communities ‘at risk of contamination by crude oil leaks and spills.’ 

They also say the pipeline will threaten the environment and destroy Native American burial sites, prayer sites and culturally significant artifacts, CNN reported. 

According to fair banking campaign group Eerlijke Bankwijzer, ING has pumped the equivalent of €233m into the project in direct loans. ABN Amro has lent $45m to companies which are involved with the project. 

ING said in a statement it is concerned about what is going on and is investigating further. However, withdrawing from the project is not an option legally, news agency ANP quotes the bank as saying. 

ABN Amro points out it is not one of the 17 banks actively funding the pipeline and says it is in ‘continuous contact’ with the companies it has backed. This includes ‘explicitly’ ensuring that its concerns about the project are known, ANP said. 

Native Americans ride with raised fists to a sacred burial ground that was

disturbed by bulldozers building the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL),

September 4, 2016 near Cannon Ball, North Dakota (AFP Photo/Robyn Beck)

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Members of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe confront bulldozers working on the

Dakota Access Pipeline in an effort to make them stop near Cannon Ball, North

Dakota on September 03, 2016 (AFP Photo/Robyn Beck)

Canada approves tripling capacity of Trans Mountain pipeline to Pacific pic.twitter.com/MF6eOdTBV1

— AFP news agency (@AFP) November 30, 2016

Violence erupts as Native Americans resist oil pipeline

Yahoo – AFP, Nova Safo, September 5, 2016

Native Americans ride with raised fists to a sacred burial ground that was
disturbed by bulldozers building the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL),
September 4, 2016 near Cannon Ball, North Dakota (AFP Photo/Robyn Beck)

Cannon Ball (United States) (AFP) - Protesters camping near Native American lands in North Dakota to protest the construction of an oil pipeline clashed late Saturday with construction company workers they blamed for destroying ancient sites.

Hundreds of protesters confronted a bulldozer crew in an area known as Cannon Ball, amid the vast grasslands of the northern US state.

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe claims the crew dug up and destroyed sacred burial grounds, places of prayer and other cultural artefacts -- even after the pipeline developer had voluntarily paused construction in the disputed area less than a mile (1.6 kilometer) from the tribe's reservation.

Angry protesters broke through a fence and fought with private security guards, who employed dogs and pepper spray.

"They tried to push us back with their trucks and their bulldozers, but we just kept on coming," Seeyouma Nashcid, a protester from Arizona, told AFP.

Some protesters were left bloodied, and displayed signs of dog bites. The Morton County Sherriff's department said three private security guards were injured after being struck with fence posts and flag poles.

The tribe, whose reservation is located just south of where the 1,200-mile (1,900-kilometer) pipeline would cross the Missouri River, has been locked in a court battle to stop the project, which it says would endanger its drinking water and destroy historic sites.

Members of American Indian tribes from across the United States have rallied in support, gathering for months in a makeshift camp near the reservation.

On Saturday, protesters were suddenly alerted to renewed digging, a day after the tribe filed evidence in court of dozens of newly discovered artefacts, grave markers and sacred sites.

Native Americans march to the site of a sacred burial ground that was disturbed

 by bulldozers building the Dakota Access oil pipeline near Cannon Ball, North 

Dakota on September 4, 2016 (AFP Photo/Robyn Beck)

The tribe said in a statement that a two-mile stretch was destroyed before the bulldozer crew was confronted and stopped.

"This demolition is devastating," Standing Rock Sioux Tribe chairman David Archambault said in a statement. "These grounds are the resting places of our ancestors. The ancient cairns and stone prayer rings there cannot be replaced."

Witnesses said law enforcement officers were nearby during Saturday's clashes but did not immediately intervene. But sheriff's spokeswoman Donnell Preskey said deputies "were not on the scene when the conflict initially occurred," and arrived later.

The sheriff's office was notified of the situation by an emergency call from a private security officer.

Citing the safety and security of law enforcement, Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier said that the number of protesters made it "unsafe for officers to directly respond until further officers were able to respond."

A federal judge is expected to decide by September 9 whether to grant a temporary injunction to stop the pipeline construction under the river, as the tribe pursues its lawsuit.

The pipeline's US developer Energy Transfer Partners did not return a call for comment placed during a holiday weekend.

Members of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe confront bulldozers working on the 

Dakota Access Pipeline in an effort to make them stop near Cannon Ball, North 

Dakota on September 03, 2016 (AFP Photo/Robyn Beck)

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Kipling to Jinnah: Mumbai's crumbling colonial homes

Yahoo – AFP, Peter Hutchison, 19 February 2016

The "Kipling Bungalow" is one of several mansions in Mumbai, once associated 

with famous residents but now in ruin (AFP Photo/Indranil Mukherjee)

Mumbai (AFP) - Hidden behind a blanket of trees at the back of a university in Mumbai lies the dilapidated, but once grand, former home of writer Rudyard Kipling.

Fallen branches, discarded chairs and even empty whisky bottles surround the 19th-century building, while bird droppings mar a bust of Kipling, author of such beloved novels as "The Jungle Book" and "Kim".

"The bungalow is in very bad condition and needs desperate help," the college's principal, Rajiv Mishra, tells AFP.

"We feel cheated that such a beautiful monument has been neglected," he adds, pointing to a rotting wooden post, precariously supporting the historic property in south Mumbai.

The "Kipling Bungalow", as locals affectionately call it, is one of several mansions in the teeming Indian city, once associated with famous residents but now in ruin.

Nearby stands the former colonial home of Lord Harris, an ex-governor of then-named Bombay, widely credited with making cricket the most popular sport in India.

The 147-year-old Esplanade Mansion, formerly the resplendent Watson's Hotel, 

and frequented and written about by Mark Twain, is now a ramshackle shadow 

of its former glory (AFP Photo/Indranil Muherjee)

The gothic building housed school classrooms until four years ago, when pupils were moved out because the crumbling structure had become too weak and hazardous.

A few kilometres away in plush Malabar Hill sits the previously imposing residence of Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan and its first governor-general.

The stately home hosted critical talks between Jinnah and India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru on partition of the subcontinent, but today its downtrodden appearance belies its historical significance.

Red tape

Heritage campaigners lament the demise of such buildings, blaming red tape and claiming politicians and developers are more concerned with constructing sparkly new luxury towers than preserving Mumbai's architectural history.

"The Kipling Bungalow is just a very sad reflection of bureaucratic hurdles... creating the death of a historic building," renowned architect Abha Narain Lambah, who specialises in conservation, told AFP.

An Indian mason stands on scaffolding at the under-renovation Lord Harris

Higher Secondary Marathi School in Mumbai (AFP Photo/Indranil Mukherjee)

The wood and stone structure, its green paint peeling, is situated on the grounds of an art school, whose first principal was John Lockwood Kipling, Rudyard's father.

Built in 1882, 17 years after Rudyard was born, the house was home to Lockwood Kipling and subsequent deans until the early 2000s, by which time it had sunk into such disrepair that it was rendered uninhabitable.

"We feel that Lockwood must have had Rudyard stay here and write so we call it the 'Kipling Bungalow'," explains Mishra, who wants the Maharashtra state government to restore it without delay.

He says officials plan to turn the building into a gallery exhibiting students' work and that of decorated artists, and have issued a tender for the contract.

The building has been caught in a tug-of-war between the college and the government for years over what its restoration should look like, but Mishra hopes renovations will finally start in around six months.

Maharashtra culture and education minister Vinod Tawde failed to respond to repeated AFP requests for comment on the issue.

Built in 1882, 17 years after Rudyard Kipling was born, the house was home to his 

father John Lockwood Kipling and subsequent deans until the early 2000s, by which

 time it had sunk into such disrepair that it was rendered uninhabitable (AFP Photo/

Indranil Mukherjee)

A short walk away, work has already begun on the former Mumbai residence of batsman and acclaimed cricket administrator George Harris, who was governor of the city from 1890-1895.

Harris captained England and during his tenure on the subcontinent "did much to lay down foundations for the expansion of the game in India", according to Cricinfo website.

A Mumbai inter-schools cricket tournament called the Harris Shield is testament to his legacy, but his former home was allowed to come close to collapse before long overdue maintenance work started.

The three-storey mansion, part of a public school, was out of use for three years until renovation began in June, and presently stands gutted, surrounded by bamboo scaffolding.

"It was basically falling apart and became too dangerous to be inside," the school's principal, Mohan Bhogade, told AFP.

Jinnah dispute

In arty Kala Ghoda district, a 147-year-old mansion, formerly the resplendent Watson's Hotel, frequented and written about by Mark Twain, is a ramshackle shadow of its former glory.

A bust of author Rudyard Kipling pictured at
the Kipling Bunglow -- the author's birthplace
-- inside the campus of the J.J. School of Art
in Mumbai  (AFP Photo/Indranil Mukherjee)

Now called Esplanade Mansion, it shows no signs of being restored despite ten years having passed since it was placed on a global list of endangered monuments by the New York-based World Monuments Fund.

Watson's, completed in 1869, is believed to be India's oldest caste-iron building and was the hotel of choice for colonialists and visiting dignatories during the British Raj.

Accoring to legend, the hotel went into decline after Indian industrialist Jamsetji Tata built Mumbai's iconic Taj Mahal Palace because he was denied entry to Watson's, which had a "Europeans-only" policy.

Today the crumbling structure houses a medley of dark cubbyhole offices. A lack of funds and arguments between tenants and city authorities have been cited as contributing to its descent into ruin.

"The idea of heritage has just evaporated," says Naresh Fernandes, author of "City Adrift: A Short Biography of Bombay".

Students gather under the porch at the Kipling Bunglow -- the birthplace of author 

Rudyard Kipling -- at the J.J. School of Art in Mumbai (AFP Photo/Indranil Mukherjee)

AFP contacted a number of officials at the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, regarding the Watson's Hotel and the Harris building, but none were available for comment.

Jinnah's house has been embroiled in a long-running legal dispute over ownership between his daughter, India and Pakistan. It lies empty in thick forest behind a padlocked gate.

Lambah doesn't believe the buildings owe their dilapidation to any sort of colonial antipathy, citing well-maintained British-era relics like the Bombay High Court and the former Victoria Terminus train station.

"It's just sheer neglect and bureaucracy," she says.

European toilets a mystery to many refugees

Refugees often find European toilets mystifying. Pictograms and instructions in Arabic don't always have the desired effect - but help is on the way in the form of a novel kind of toilet for all.

Deutsche Welle, 17 February 2016

The influx of more than 1 million refugees last year is German society's "rendezvous with globalization," according to Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble.

It's undoubtedly a rendezvous of different cultures. And in the rush to provide housing, cots, clothing, food, language training and health care for the thousands of newcomers, no one thought to explain Western-style flush toilets.

The mayor of Hardheim, a small town in the southwestern state of Baden-Württemberg, raised the issue in October - and was ridiculed for thinking it necessary to admonish the town's asylum-seekers not to relieve themselves in gardens, parks, behind hedges and behind bushes.

European sanitation norms

The difficult and often tense situation in overcrowded emergency refugee shelters, tents and gyms isn't made easier by different toilet standards and rituals.

Squat toilets are traditional in many parts of the Muslim world. Baffled by ordinary Western-style flush toilets, refugees nationwide have squatted on toilet rims or the floor of the bathroom when nature called; others have relieved themselves in the shower stalls, leaving behind human excrement on the floors.

It's not a central problem, says Manfred Nowak of Arbeiterwohlfahrt (AWO), a social welfare organization in Berlin that currently looks after 4,000 refugees in six initial reception facilities in the capital. But it does exist, he told DW, adding that the severity of the problem depended on where the refugees were from.

Many refugees find themselves confronted with outside portable toilets

Many migrants will have never seen toilet paper before, and even if they have, water-free wiping is widely thought to be an unsanitary way of cleaning oneself. Sit-down flush toilets are a mystery despite the pictogram instructions that have meanwhile been put up.

Co-existence of cultures

A remedy is in the works, however: Sanitary specialists at the Global Fliegenschmidt toilet manufacturers in Coswig in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt have come up with a portable "multicultural toilet."

It's been on the market for just a few days, company head Peter Fliegenschmidt told DW. His company has sold squat toilet units for years, he said, but in the wake of the refugee crisis in Germany, the challenge was to come up with a combined Western-style/squat toilet. He has already received queries from organizations that run refugee shelters.

His firm specializes in portable toilets, which are currently in high demand for use in emergency refugee shelters. "Generally, about 60 percent of our toilets are found on construction sites, and about 30 percent are used at special events like fairs and concerts," he said. Equipping refugee shelters is a new development that's bound to be "temporary," he said, adding that he saw a market for the new portable squat toilet abroad and at construction sites, which often employ foreigners.

Fliegenschmidt's design is actually surprisingly simple. It's a regular Western-style toilet bowl with a sizeable squatting platform to the left and the right.

Different body hygiene standards

Toilet routines differ, and Islamic culture has detailed toilet etiquette.

Islamic countries traditionally use water to wash. The myreligionislam.com website lists 20 rules and practices "to be followed when answering the call of nature." One rule stipulates using fingers to clean oneself, and "if there are still traces," washing them with water. Cleaning the private parts "with stones and similar materials" is regarded as an "acceptable substitute for cleaning them with water."

Other rules forbid talking, singing, smoking or reading the paper while on the toilet. People are also advised to enter the bathroom left foot first, while exiting with the right.

Massive mural transforms poor Mexico neighborhood

Yahoo – AFP, Sylvain Estibal, August 8, 2015

Artist nicknamed "Trejo" paints a mural honoring the wisdom of the elders in the

 Palmitas neighborhood of Pachuca, Mexico, as part of a giant mural across the

shantytown's houses (AFP Photo/Omar Torres)

Pachuca (Mexico) (AFP) - Palmitas, a hardscrabble neighborhood in the Mexican city of Pachuca, used to have a reputation as a battleground where gangs fought deadly turf wars.

But recently the bloodshed on the hillside slum's narrow streets has fallen dramatically and it has gained a far more welcome kind of attention.

General view of the giant mural in Palmitas,

Pachuca, which contains still more 

mini-murals that interact playfully with

 the overall design (AFP Photo/Omar

Torres)

A Mexican artists' collective called German Crew has painted a giant mural across the shantytown's houses, working with residents to transform their crumbling walls into a vibrant artwork.

Viewed at a distance, the entire neighborhood now forms a bright, rainbow-colored wave that has brought new pride for residents and opened new horizons for local youths.

Viewed up close, the giant mural contains still more mini-murals that interact playfully with the overall design.

The artists repainted some 20,000 square meters (215,000 square feet) of gray walls across more than 200 houses to create what the city government bills as the largest mural in Mexico.

The project was launched in 2012 with the goal of using art to repair the neighborhood's tattered social fabric and reduce crime.

Funded by the Mexican government, it cost $310,000 and employed 20 local painters.

"We had to convince residents to let us repaint their houses," said Ana Estefania Garcia, the head of city planning for Pachuca, a two-hour drive northeast of Mexico City.

"First the neighborhood was repainted in white, as if to say, 'We're starting from scratch.' That was a shock for them."

The city meanwhile cleaned the neighborhood's streets, removed the rusted-out remains of junked cars and installed new streetlights and eight security cameras.

Partial view of the giant mural in Palmitas, Pachuca, which contains still 

\more mini-murals that interact playfully with the overall design (AFP

Photo/Omar Torres)

The sprawling artwork was then painted across this new facade, relaunching the tradition of the Mexican mural, brought to world fame by artists such as Diego Rivera (1886-1957).

New beginnings

City officials credit the project with a dramatic drop in crime.

"Crime has gone down by 35 percent since the project was launched in 2012," said Garcia.

"Members of rival gangs worked together on the project. They got to know each other."

The gangs still exist, but today they "eat, paint and get along," she said.

"They're not best friends, but they know they can work together to take care of their community."

That view is echoed by Roberto Robles, a 36-year-old graffiti artist and member of German Crew.

City officials in Pachuca say a project to

 paint the walls of houses with a mural 

has reduced crime by 35 percent since its

launch in 2012 (AFP Photo/Omar Torres)

"Art makes a big difference. Colors change people's mood. Gray immerses them in monotony," he said.

"One boy told me that since we painted his house, he feels like going to school more because he's happier."

Some are skeptical, however, including the lone resident to resist the mural project.

"The cameras are the main thing that reduced the violence. A thug stays a thug, no matter what color the walls are," said Adante Lopez, who initially refused to have his house repainted before finally giving in.

But the mural has not been touched by graffiti or vandalism since its completion.

German Crew is now working on more detailed individual paintings on the walls telling the story of the neighborhood and its residents.

China gives new twist to world's second tallest building

Yahoo – AFP, Bill Savadove, 21 June 2015

The under-construction Shanghai Tower (bottom C), the Shanghai World 

Financial Center (L) and the Jin Mao Tower (AFP Photo/Johannes Eisele)

Shanghai (AFP) - The world's second tallest building, Shanghai Tower, will soon open in the Chinese financial capital with a twist -- a 120-degree twist, to be exact.

A softened triangular "outer skin" is literally twisted around a circular core, sending the glass and steel tower spiralling 632 metres (2,086 feet) into the grey sky above the city.

State-backed developer Shanghai Tower Construction and Development Co. views the modern design as a symbol of China's future, a super-tall building in the city's gleaming Pudong financial district, which did not even exist 25 years ago.

The under-construction Shanghai 

Tower, will soon open in the Chinese 

financial capital with a twist (AFP

Photo/Johannes Eisele)

People involved with the project said the building will open this summer, with office tenants moving in first, but the developer declined to comment.

"This twist is an iconic symbol of looking forward for the Chinese people," said Grant Uhlir, practice area leader and principal for Gensler, the US architecture firm whose design was chosen for the building which broke ground in 2008.

"It's been referred to as a strand of DNA. It's also been referred to a place where the ground connects with the sky," he said.

Although still dwarfed by the reigning champion Burj Khalifa in Dubai, which stands at 828 metres (2,732 feet), and with new challengers under construction, the $2.4 billion Shanghai Tower can still lay claim to a host of superlatives.

Besides being the tallest double-facade building, the world's fastest elevators travelling 18 metres per second will whisk people up and down while the globe's second highest hotel will be located on the 84th to 110th floors.

An estimated 16,000 to 18,000 people will pass through the Shanghai Tower every day. The building will sway up to a metre (three feet) in high winds, with a 1,000-tonne "damper" weight near the top reducing the effect.

'It has to be unique'

"When you do these iconic, super-tall buildings, it can't be a copy of something else. It has to be unique," said American chief architect Marshall Strabala, who participated in the project while at Gensler.

Now the head of his own firm, he spent part of his three-decade career working on some of the world's tallest buildings including the Burj Khalifa.

He said the double skin plays other roles besides pure design, providing insulation to keep the building cool in summer and warm in winter and reducing wind stress.

"This building is a giant Thermos bottle, that's all it is," he said.

But the vacuum flask metaphor masks the mind-numbing complexity involved in balancing the design, safety requirements, building codes and client demands that shaped the tower.

Marshall Strabala, the chief architect of the Shanghai Tower, poses next 

to a three-metre model of the tower (AFP Photo/Johannes Eisele)

Despite the futuristic look, concepts owing to Chinese culture are present.

A golden canopy at the base of the building was originally meant to be green, the colour of weathered copper, but the developer rejected the idea because in Chinese, the expression "wearing a green hat" means being a cuckold.

"It's not a good thing. Gold is a colour of prosperity," Strabala said.

A white stone structure dubbed the "River Wall" on the lower floors conceptually cuts the building into west and east, like Shanghai itself is divided into Puxi and Pudong on either side of the Huangpu River.

"Pudong side is business, Puxi side is fun. The retail, restaurants (in the building) are on the fun Puxi side," Strabala said.

The developer is expected to shun using floor numbers with the number four, which sounds like the Chinese word for death.

Gensler says the building has 121 "occupied" floors, while the total number has been given as 127 or 128 storeys depending on how they are counted.

'Curse' of tall buildings

Office space will take up much of the 573,000-square-metre (6.2-million-square-foot) building, while the retail space is small compared to a shopping mall -- just four floors.

The building's arrival on the Shanghai office market could potentially pull down rents and drive up the vacancy rate, analysts said.

An empty office space in the Shanghai 

Tower, which is still under construction

(AFP Photo/Johannes Eisele)

"It remains to be seen whether the pool of tenants currently in Pudong is large enough to fill the building or whether Shanghai Tower will need to start offering discounts to attract others," said Michael Stacy, executive director of Cushman & Wakefield's tenant advisory group in China.

Property agents are quoting rental rates in a range of 9 to 16 yuan ($1.45 to $2.56) per square metre a day depending on location, but they say the developer is offering rent-free periods.

Strabala believes the prestige of the address will draw tenants though he jokes about the "curse" of tall buildings, which seems to follow economic strife.

Workers broke ground on Shanghai Tower in November 2008, just weeks after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, which helped spark the global financial crisis, and it will open at a time when China's economy is slowing.

Strabala, however, is not worried, stressing that recognition of the building as the world's second tallest will attract tenants.

"This building will fill up because people will want to be here," he said.