The City of the 21st Century

Presented by the Skyscraper Museum's "Future City 20 | 21" series, this new exhibit proposes that Shanghai could be to the 21st Century what new York City was to the 20th.

"'China Prophecy: Shanghai' suggests that a new kind of city on an unprecedented scale will be the urban model of the future, as influential in its approaches to density, planning, and design as New York once was (and, in some quarters, arguably remains), while growing at a pace that’s distinctly Chinese.

Shanghai is home to 18 million people, including 10 million in Puxi, its historic core area one third the size of New York, and some 3 million “floating” or non-registered migrants; considering the influx from rural regions, some demographers project expansion to 23 million by 2020. Rapid expansion, naturally, means aggressive urbanization. Traditional lilong lanes and shikumen housing in much of the city have given way to high- or mid-rises."