“Sustainability goes beyond a collection of technologies,” explains Zhao Liang, chief architect of China Vanke Co, the largest residential developer in south China today.

Designing a high-end residential development in China typically means planning a gated community.

With more than 17.4 million residents and a growing middle class eager to trade its Mao-era housing for new apartments, Beijing has been building residential towers at a breathless clip for much of the past decade.

Reacting against the isolated high-rise housing projects going up all over Beijing these days, Steven Holl and his partner Li Hu designed a 720-unit complex that emphasizes connections between its various buildings and the city around them.

Crowded into one floor of an old classroom building until 2007, New York University’s philosophy department had quarters far less grand than its top-notch reputation. Its new home, fashioned by Steven Holl Architects (SHA) inside a nearby 30,000-square-foot landmark building, finally matches the faculty’s accommodations with its renown.

During construction, the reaction to Nelson-Atkins’ Bloch Building ran the gamut from irascible to irate.