Dad in the 1960s in Vancouver..

These are photos from the early 70s, when my dad was working for various design firms..

My dad's office in Edmonton, with me and my sister playing around..

Dad was an AutoCAD pioneer.. this is from 1984..

James Kan 1946-2009

This summer saw the loss of many familiar ones, including Michael Jackson and Edward Kennedy. But I am mourning the loss of one much closer to home- my dad, James Kan. Obituary and photos below.

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My dad passed away on the morning of August 27, 2009. For four months, he was bravely battling a rare and aggressive form of bladder cancer. My mother, my sister and her husband, and myself, were fighting alongside him throughout the ordeal. In his final hours, he experienced very little pain, and the family was at his bedside comforting him with Scripture and prayer.

James Kuo-Sheun Kan was born in Shanghai, China on July 23, 1946 to mother Lu Oa Wen and father Kan Pai Sze. He was the youngest of five siblings. He moved to Hong Kong for high school. Upon finishing, he moved to Canada- living in Vancouver briefly before pursuing architectural studies at the University of Manitoba. In 1975, he met his future wife, Joyce Leung, who was a nurse. Upon graduation, he moved to Edmonton where there was a booming economy at the time. He married Joyce in the summer of 1978. In 1979, Joseph, the first of two children, was born. In 1982, they gave birth to their second child- Jocelyn.

After working for several architecture firms, he started his own practice in Edmonton in 1980. His office grew from working on small residential projects to larger institutional work. He had an office that at one point employed several draftsmen. Later in the 1990s, he focused more on government projects including First Nations projects in northern Alberta.

In the summer of 2005, he moved to Toronto- a warmer and livelier city- with his wife and his mother. By then, he was semi-retired, and focused more on serving in church, and making frequent trips to China. He would make it a point to visit Shanghai at least once a year, where much of his family still lived. In 2008, he went on a two-month trip to China to visit me in Beijing, now also an architect.

He was a very passionate person, remembered fondly for his energetic personality, his infectious laugh, and his enthusiasm for everything related to China. Fluent in three Chinese dialects, he was very proud of his Shanghai heritage and would talk about it at any given opportunity.

He was also a man of faith. In 2006, he re-committed his life to the Lord. When asked if he received the Lord Jesus as his personal Savior, he stepped into the microphone, and said "Yes!!" with a loud voice that resounded throughout the sanctuary. He served enthusiastically at church in choir, in fellowship, on visitations, as well as on the new building committee.

On the weekend before his unexpected passing, I had to leave on a trip to Montreal. At that time, as I prepared to leave to the train station, he said to me in Chinese,"You can go now, I do not want to inconvenience you." I wish now that I did not go on that trip, but God has a purpose for everything, and made it into a poetic moment... a final piece of wisdom from my Dad. His life was defined by putting the needs of others above his own. He was a beloved father who sacrificed everything for his family. Love, at its purest form, is sacrificial. It is by necessity inconvenient. May we stop trying to constantly satisfy our own desires, and put the needs of others- our family, our community, and the disadvantaged- above our own.

I am deeply missing his wisdom and energy. I weep over the missed opportunities, and I cannot yet imagine a future without the loving presence of my father.

Shanghai 1950, my dad is the little one in the center.

Playing in the family longtong, around 1950

When I was sick hospital, around 1983

Having a morning jian-bing, Shanghai, 2008

At a local park in Shanghai, 2008


Christmas Day, 2008

Where in the world am I? I haven't posted in several months. The past few months have been chaotic because of a family crisis. Also, having blogspot blocked in China didn't help. Within the last nine weeks, I have flown between Beijing and Toronto 3 times, or 31,839 km. In June, I left China for good, to be with my family in Toronto during a very uncertain time. Two weeks ago, I went to Montreal to get some paperwork sorted out. Got a chance to catch up with old friends, and had time to take in a little bit of the Jazz Fest. And now I'm back in Toronto, working on a few projects, and waiting for that next step.

I just moved into a new place in Lido, a neighborhood just outside the 4th ring road where many foreigners live. The apartment looks a bit extravagant with the classical detailing, but actually, the rent is nearly the same as my old ratty apartment in Dongzhimen. Also, all the modern conveniences are just downstairs- including two excellent bakeries, a Tex-mex restaurant, a Starbucks, an expat grocery store.. and everything else is within walking distance.

My room has a chaise.


The other bedroom has a nook!


Roommate Daniel cooking up something in a kitchen that has.. an OVEN (rare in Beijing)!


The living room


The courtyard outside with the shops. You can walk through these double-fronted shops to get to the street (every morning I walk through Starbucks to get to work).

Two videos somewhat related to each other.


Chick Throws Embarrassing Tantrum Over Soup - Watch more Funny Videos


Woman Loses Her Mind at the Airport - Watch more Funny Videos

For decades, urbanists have advocated for moving back downtown. Now, it's not simply a matter of lifestyle choice, or philosophy. It is starting to happen on a macro-scale, as a result of the economic downturn and of systemic changes in our social and economic geography. Richard Florida of the Atlantic writes about this phenomenon :

Suburbanization—and the sprawling growth it propelled—made sense for a time. The cities of the early and mid-20th century were dirty, sooty, smelly, and crowded, and commuting from the first, close-in suburbs was fast and easy. And as manufacturing became more technologically stable and product lines matured during the postwar boom, suburban growth dovetailed nicely with the pattern of industrial growth. Businesses began opening new plants in green-field locations that featured cheaper land and labor; management saw no reason to continue making now-standardized products in the expensive urban locations where they’d first been developed and sold. Work was outsourced to then-new suburbs and the emerging areas of the Sun Belt, whose connections to bigger cities by the highway system afforded rapid, low-cost distribution. This process brought the Sun Belt economies (which had lagged since the Civil War) into modern times, and sustained a long boom for the United States as a whole.

But that was then; the economy is different now. It no longer revolves around simply making and moving things. Instead, it depends on generating and transporting ideas. The places that thrive today are those with the highest velocity of ideas, the highest density of talented and creative people, the highest rate of metabolism. Velocity and density are not words that many people use when describing the suburbs. The economy is driven by key urban areas; a different geography is required.

Full article here.

Tangshan Museum of Urbanism

I worked on this project back in the spring of 2007, and within 18 months, it is completed. Amazing photos from URBANUS.

TVCC building in flames

Right now, on the last day of the Lunar Festival, Rem Koolhaas' TVCC hotel building is engulfed in flames. I wasn't able to get to the other side, but it is quite a dramatic scene right now in the CBD, with the 3rd ring closed to traffic, and the entire western facade is destroyed. Columns of troops were marching down the street, and spectators were told to move away from the building.

I think this is, perhaps, a sign of things to come.. a thorough questioning of current avant-garde architecture is due. In this current economic climate, it is tough to sell this kind of architecture, and even tougher to sell now with this TVCC fire, which might have moved up the building quite fast because of the continuous folding corrugated metal facade.

It is too bad that this building- highly anticipated in architectural circles here in Beijing- was destroyed just months before its opening...

A very interesting article in the WSJ about what it says about society when it accepts fake over real, simulated over real- most evidently shown in the past month from Yo Yo Ma's inauguration cello that produced no sound, to the lip-syncing Jennifer Hudson at the SuperBowl. 

"The performers, you see, care too much about their art to risk presenting something substandard. But what is art without risks? Any live performance is a high-wire act, and the wire can be wobbly. Nowadays, it seems that -- when it really counts -- musicians are willing to put the wire on the pavement and walk along it as if they were doing something just as daring as the real thing."

Makes me wonder too about what the public thinks about authenticity of materials in architecture. Again.. back to Ruskin (see below).

Google Books might just be the next big thing. Imagine no longer having to go to the library.. every book ever made is within your grasp, or for a small fee you can access periodicals and special collections. Here is one book that you can read for free online- Ruskin's Seven Lamps of Architecture:

Longqing Gorge

Just north of the Badaling Great Wall is Longqing Gorge. During this time of year, there is the Festival of Snow and Ice, which transforms the gorge into a light and color wonder world.

Chinese New Year 2009- Confucious Temple

Hoards of people and jammed traffic made it nearly impossible to go to Ditan Park today. So we went to a much quieter temple instead.

More fireworks photos

Happy Niu Year!

Went on the rooftop of Calvin's place in Fulicheng (just south of the CBD) to watch a panoramic view of the New Year fireworks. This is how crazy it is.

Skiing at Nanshan

Out in the arid brown mountains north of Beijing is a artificial-snow ski resort. It's not Whistler, but it satisfies the ski craving. Never saw so many Chinese people skiing before. Lots of French too. I went with a bunch of SHA colleagues there last week to go snowboarding and drink lots of pi jiu.