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| May 2, 2005 Lawrence Ting Remembered by his Architects For John Kriken and Carolina Woo, Mr. Ting was truly an unforgettable character. We remember him as a man of high ideals, vision and humanity. Before we worked together, he clearly had a vision for the future of HCM City and how his project, Saigon South, could make a positive contribution to the city. He correctly began the work with the Expert Processing Zone to learn Vietnam's politics and development process. He anticipated the need for a new Power Plant to better guarantee continuous service to the area. From the project's first inception, he understood the benefit of the Saigon South's closeness to the Central District, the opportunity to create a city-wide transportation improvements and even the importance in green shade giving landscape necessary to create a livable city. We remember his clear and simple explanations of complex problems. For example, the leaky pipe analogy for the Doi Canal. ¡§Plug the leaks to increase the water flow and quality will improve¡¨. He studied traditional Vietnam construction methods to find the most simple and appropriate solutions to problems. Through all of our city design discussions, he listened carefully. He quickly learned about designing cities and we learned about building cities from his insightful observations and judgement. There are so many memories of the first beginnings of our Saigon South time together. Our competition entry with the ¡§Red Lobster¡¨ Plan created by our drawing of red colored islands surrounded by blue rivers. Then there was our big presentation to the Mayor of HCM City, when our two slide projector show overpowered City Halls electric capacity and we were all plunged into darkness. On the tenth anniversary ceremony in January 2004, Mr. Ting and I were walking together and he whispered to me ¡§John, we could not have done this without you¡¨. Hearing this from someone I so respected, I was speechless. Latter, I would think of the answer, Mr. Ting, we could not have done what has been achieved without your leadership. Sincerely, John Kriken, FAIA, AICP Consulting Partner |
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