Year of the Billboard

Located on the banks of the Chang River in central China, Chongqing is typically foggy and gray. It's far less so, however, since the completion of the Jianianhua Center. Built at the gateway to the city, the mixed-use project is a billboard for commercial and civic ends—its name loosely translates as celebrating the good years. The 538,000-square-foot structure breaks down, on a more literal level, into two components organized around a C-shape atrium. An eight-story retail block is the one wrapped on four sides by the graphic element; a slender tower with 15 floors of office and retail space rises at the back.

The supergraphics were no afterthought. Ditching digital for analog from the start, associate partners Michael Duncan and Lonny Israel opted for a low-tech solution: three-sided vertical louvers characteristic of kinetic billboards worldwide. Vinyl-printed imagery is applied, like wallpaper, to each aluminum surface. Then a computer takes over, rotating sets of louvers individually every 11 seconds to create a constantly changing picture. "It's a gentle transformation, like choreography," Israel says. "Or a lava lamp in your living room."

Sandwiched between glazed panels in some places, the graphics can be read from public areas inside the building. Through the gaps left by the louvers, an adjacent park can also be glimpsed. "The treatment elevates the graphics from mere advertising," Duncan notes. An abstract floral went up in 2005. Its successor, Year of the Dog, was developer Chongqing Financial Street Real Estate Co.'s New Year's gift to the city for 2006.

From top: Signage schematics illustrate the potential for change at the multi-use Jianianhua Center in Chongqing, China. A public plaza and park face the Year of the Dog graphic in transition.

Opposite: The complete graphic measures 561 feet long by 108 feet high.

Clockwise from top left: The traditional Chinese craft of paper cutting inspired the Year of the Dog graphics. A member of the graphics team examined the color of vinyl swatches for the billboard. One Hundred Flowers Blooming, a title derived from a Mao Tse-tung quotation, wrapped all four sides of the retail block in 2005. Granite on the building's rear wall displays four different finishes. A montage shows the building during a transition sequence.

Clockwise from top left: Graphics louvers are shown in relation to the curtain wall. Year of the Dog comprises three sequences. The retail block's top floor has a 40,000-square-foot space for a future restaurant. Three louver compositions can be seen from inside the building. This Year of the Dog color study starts and completes the entire cycle.

PROJECT TEAM (GRAPHICS): BRAD THOMAS; ALAN SINCLAIR. PROJECT TEAM (ARCHITECTURE): KYE ARCHULETA; PATRICIA YEH; MAURICE HAMILTON; KIRIT SEDANI; MASON MILLER; ERICA DEITCHMAN; ERIC CHOU; ULI KUTSCHKA; UNHUI CHANG; SHANE CURNYN. PROJECT TEAM (INTERIORS): TAMARA DINSMORE; STEPHEN ALDRICH; HIROKI UCHIDA. PROJECT TEAM (STRUCTURE): MARK SARKISIAN; JOHN GORDON. PROJECT TEAM (MEP): LUKE LEUNG; PHILIP SAWYER. CURTAIN WALL INSTALLATION: SHENYANG YUANDA ALUMINUM INDUSTRY ENGINEERING CO. BILLBOARD INSTALLATION: SHENZHEN MINSURE SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY CO.