The Korea Society looks at Songdo and their collaboration with Cisco in the informative and insightful presentation. I am a long time supporter of Songdo IBD and Gale International, the master developer.
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By Don Southerton, Songdo IBD CityTalk Editor,
Great article in JoongAng Ilbo on Songdo International Business District (IBD) and Gale International Chairman Stan Gale. In the article, Stan points out the strategic position of the Incheon International Airport and Songdo IBD play in the new emerging global commerce communities (aerotropolis) that center around major hub airports.
http://media.joinsmsn.com/article/925/5220925.html?ctg
“2001년 당시로서는 바닷물만 가득한 곳에 국제도시를 개발해 달라는 한국 정부의 요청을 받았을 때 ‘너무 위험한 발상’이라고 생각했습니다.”
송도국제도시의 핵심인 국제업무단지는 미국 동부 보스턴에 본사를 둔 게일 인터내셔널이 개발을 맡고 있다. 이 회사 스탠 게일(61) 회장은 “우여곡절도 많았지만 이제 ‘상전벽해(桑田碧海)’라는 소리를 듣게 되니 보람과 책임감을 함께 느낀다”고 말했다. 그는 최근 미국에서 출간된 에어로트로폴리스(공항도시)서문에 ‘가장 이상적인 공항도시를 개발해 낸 장본인’으로 서술되기도 했다.
-처음부터 송도국제도시를 공항도시로 개발할 생각이었나.
“송도가 당시에는 갯벌에 불과했지만 인천국제공항과 인천대교·경제자유구역이라는 비전을 보고 뛰어들었다. 송도 개발의 핵심은 중국 및 아시아 지역에 거점을 두고 있는 다국적 기업들의 ‘니즈’를 충족시키는 것이다. 따라서 인천공항을 중심으로 글로벌 비즈니스에 필요한 모든 요소들을 적재적소에 배치하는 마스터플랜 아래 최첨단·친환경 공법을 적용해 왔다.”
-외국 기업들은 송도의 에어로트로폴리스 및 콤팩트·스마트시티의 개념에 대해 어떤 반응인가.
“에어로트로폴리스는 아직 해외에서도 생소하지만 e커머스를 통한 글로벌 무역이 대세를 이루면서 기업들의 수요가 크게 높아지고 있다. 외국 기업들은 송도가 최첨단 IT기술과 최고 수준의 정주(定住)환경을 갖춘 데다 동일 공간에 국제공항이 확보돼 글로벌 기업도시로 클 것으로 확신하고 있다.”
-최근 기업유치 등 가시적인 성과가 나타나고 있는데.
＂해외에서 먼저 송도의 가치를 알고 시스코 등 최첨단 기업들도 입주하고 있다. 국내 대기업들의 투자도 송도의 비전이 인정받은 결과다. 2016년 최종 완공까지 최선을 다할 것이다.”
(Thanks goes to Steven Bammel for sharing this news item.)
By Don Southerton, Songdo IBD CityTalk Editor
Just had the pleasure of watching Chadwick International School headmaster Dr. Jorge Nelson via Cisco Global Education Forum.
Jorge is a passionate and forward-thinking educator. Like Songdo IBD, Jorge raised the bar for where education needs to be centered. I suggest you take a few minutes and go to the Cisco Education Forum website.
To view, go to : http://www.inxpo.com/events/ciscoeduforum/ , register, then steer your way to the Primary / Secondary Schools Breakout.
For a sneak peak on Dr. Nelson presentation, click here JorgeNelson_Chadwick_International
Classroom 2.0 Virtual Q & A (ISS Director of Curriculum James Kelly)
By Don Southerton, Songdo IBD CityTalk Editor and Chief Blogger
Songdo IBD’s vision for the future includes intergrating people and technology. Recently International School Songdo educators benefitted from Cisco Webex technology. Conducted by Bridging Culture Worldwide CEO Don Southerton an interactive virtual classroom ( Classroom 2.0) workshop discussed Korean eduction and its strong ties to the workplace. Following a short lecture, Southerton and the group of veteran educators engaged in virtual Q & A.
ISS Korean Culture Training and Cisco Webex Technology Video
Songdo IBD Central Park
By Don Southerton, Songdo IBD CityTalk Editor and Chief Blogger
Songdo IBD continues to draw global attention. This recent Forbes magazine article points out the strong technology partnerships (CISCO, UT, and 3M) Gale International and the Songdo IBD project have attracted.
Very Smart Cities by Elizabeth Woyke,
SONGDO, SOUTH KOREA –
John B. Hynes III got the jitters when he first spied the mudflats of Songdo, South Korea, in June 2001. How would he transform the expanse of muck into a smart urban center with an integrated network of utility, transportation, real estate and recreation systems?
Eight years and 82 globe-crossing flights later, Hynes is far more assured about Songdo’s prospects. The man-made island, 40 miles southwest of Seoul, is now dotted with more than 100 buildings, including a 7,800-person apartment complex, a massive convention center and a Sheraton hotel.
Hynes’ employer, New York-based real estate developer Gale International, estimates the 1,500-acre city is 40% underway. Completion is slated for 2014. The cost: $35 billion, making it perhaps the world’s largest private real estate venture in history.
Songdo’s backers, which include Gale, Morgan Stanley and Korean steelmaker Posco, are betting the city can become a northeast Asia trade hub, linking nearby Shanghai and Tokyo. It will also be a model for a new Gale project, Meixi Lake, to be built in China’s Hunan Province starting later this year. Both cities will be “smart, sustainable and technologically ambitious,” says company Chairman Stanley C. Gale.
To conform to the U.S. Green Building Council’s energy-efficient LEED standards, Songdo buildings are incorporating special window glazing and ventilated double facades. Greywater and rain will be collected for irrigation and use in cooling towers. A network of underground pneumatic pipes will move solid waste, reducing the need for garbage trucks.
Songdo is also a petri dish for green transportation schemes. Water taxis already zip along the city’s seawater canals. Soon, a citywide bike rental service modeled on Paris’ Velibre system and a car-share system will be added. Buses powered by fuel-cells are expected within the next two to three years.
With its more than 40% green space, including a $220 million park, the city is designed to feel as airy as Vancouver. (Gale estimates Songdo will eventually house 65,000 residents and 300,000 workers.) Hynes is particularly proud of the park, which is dubbed Central Park after the New York City landmark. “Convincing the government and our partners that 100 acres of prime land should be reserved for a park was a tough sell,” he notes.
Meixi Lake will be helmed by the same architects–Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates and Arup–and follow a similar philosophy, but with a 400-acre lake instead of a park.
Data networks developed by Cisco are key to both projects. The company plans to deploy video networking technology and energy management software tools city-wide and meld municipal systems, such as education, health care, transportation and hospitality into a common network. Wim Elfrink, Cisco’s chief globalization officer, says Cisco has identified 20 services that could be linked, but will start with six or seven. The company declined to specify its investment in Songdo, but says it has committed $2 billion to South Korean projects over the next three to five years.
Residents will be able to chat with their children’s teachers, consult doctors and apply for city permits and licenses via flat screen monitors in their apartments. Buildings will be intelligent enough to guide cars to available parking spots and queue up elevators as people approach. Hotels will recognize regular guests and automatically adjust room system settings.
The projects leverage Cisco’s earlier work with schools, stadiums and utility grids. “All our expertise is coming together in Songdo,” says Elfrink. Like Gale, Cisco views Songdo as a model it can replicate around the world. It plans to build a global center for “intelligent urbanization” in Songdo and work on 10 similar projects in places like India and Saudi Arabia over the next two years. “It’s an adjacent business we expect a lot from,” says Elfrink.
United Technologies and 3M are also providing technology to Songdo and Meixi Lake. 3M is making digital signs and “stick-on film” to be used throughout both cities. UTC is providing energy-saving elevators and water-cooled air conditioning units designed to cut energy use by 20%.
Despite all the talent involved, building Songdo has hardly been a smooth path. As a city designed and constructed with private financing by a foreign company, Songdo has few precedents. Tying together people’s home, work and civic lives online has required new regulations. “This is an entirely new industry,” says Cisco’s Elfrink. “We have new questions to answer.”
Permit delays pushed the opening of Songdo’s flagship commercial building, the $500 million Northeast Asia Trade Tower, from December to late summer 2010. Gale says the building’s mixed-use nature–a combination of retail, commercial and residential space that is unusual in Korea–was the main reason for the hold-up and that all necessary permits have now been obtained.
Gale also tussled with the Korean government over a rule that the majority of students in Songdo’s International School be non-Korean–a challenge when most current Songdo residents are Korean nationals. Gale says the issue has been resolved and the school will open this September for grades kindergarten through six.
Gale is currently focusing on luring corporations to Songdo under the theory that people follow jobs. The project will be a success, says Hynes, when Songdo is full and the areas around it are “buzzing.”
Hynes isn’t expecting to see a return on Gale’s billions for two to three years. First he has to finish covering the mudflats.
By Don Southerton, Songdo IBD CityTalk Editor and Chief Blogger
On Saturday August 22 PST (Sunday August 23 in Korea) from Cisco’s Irvine, CA offices, I shared an amazing experience with a team of new Korea-based International School Songdo ISS) educators. My work centers on training and coaching executives and teams on Korean culture, norms, history, and expectations. I was thrilled to use Cisco’s TP 3000 telepresence technology to provide the new ISS team with insights into Korea and Songdo IBD.The training session aligned with both Songdo IBD core value as an ubiquitous city, and ISS as a model for Classroom 2.0 education. (For more information of ISS teaching model see Headmaster Dr. Jorge Nelson’s December 2008 comments of Learning- centric teaching).
John Chambers, Mayor Ahn Sang-soo, and Stan Gale
By Don Southerton, Songdo IBD CityTalk Editor and Chief Blogger
Korea media notes that Cisco Systems, the world’s No. 1 network equipment maker and the Songdo IBD have signed a MOU to develop the Cisco Global Center for Intelligent Urbanization (CGCIU). The U.S. network equipment maker will provide technologies for energy saving and urban management.
Cisco Chairman John Chambers pointed out that the Songdo IBD project would launch Cisco’s vision of advanced integrated urban management network technology, which goal is to improve the quality of living.
Gale International Chairman Stan Gale shared that Cisco’s decision to select Songdo IBD for the CGCIU world headquarters highlights Songdo IBD’s ability to attract leading global companies to South Korea, which in turn will spur growth and create jobs.