XINTIANDI: Wood+Zapata reinvents Shanghai's future byincluding its past.

In a city that has looked to the West for architectural inspiration during the past decade, not to mention during its colonial heyday, architect Benjamin Wood, did something that many people thought was impossible, he sold the idea of Shanghai back to its own residents. Wood has transformed two city blocks of forlorn residential buildings from the 1920s and '30s into a lively entertainment and retail quarter with chic fusion restaurants and some of China's favorite American brands, such as Hä agen-Dazs and Starbucks. By day, professionals lunch and make deals at tables lining walkways, while at night they chug pints of lager and tap their feet to sounds of live music.