Expo Place Completion Marks a New Chapter for Shanghai's Former World Expo Grounds

GP is pleased to announce the completion of Expo Place, marking a major milestone in the long-term evolution of the former 2010 Shanghai World Expo site and transforming a once-fragmented landscape into a cohesive, human-scaled mixed-use district designed for everyday urban life.

Conceived as a response to the challenges faced by post-mega-event sites worldwide, Expo Place reimagines a portion of the former Expo grounds that had been left with abandoned infrastructure, half-built foundations, and unrealized development plans following the Expo, which welcomed more than 73 million visitors and symbolized China’s emergence on the global stage.

“World Expo sites are among the most difficult urban environments to repurpose,” said James Zheng, AIA, LEED AP, CEO and president of GP. “They are built for a moment in time, not for the long arc of city life. Expo Place demonstrates how thoughtful design, adaptive reuse, and programmatic diversity can turn a temporary global stage into a permanent, thriving neighborhood that creates long-term value for both the city and its people.”

Rather than erasing the site’s complex history, GP, in collaboration with retail architect Link Design Group, developed a strategy to embrace it. Extensive below-grade structures originally intended for a single-use hotel development were carefully studied, retained and adaptively reused, forming the foundation for a diverse mixed-use program while significantly reducing demolition waste and embodied carbon. Above ground, the project integrates twin Class A office towers, boutique office villas, layered retail and two hotels, including Asia’s first Thompson-branded property and a Mumian hotel. Below grade, direct connections link the district to active retail spaces and mass transit.

At the heart of the design is the creation of a contemporary town center that feels intimate, walkable and active throughout the day and night. Rejecting a monolithic mega-development aesthetic, each building is articulated with its own identity, while pedestrian streets, sunken plazas, and multilevel indoor-outdoor connections draw inspiration from the scale and spatial richness of traditional Shanghai alleyways.

“Our goal was to design a place where daily life unfolds naturally,” said Paul De Santis, Assoc. AIA, LEED AP, partner and design director at GP. “Instead of a single mega-structure, we created a layered urban fabric—one that balances density with human scale, architecture with landscape, and private development with meaningful public space.”

Landscape plays a central role throughout the district, from activated ground-level plazas to rooftop gardens and outdoor dining terraces that soften the architecture and strengthen connections to the riverfront beyond. Vehicular circulation is pushed to the perimeter and separated across multiple levels, creating a protected pedestrian realm and seamless access to public transportation.

Sustainability is embedded in the project’s design framework. Adaptive reuse of existing infrastructure is complemented by perimeter-only vehicle access, extensive pedestrian networks, native planting, green roofs, and outdoor terraces that mitigate heat-island effects and enhance biodiversity. Exterior sun-shading systems reduce solar heat gain while doubling as an architectural lighting feature at night, and operable windows promote natural ventilation during milder seasons.

For Shanghai, Expo Place serves as a compelling example of how high-profile temporary event sites can evolve into self-sustaining urban neighborhoods. By restoring continuity to the former Expo grounds, supporting surrounding cultural assets, and contributing to the city’s broader riverfront revitalization, the project establishes a precedent for the future redevelopment of mega-event sites worldwide.