Yangon, Myanmar: SOM is providing pro bono urban design and historic district planning services to the Yangon Heritage Trust (YHT), an organization actively conserving historic, downtown Yangon in Myanmar. This area represents one of the most significant surviving examples of colonial and indigenous architecture in Southeast Asia.
In late August, SOM designers conducted a one-week workshop with YHT leaders to map out a strategy for historic Yangon. It is expected that this workshop will lead to future collaboration regarding the conservation of Yangon’s significant architectural heritage.
Through this effort, SOM is leveraging its past preservation planning experience throughout the region, such as the Xintiandi district in Shanghai and Weishan Heritage Valley, a project to preserve the capital of the ancient Nanzhao Kingdom in China.
About Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM) is one of the leading architecture, interior design, engineering, and urban planning firms in the world, with a 75?year reputation for design excellence and a portfolio that includes some of the most important architectural accomplishments of the 20th and 21st centuries. Since its inception, SOM has been a leader in the research and development of specialized technologies, new processes and innovative ideas, many of which have had a palpable and lasting impact on the design profession and the physical environment. The firm’s longstanding leadership in design and building technology has been honored with more than 1,700 awards for quality, innovation, and management. The American Institute of Architects has recognized SOM twice with its highest honor, the Architecture Firm Award — in 1962 and again in 1996. The firm maintains offices in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., London, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Mumbai, and Abu Dhabi.