Resort/Tourism

Lake Songhua Resort

Changchun – Jilin Province, China

Developing a sustainable year-round resort that preserves local cultures and the environment

Lake Songhua Resort is located 15 km from downtown Jilin and includes approximately 20 square kilometers of land in the valley just north of Qing Mountain. With an ambitious three-year schedule to design and build a new resort on raw land and no experience in resort-based development, the developer relied on Design Workshop to lead the master planning and site planning effort and to help them understand what would distinguish this resort from the competition. Mountainworks (the ski area and facility designer) and Design Workshop collaborated to seamlessly integrate the ski mountain with the base area, which includes hotel and residential lodging, retail, restaurants, a spa, conference center and room for a variety of activities for all seasons, along with a riverfront park and lake that also serves as a reservoir for stormwater runoff. The design endeavors to encourage the greatest level of use and activity, spaces are designed to take advantage of wind and shade in humid summer months and sun in the colder winter months, so people are comfortable outside. By combining western ski resorts knowledge form the United States and Europe with eastern traditions and cultural nuances, this resort opened to much fanfare in January 2015.

Services Provided: Master Planning, Site Planning, Landscape Architecture, Retail Tenant Plan, Development Proforma