Not so sustainable housing in Shanghai

The city of Shanghai is booming, but one bad building can spoil the whole party. This week it was learned by the world that a cost cutting action may have been the reason for the collapse of this nearly finished 13 story apartment complex, which left one construction worker dead.

Ironically, city construction authorities had praised the developer’s work in this area of Shanghai back in 2007, but clearly they're not living up to that acclaim now.

The purported reason for this collapse? Workers dug an underground garage on one side of the building while a heap of soil grew up to 10 meters high on the other, according to an investigation team.

--Nick Fasulo is an account coordinator at Solomon McCown & Company. He can be reached by email at nfasulo@solomonmccown.com