JW Marriott Hotel Shanghai at Tomorrow Square

This guide to the JW Marriott Hotel Shanghai at Tomorrow Square follows architect John Portman, an Atlanta showman who first gambled on Shanghai in the 1990s with the nearby Shanghai Centre, then returned to bet bigger with this tower, finished in October 2003. You'll hear how the building's lower apartments and upper hotel are really two towers grafted together, hinged at an invisible seam where the glass skin twists forty-five degrees at the thirty-seventh floor. It traces Portman's design toward the crown at the very top, where four corners lean toward each other without quite touching. Listen for the moment the guide explains that seam as you look up from People's Square.