Benjamin T. Wood, AIA, received his Masters in Architecture from MIT in 1984 after a career as a jet fighter pilot and restaurateur. Within a few years, Ben Wood was made Partner at Benjamin Thompson and Associates in Cambridge, MA and was in charge of the redevelopment of Spitalfields Market (3 million square feet) in London and Minato Mirai complex (3.5 million square feet) in Yokohama, Japan. Ben founded Thompson and Wood and then Wood and Zapata in Cambridge, MA in the 1990’s, authored master plans for Revitalization of New York’s Times Square (1993), Lincoln Road and the Art Deco District in Miami Beach (1992), Playhouse Square in Cleveland Ohio (1991), and developed growth management strategies for the Rocky Mountain resort towns of Snowmass, Aspen, and Telluride in Colorado and Park City in Utah.

His love for travel and architecture brought him to Shanghai, China where he set up Shanghai Studio, an architectural practice based in Shanghai – one of his favorite cities in the world.

Today, Ben is a Shanghai based architect who collaborates with the world’s most innovative leaders and thinkers to design environments that support life. The goal is simple – to create places, mostly outdoors, where people meet.