When Yao Ming emerges from the hotel, the crowd erupts. Police can barely keep the throng of screaming fans from enveloping the 7-foot-5 giant. Bill Duffy, right, represents three of 2002's top ...

NBA star Yao Ming, architect Yoshio Taniguchi, and other dignitaries break ground for the Asia Society Texas Center on May 15, 2008. (Richard J. Carson/Asia Society) In the summer of 2002, when the ...