Shanghai lures World Deco Congress
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E-mail Shanghai Daily, February 29, 2012
"But it is also true that the economics of urban redevelopment continue to argue against the preservation of historic structures in Shanghai, where property values have skyrocketed and the opportunities for developers to make obscene amounts of money through new construction have proliferated," he says.
"So the contradiction between preservation and redevelopment has sharpened as have the attitudes of all stakeholders."
He cites the renovations of the Hengshan Picardie Hotel and the Paramount Ballroom as examples of failed preservation. "My general principal is that the external fa?ade of an historic building should not be altered in any significant way, and that as much original material be retained in the interior as is practicable," he says.
Additional floors were added to both the hotel and the ballroom, which significantly altered their exteriors. In the case of the Picardie, the original interior was also destroyed.
Cranley is already planning Art Deco tours focusing on a variety topics for the 2015 World Congress on Art Deco.
Historic Shanghai already conducts a monthly drop-in tour of Art Deco buildings; it's a two-hour stroll that involves visiting the buildings and talking about the people who have lived or worked in them.
Cranley has selected four of the most significant and interesting Art Deco buildings in Shanghai for Shanghai Daily readers - a skyscraper, a lane neighborhood, a beautiful interior and a less-known building.
Art Deco sampler
The Park Hotel
For many decades after its completion in 1934, the 17-storey Park Hotel was for decades the tallest building in Asia and the most prominent physical landmark of Shanghai. Tourists and residents all wanted to have their photos taken with the Park Hotel's Art Deco facade in the background.
It is one of several dozen structures in Shanghai designed by Laslow Hudec, perhaps the most talented architect practicing in Shanghai between World War I and World War II. It was also a source of local pride, since it was the first skyscraper in Shanghai financed by Chinese companies.
Today it is dwarfed by newer structures in its vicinity, but none has played a more significant role in Shanghai history than the Park Hotel.
Lesser-known building Foncim Apartments
There are hundreds of Art Deco homes, apartments and civic buildings scattered across the city, most of them now simply "part of the scenery" and not recognized for their graceful design or significance in Shanghai history. But as one becomes attuned to the Art Deco aesthetic, these buildings suddenly appear in great numbers and raise many questions. Who commissioned this building, and who designed and built it? What were the different residents like over the years? Who lives or works there now, and what will be the fate of this Art Deco survivor?
This apartment complex at the intersection of Jianguo and Gao'an roads is very busy on the side facing Jianguo Road, but much quieter in the rear. "Quiet" is not the word to describe the mosaic tile floor of the entrance lobby with its bright colors and mesmerizing pattern. It is evidence that the Art Deco style encouraged designers to give play to their imaginations and to surprise and entertain.
Interior
Former Bank of Communications Building (today the Shanghai General Trade Union Building)
The exterior of the former Bank of Communications building, completed in 1947, demonstrates the clean, unadorned lines of late Art Deco design, with form, not ornamentation, providing visual interest. While form is dominant in the interior as well, the use throughout the lobby of sinuous brass fittings and colorful terrazzo surfaces creates an atmosphere combining stateliness and playfulness.
Like all of Shanghai's historic buildings, this one has an interesting story. The Bank of Communications was founded in 1908 during the Reform Period at the end of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), to provide Chinese participation in the largely international financing of railroad construction in China.
During the 1950s and 60s, all banks in China were merged into a monolithic state bank, the People's Bank of China. As part of the country's effort to re-introduce competition and market forces into the economy, separate banking corporations were recreated in the 1980s. The Bank of Communications brand was resuscitated in 1986, but its offices are in the financial district on the Pudong New Area side of the Huangpu River. While a branch of the Bank of Shanghai occupies the ground floor today, the rest of the building houses the offices of the Shanghai General Trade Union.
Lane neighborhood
Jinghua Cun
Combining the "gate-and-lane" format of all classic Shanghai lane neighborhoods and the rounded forms of the Streamline Moderne genre of Art Deco style, this lane is one of the best representations of Shanghai Art Deco.
Like all lilong in Shanghai, this neighborhood has a name: Jinghua Cun. Before large-scale urban redevelopment began in the 1990s, most of the city center was comprised of lane neighborhoods, and published directories were organized according to the names of the neighborhoods. The vast majority of lilong have been razed to make way for the glass-and-steel skyscrapers for which Shanghai has become famous, taking with them the intimate feeling and human scale of the lanes.
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