Originally named the Sino-Soviet Friendship Building, the Shanghai Exhibition Center was renamed shanghai exhibition center in 1968 and was not changed to its current name until 1984. What is less known is that it was designed by the famous Soviet architects Viktor Andreev, The Gisnova and his wife, and the structural engineer Lev Gochman, and the Sino-Soviet joint team came up with the design drawings in seven days, and it took only 10 months to complete and put into use, making this landmark that has been the center of Shanghai shine for decades.
Strong design team
In 1952, Li Fuchun, political councilor of the Central People's Government and deputy director of the Financial and Economic Committee, visited the Soviet Union, during which many Soviet leaders mentioned that they could hold some special exhibitions in China to display the great achievements made by the Soviet people in economic construction, culture, science and technology, and architectural art, and to increase the friendship between the two major socialist countries. Soon, China responded positively and decided to build large-scale exhibition venues in Beijing and Shanghai respectively, and to hold exhibitions on the achievements of Soviet economic and cultural construction, from which to learn, study and learn from the advanced experience of the Soviet Union and promote China's socialist construction.
In October 1953, the construction of the Beijing Exhibition Center officially began, and it was successfully completed in September 1954. In Shanghai, according to the agreement, the Exhibition of Achievements in Soviet Economic and Cultural Construction was to be held in March 1955 in the Sino-Soviet Friendship Building in Shanghai, and the Shanghai Municipal People's Government attached great importance to the establishment of the "Sino-Soviet Friendship Building Construction Committee", which was specifically responsible for the construction of the venue.
The Soviet Union sent architectural design experts to China to help carry out the design and construction of the exhibition hall, and the members of the Soviet expert group included and mrs. Andreev, the architects of the Central Design Institute of the Soviet Union, Mr. and Mrs. Gisnova, and the famous structural engineer Gochman. They were all Stalin prize winners. In the case of Andreyev, who was born in 1905 in Kharkiv, an industrial powerhouse in Ukraine, was versatile from an early age, especially in painting, which laid a good foundation for his architectural creation. After graduating from the Kharkiv State Academy of Arts, he worked on the general floor plan of the Industrial Zone of Great Zaporozhye and in the design of various buildings and residential projects. In 1934, he was admitted to the Moscow All-Soviet Institute of Architecture as a graduate student, and after graduating in 1937, he began a smooth career in architectural art, the most outstanding work was the mechanized exhibition hall in the All-Soviet Agricultural Exhibition Hall (later the Soviet National Economic Achievement Exhibition Hall), which became the most beautiful and main exhibition hall in the whole exhibition hall after its transformation in 1954. In 1949, Andreev was awarded a third prize by Stalin for his architectural achievements in the renovation of an original public rental house at 11 TverStrak, Moscow's main thoroughfare. In the early 1950s, he was involved in the design of large-scale projects such as the Czechoslovak Embassy in Moscow.
Specific to Shanghai, more than 70 personnel were sent, including Chen Zhi, chief architect of East China Architectural Design Company, Cai Xianyu, structural engineer, and Zhao Zhongyu, equipment engineer, chen Zhi served as the leader of the Chinese expert group, who graduated from the Department of Architecture of the University of Pennsylvania in February 1927, and then transferred to the Institute of Architecture of the University for further study, and after returning to China in September 1929, he taught in the Department of Architecture of Northeastern University, and together with Liang Sicheng, Lin Huiyin and others designed the overall, teaching buildings and dormitories of Jilin University. In February 1931, he co-founded the Zhao Shen Chen Zhi Architects Firm with Zhao Shen in Shanghai, and created a number of influential works in the history of modern Chinese architecture, such as the Foreign Ministry Building of the National Government in Nanjing at that time. On July 1, 1952, Chen Zhi, Zhao Shen, the architect of the joint firm Luo Bangjie, the engineer Cai Xianyu, Xu Zhao and others joined the East China Architectural Design Company, all of whom served as chief engineers. Chen Zhi participated in the Sino-Soviet Friendship Building project, designed Lu Xun's tomb, presided over the design of key projects such as Minhang Street and Zhangmiao Street, and made contributions to the construction of Shanghai. The design of the Sudanese Friendship Hall, which he presided over and guided, won a good international reputation, and in his later years, he conducted a lot of research on the protection, construction, and restoration of cultural relics in Shanghai, and achieved many results.
The combination of strong and strong will inevitably produce the effect of "1+1>2". This was fully reflected in the design and construction process of the Sino-Soviet Friendship Building.
A word of wine gave birth to the project
In March 1954, just as the construction of the Beijing Exhibition Center was in full swing, Andreev and his wife took the time to come to Shanghai to inspect the site of Hartung Garden, the site of the Sino-Soviet Friendship Building. In mid-April of that year, Gerherman also flew from Beijing to Shanghai for a field investigation, accompanied by Chen Zhi and other Chinese personnel throughout the whole process, and a banquet was set up to entertain him that night. Unexpectedly, Gochmann was very drunk at the dinner party and promised: "The project will start on May 1!" The next day, the Shanghai newspaper reported in the form of headlines, which made Gochman stupid! Knowing that he was talking too recklessly, he immediately picked up the phone, called Andreyev, who was far away in Beijing, and made a report. At that time, The East China Architectural Design Company sent Zhang Qianyuan and others to participate in the design of the Beijing Exhibition Hall to prepare for the construction of the Sino-Soviet Friendship Building in Shanghai. According to Zhang Qianyuan's recollection, after Andreyev answered the phone, he urgently convened a meeting of them to announce that the Soviet Union and the Chinese government knew the date when the Construction of the Sino-Soviet Friendship Building in Shanghai was about to start, "so we can only rely on collective efforts and do everything possible to achieve this goal." In any case, we cannot renege on our word!
The problem is that there are only 19 days left before the start date of "May 1" that Gochmann said, but there is no design drawing! Fortunately, Andreyev had been in the battlefield for a long time, had seen the world, and he took out his unique skills and quickly came up with a design draft of the Chinese pagoda-like architectural style. However, Chen Zhi was not satisfied with this and decisively overturned it, and after some heated consultations between China and the Soviet Union, the design team worked collectively to set a general floor plan, which was divided into five major parts according to the function: the central hall, the east wing, the west wing, the industrial hall, and the cinema. Next, according to this general drawing, the experts of both sides were divided into several professional groups, and the division of labor designed the overall plan, the frontal drawing and the cross-sectional drawing (a total of 2480 design drawings were completed during the entire construction process), and after just seven days, the design drawing of the building was prepared! This could be a marvel in the history of architectural design all over the world!
On April 15, the design was sent to Shanghai and was quickly approved by the Shanghai Municipal People's Government. On May 1, the groundbreaking ceremony of the Sino-Soviet Friendship Building was held, and on May 4, the construction of the building officially began. With the joint efforts of all the builders, in early March 1955, only 10 months later, the Sino-Soviet Friendship Building was erected under the concerted efforts of the majority of builders, and according to the construction and technical conditions at that time, the Chinese and Soviet laborers jointly created a perfect architectural miracle. The entire complex presents a Russian classical architectural style, partially combined with Baroque art characteristics, and the artists of the Shanghai Artists Association designed and produced a large number of ornate carvings and ornaments. The staff of Sanmin Glass Factory overcame and solved many technical difficulties to produce red glass with a heat resistance of 120 °C and -12 °C, which was covered with a five-pointed star at the top of the building and contained 125 light bulbs with a total power of 6300 watts. On March 15, more than 10,000 exhibits were arranged, and the exhibition was unprecedented. Lou Chenghao, an expert in the protection of old buildings in Shanghai, recalled: "After queuing up for a long time, it can be said that the whole city has moved. After reading it, I really sighed, saying that socialism is good, how can it be good? It was like the Soviet Union. Since then, the Sino-Soviet Friendship Building has become a landmark building in Shanghai, a famous attraction in the minds of tourists, postcards, stationery boxes and a series of cultural derivatives to push its image out of Shanghai and go abroad, and its function has also expanded from holding exhibitions to holding major conferences. (Written by Wu Jian, Chang Lijun)