This is a much-anticipated return, a real "ten years of sharpening a sword".
Yesterday (17th), the 110-year-old city government building on Hankou Road, Jiangxi Middle Road, unveiled the "Bund Old City Government" brand to attract investment from all over the world.
This year marks the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Shanghai. Seventy-five years ago, the Shanghai Municipal People's Government was inaugurated in the old municipal government building, and Shanghai's first five-star red flag was raised on the roof of the building. On the occasion of the first anniversary of the liberation of Shanghai, Mayor Chen Yi wrote an inscription: "The people of Shanghai will build a new Shanghai of the people according to their own will." The marble tablet engraved with the inscription is inlaid on the wall of the main hall, inspiring later generations to build the people's city with heart and affection.
Ten years ago, the old municipal government building became the first project to start as a demonstration project for urban renewal in Shanghai and the comprehensive renovation of the second façade of the Bund. Ten years later, the original design intention of the building body was completed, and the scene of Mayor Chen Yi's office was reproduced as before, realizing "reproducing the style and reshaping the function", and changing the "old" into a "classic".
The old municipal government building, which is important in both architecture and history, will return to the city and serve the city with a new look and a complex functional format.
Fix the old as before
The old city hall took a whole decade to renovate because it was too important and too difficult.
In 2014, according to the overall deployment of the Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government, the Huangpu District Government signed a cooperation agreement with Shanghai Real Estate Group to establish the Bund Old Construction Company as a joint venture between the Bund Investment Group and the Shanghai Real Estate Group's Real Estate Investment Company, and officially launched the protective comprehensive renovation of the old municipal government building in 2015, becoming the first project to start the urban renewal demonstration project in Shanghai and the comprehensive renovation of the second façade of the Bund.
The designer relish a detail, after the renovation was started, the hardware of the building's windows was carefully dismantled and preserved as soon as possible, because they have been properly maintained, these 100-year-old pure copper handles can still shine under the refraction of the sun after being reinstalled.
There is more than one pure copper handle that has stood the test of time.
The 160 neighborhood renovation project, where the old city hall is located, started with expropriation, property rights collection, and land acquisition, and there was no ready-made experience to follow at that time, and there was no mature policy to support it. "The project team spent 5 years working and innovating while summarizing, completing the preliminary work, and then spent 5 years of excellence and meticulous craftsmanship to complete all the transformations," said Zhao Jian, general manager of Shanghai Real Estate Investment Company and chairman of the Bund Old Construction Company, from the start of the international solicitation of plans in 2015 to the basic finalization of the design plan in 2020, during which there were nearly 30 versions of the program process draft, and there were countless seminars, expert meetings, and report meetings.
In the process, we not only accessed historical materials from the Shanghai Urban Construction Archives, the British Archives and various historical records, but also used laser point clouds to scan the entire building and establish a huge database to ensure the accuracy of the design benchmark drawings.
Chen Libin, partner and general manager of David Chipperfield Architectural Solutions Consulting (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., recalled that there were not too many difficulties in repairing the old building, but there was some controversy over how to complete the building enclosure. As we all know, according to the design concept, the old city hall building should be a boxy enclosed building, because there was a public concession patrol house in the southwest corner of it when it was completed, it has not been completed for nearly 100 years, showing an "L" gap.
What kind of building is built on this gap? In the end, under the guidance of the restoration principles of respecting history and scientific protection, a new building with a simple shape was integrated into the old building itself, and the stone materials complemented the old building in terms of volume and color.
The difficulty is also reflected in the construction. In addition to the above-ground buildings, the old city hall building also has a distinctive atrium, as well as a forward-looking underground space. The atrium now has a fourth-floor white-water red brick historic building, and there is also a large auditorium in history. During the renovation process, the "Red Building" underwent two displacements, so that a new building paying tribute to the original auditorium was built on the same site, and a parking lot with a capacity of 300 parking spaces was completed underground.
Apple of my eye
In front of the eyes, how to reshape the commercial function of the old city hall building has become the focus of attention of all parties.
After the completion of the construction of the old municipal government building project, the main buildings include the street enclosed building, courtyard red building, courtyard multi-functional building, underground space, etc., with an above-ground construction area of about 42,000 square meters, about 3,000 square meters of public open public space in the courtyard of the enclosed building, and an underground construction area of about 26,000 square meters, providing about 300 parking spaces.
It is reported that Fushang Asset Group will be responsible for the operation of the old city building, investment and property management, in the view of Chen Xiaoou, chairman of the group, the old city hall building should be both international and localized, from the old city building overlooking the 632-meter-high Shanghai Tower, is a "vertical" Shanghai, 6 kilometers long Bund is a "horizontal" Shanghai, then the old city hall building is a pearl of the second façade of the Bund, "in this sense, the old city hall building may be more difficult than the Shanghai Tower." ”
It is reported that there have been enterprises including the old audio-visual products company to attract investment, Chen Xiaoou believes that the culture + office and other complex forms will be the future investment direction of the old city building.
Specifically, it is positioned as a classic historical district of high-end modern service industry, forming a complex business layout of 70% office, 20% culture and 10% commerce, creating an international financial office service platform, a cultural benchmark for the central activity area and a shared public space with the city. The main part of the project office plans to introduce global and Asia-Pacific regional headquarters office enterprises; The cultural and commercial part plans to introduce brand customers of culture and art, style catering and specialty retail brands with brand appeal, and at the same time, through the activation of public space and public functions, the project will become a landmark urban destination.
In the near future, the atrium and circular roof platform will be opened to the public for the first time, providing citizens and tourists with a new place for leisure and entertainment, and a new perspective on the Bund scenery.
The old city hall building is one of the important urban renewal projects of the second façade of the Bund, and in the future, 141 old buildings with different styles and long histories in this area will be renovated one after another, continuing the historical context, protecting historical buildings, and recreating the historical style. In the future, the Bund area will become a world-class financial and business center, an open window for international cooperation and exchanges, a high-quality public activity center and a highland for the convergence of innovative elements at the top of the tower.