State of the art in 1930 survives to entertain today
Shanghai Concert Hall, a rare surviving example of a Western classic building designed by Chinese architects in old Shanghai, was the work of Fan Wenzhao and Zhao Shen, both graduates of the University of Pennsylvania.
“They are representative figures of China’s first-generation modern architects,” says Tongji University associate professor Qian Feng.
The three-story concert hall was built in 1930 as the Nanking Theatre, a cinema, on today’s Yan’an Road E.
China Press called it “Shanghai’s New $500,000 Cinema” and said “its structure embodies most up-to-date features in construction” in October 1929, ahead of its official opening on March 26, 1930.
“The entire structure, which reveals many novel features both in point of artistic decoration and those designed with a view to the comfort of patrons, is being erected at a cost of more than $500,000 exclusive of the cost of the site,” the report said. “The most novel of these features will be the installation of an air-conditioning plant, by which air washed free of all dust will be circulated through the auditorium, at a temperature of from 70 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit throughout the years and its relative humidity will be scientifically controlled and adjusted. This apparatus is quite similar to those installed in the Roxy and the Paramount theaters in New York.”
Invested by Chinese-owned Shanghai Amusement Co Ltd, the cinema was equipped with Western electric sound projectors for Movietone and Vitaphone films.
The building’s design is modified renaissance. The facade features arcades built with colored stucco and artificial stones. The structure had ancient Romanesque pillars and marble stairs in the north hall, a huge dome inside, as well as parapets with delicate carvings. During the early years of the theater, movies, acrobatics, circuses, dramas and traditional Chinese operas were put on here.
The China Press report said: “The arcades are surmounted by a sculpture panel with a suitable theme in relief. The side elevations are in Taishan face brick and artificial stone. The walls of the auditorium will be treated with a series of Ionic pilasters and arches decorated with rich draperies. The ceiling will be in rich, low relief. The lighting will be indirect.”
Professor Qian notes that both the architects changed to Chinese renaissance and then to an utterly modern style after creating the Western classic building.
Zhao returned to China in 1927 to join Fan’s firm. He later cofounded the Allied Architects, one of the two leading Chinese design firms in modern China — the other being Tianjin-based Messrs Kwan, Chu and Yang, designers of the Shanghai No. 1 Shopping Center on Nanjing Road E.
“Zhao’s style is pretty much like his personality — simple, sedate and elegant, stressing functionality and economic construction. It’s interesting that both Zhao and Fan took part in the competition for designing Dr Sun Yat-sen’s mausoleum in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province. They both won prizes, but the mausoleum was finally designed by another Chinese architect named Lu Yanzhi,” Qian says.
As modern China’s first-generation architects, Zhao and Fan designed some “Chinese renaissance” buildings which incorporated both Chinese and Western elements, such as the YMCA building with its upturned eaves and large plate-glass windows.
“And they both gave up the style,” Qian says. “Zhao’s firm launched a campaign to abandon big Chinese roofs while Fan seemed even more radical. He called on correction of this ‘big roof mistakes,’ especially after European architect Carl Lindbom and Ch Wu Zi’ang joined his
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