Designer of edifices
(JOSHUA SHI)
07/26/2002
Of all the architects' firms of old Shanghai, Palmer & Turner Architects and Surveyors left the city with the richest architectural heritage.In 1891, two members of Britain's Royal Society of Architects, Clement Palmer and A. Turner, set up a firm of architects in Hong Kong. In 1911, they opened a branch in Shanghai. The branch had a Chinese name - Gonghe Yanghang, or Kungho Hong. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, it was the most powerful and substantial firm of architects in Shanghai. The Union Building at No 4 the Bund - completed in 1916 - was the first designed by Palmer & Turner in Shanghai. It was the first building in Shanghai to have a steel frame. The Palmer & Turner office was for a period located in the building too. Wing On Company building - now Hualian Department Store on Nanjing Donglu - was also designed by the British firm. It was finished in 1918. The company was the most successful department store in old Shanghai. In the 1920s, the firm designed the Yangtze Insurance Building, Glen Line Building, Chartered Bank, Hongkong & Shanghai Banking Corp, the Customs House, and the Cathay Hotel. The Cathay Hotel, also known as the Sassoon House, marked the beginning of the modern style in the city. The building takes the shape of a large "A" with a pyramid-shaped bronze roof at the top. It resembles the Headquarters of Montgomery Ward in Chicago, built in 1900. At the end of the 1920s, an era dominated by neo-classicism and eclecticism, the Sassoon House was at the vanguard. The simple geometric decorations of its facade brought a lighter style to the Bund, which was dominated by heavy classical architecture. After the landmark Sassoon House, the firm designed the Asiatic Society Building, Embarkment Building, Hamilton House, Metropole Hotel, Broadway Mansions, Grosvenor House, Bank of China and Mitsu Bank. The Japanese invasion of Shanghai brought the city's construction to a standstill. After the war China was plunged into a civil war and the firm's business remained sluggish. After Liberation in 1949, the company retreated to Hong Kong. In the 1990s, the firm, now known as Palmer & Turner Architects and Engineers, made a comeback on the mainland, designing a number of new landmark buildings that include the Harbour Ring and the CITIC Square in Shanghai, Oriental Plaza in Beijing, Sheraton Suzhou Hotel & Towers in Suzhou and Shangri-La Dingshan Hotel in Nanjing.
|
