 |
|
|
AS Shanghai pretties up for World Expo 2010, the Bund and Huangpu riverfront are witnessing spectacular and innovative developments. Nancy Zhang takes a look at White Magnolia Plaza, the Peninsula Hotel and Oriental Fisherman's Wharf As the Beijing Olympics fades into memory, the World Expo is moving into the spotlight. While the World Expo 2010 structures are awe-inspiring, the rest of the city is also swept up in a blizzard of construction for its six months of intense international attention.
As well as improved infrastructure in airports and railway stations and an awe-inspiring increase in Metro lines, a glittering array of commercial office-retail-hotel developments is going up.
With the Expo site hugging both banks, the Huangpu riverfront has become the major focus of redevelopment.
Since Shanghai's "mother river" winds through the heart of its history ?? through foreign settlements to the industrial era to futuristic Pudong ?? current developments also look to the past and the future. Here are three major riverfront projects.
Fisherman's Wharf
Further north in Yangpu District, a major new leisure and entertainment development is underway.
Oriental Fisherman's Wharf covers 38,000 square meters and is meant to showcase the "coming out" of the Yangpu District. Its location on the previously grim industrial waterfront is significant - it marks Shanghai's move into the post-industrial period.
Comprised of shops and restaurants going all the way down to the waterfront with extensive piers and parks, the development reverses a tradition of walling off the river from residents.
According to Project Manager Bill Doerge of American architects Perkins + Will, this move follows in the footsteps of cities, such as Chicago, that reclaimed the waterfront as high-value places for living and leisure when industry moved elsewhere.
Indeed, the Oriental Fisherman's Wharf takes its name from the Fisherman's Wharf of San Francisco. But instead of restoring a historic fishing area, Shanghai's version pays tribute to a vanished fishing industry with "new forms and a new spirit," says Doerge.
The tower and lower structures are shaped in the smooth and shiny curves of a silver-skinned fish. An old industrial warehouse has also been saved and will be converted into a retail space for water-facing restaurants.
But according to Doerge, the larger vision of the project is to create the same sense of commerce and public activity at the water's edge as it once was.
Thus the project is also a catalyst for the development of the Yangpu area whose fortunes had declined with the decline of river industries.
Next to the Fisherman's Wharf site are two other plots marked out for future development to further rejuvenate the area, though details are scant. Peninsula Hotel
The historic Bund has received a massive, and much needed, facelift in preparation for the Shanghai World Expo. In typical Shanghai style, this work enhances historic landmarks with a view to updating them for luxurious new uses.
The Waitanyuan project, for example, is renovating an area of protected historic houses between the Huangpu River and the Suzhou Creek into upscale galleries, restaurants and boutiques.
Luxury hotels are an indispensable presence on the Bund, having witnessed many of its historically important moments.
In another twist of history, as the iconic Peace Hotel undergoes renovation, the company that operated its south building during the roaring 1920s and 1930s is making a comeback further along the Bund.
The opening of the new Peninsula Hotel late this year will mark the return of one of Asia's oldest hotel operators to Shanghai.
Hong Kong Shanghai Hotels Ltd (HSH) was a distinguished contributor to the glamor of the city between the two world wars with a portfolio that included the Palace Hotel and Astor House Hotel on the Bund.
|
