|
| |
No 3 THE UNION BUILDING - SHANGHAI
No. 3. The
Union Building
is a building on
the Bund
in
Shanghai,
China.
It is located at No. 3, the Bund
(formerly no. 4).Completed in
1916,
the building was used by a number of insurance companies. The six
-storey building was the first work in
Shanghai
of P&T Architects and Surveyors (Palmer & Turner), and was
the first building in Shanghai to use a steel structure. The building occupied
2241 square metres, with a floor
area of 13760 square metres. Because it had a narrow frontage onto the
Bund, the main door was located
on the adjacent Guangdong Road. The building is in
Neo-Renaissance
style with a symmetrical facade,
but with some
Baroque style
details. The roof features a domed corner pavillion.
In
1937,
the
Japanese Imperial Army
threatened
Shanghai.
Being unable to indemnify war damages, the
insurance companies had their assets frozen. The
Union Bank
then purchased the building. In
1949
the
Union Bank evacuated from
Shanghai
in the wake of the Communist takeover. From
1953
the building
was used by the Shanghai Civil Architecture and Design Institute. In
1997
a private equity fund from
Singapore purchased the building, and in
2004
converted it to a "high-class" shopping centre, called
"Three on the Bund".
Text copyright Peter Hibberd 2008
|
