Broadway Mansions - Architectural Features

Architectural Features

According to Professor Anne Warr,

Despite the uncertainties of the 1930s, in particular the increasing Japanese control over Chinese territory, the growing influence of the Communist Party, and the corruption of the Nationalist Government, Shanghai boomed. The first American style Art Deco skyscraper appeared on The Bund just as the American economy collapsed and Shanghai was about to enter its most dynamic decade. At the end of the 1920s as Europe and America went into financial depression, shiploads of unemployed foreigners arrived in Shanghai seeking their fortune. In three years, Shanghai’s foreign population almost doubled, from 36,500 in 1930 to 70,000 in 1933. Architects abandoned the Beaux-Arts styles of earlier decades and whole-heartedly embraced Art Deco and Modernism....During this period, clashing concepts of nationalism, imperialism and internationalism were reflected in the architecture. Internationalism from New York permeated Shanghai in the form of skyscrapers and the latest Hollywood movies, while Japanese imperialism filtered into every corner.

The Broadway Mansions was designed by Mr. B. Flazer, and the structural engineer who supervised construction was John William Barrow, both of the architectural firm of Palmer & Turner. Palmer & Turner, who designed many of Shanghai's major buildings (13 buildings on the Bund alone), was one of the oldest architectural firms in the world, and was founded by British architect William Salway (1844–1902) in Hong Kong in 1868. British architect Clement Palmer (1857–1952) joined the firm in 1883, while structural engineer Arthur Turner (born 1858) joined the next year. Palmer and Turner became partners in 1891. In 1912 they established a branch in Shanghai managed by British architect, George Leopold "Tug" Wilson (1881–1967). Palmer & Turner designed many of the buildings on The Bund, including the Neo-Renaissance style Union Building (1916), its first work in Shanghai, and the first building in Shanghai to use a steel structure; the Neo-Renaissance Mercantile Bank of India, London and China building (1916); the Yokohama Specie Bank Building (1920s); and the neo-classical HSBC Building (1921–1923); the neighbouring Greek Revival neo-classical Customs House (1927). Wilson had supervised construction of the majority of British buildings along The Bund until their new client, Sir Victor Sassoon tilted them towards Art Deco and Modernism at the end of the 1920s, and such buildings as the Art Deco Sassoon House (1926–1929); the Yangtze Insurance Building; the Broadway Mansions (1934); and subsequently the Old Bank of China Building, Shanghai (1937).

The Broadway Mansions is "a brick patterned Art Deco apartment block... would not have looked out of place in Manhattan", and is an example of the Art Deco or Streamline Moderne style of architecture that emerged in the 1920s and flourished in the 1930s The Broadway Mansions is a steel-framed red brick building "in the stepped skyscraper mode", that is 78 metres in height, with a total floor space of 24,596 square metres. Steel-framed structures were used in Shanghai from 1916 onwards, originally for eight- to ten-storey buildings, but by the 1930s for up to twenty-four storeys. The building's floor plan was modeled after the Chinese character for the number eight, which is a symbol of luck and prosperity. The facade of the Broadway Mansions was one of its distinctive features. The design of the Mansions was "influenced by modernism," and like "most apartment buildings in Shanghai featured a simple and modern style of exterior." According to Peter Rowe and Seng Kuan, after describing the Metropole Hotel and Hamilton House, also designed by Palmer & Turner about the same time: "A similar approach to both architecture and place making was taken almost simultaneously by B. Flazer, with the curved symmetric stepped-back facade of the Broadway Mansions....The firm of Palmer and Turner was to continue with curvilinear plan forms in the organic layout of the large Embankment Building of 1933. The Mansions had a roof top garden, and even a squash court. Initially the Mansions had 370 guest rooms, and also housed offices and shops." According to Fiona Shen, "part hotel, part apartment block, it also catered to that fixture of Shanghai economic life during the Concession period - the young, single expatriate - with its 99 stylish and compact bachelor pads." Broadway Mansions Hotel was the first hotel in Shanghai that had an indoor parking facility, a structure that had four levels with 80 spaces. The phone system was built at the time of its construction, and its phone number (46260) has remained unchanged.