Five We Lost in 2009 – Shanghai’s Heritage

The folk at Shanghaiist requested a bunch of lists of five this or five that for 2009 – my humble offering was five buildings Shanghai lost to its remorseless heritage- and preservation-free ‘modernisation’. Buildings continue to come down at a rate of knots, many of them architecturally important internationally as well as symbolic of the city’s history but nothing seems capable of stopping Shanghai’s property developers from rampant vandalism. Every year a little less and no good news on the preservation front this year given that several of the buildings that got bulldozed had been awarded preservation status which ultimately made no difference which shows you how much those particular laws are worth.

Anyway, you can see my list here.