Coming Down Alert – Taiyuan Road and Zhaojiabang Road

This building, on the junction of Taiyuan Road and Zhaojiabang Road (formerly Route Delastre and Rue de Zikawei), may not look very glamorous or particularly architecturally interesting but it is of importance for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it is in the former French Concession and does provide part of the architectural landscape, such as is left, of the area. A motley crew of real estate agents, various misguided foreigners without eyes and officials try to constantly tell me that there will be no more destruction in the French Concession but this is clearly not true as buildings keep getting pecked away at and disappearing.

Secondly, this building was formerly on the less glamorous side of the Concession which was partly residential but partly light industrial. Indeed this building is actually an industrial property (as you can see from the pictures of the interior below). I’ve argued before that preservation can’t be just about big houses or important buildings but must also be aware of the need to preserve more ordinary housing and industrial architecture (the losses of industrial architecture are heaviest in Yangpu and Hongkou but there are bits and pieces elsewhere too. Anyway, this one is marked to go and one has to wonder about the fate of the slightly nicer and more architecturally interesting residential properties adjacent (as also shown below).

The condemned corner block…

And a little closer….

The light industrial unit it houses…

The quite nice residential block immediately adjacent to the west that must now also be threatened