Shanghai Concert Hall reveals its bright and colorful future
The huge dome elegantly toned in gold and oceanic blue, the 16 classic Corinthian columns, the nostalgic terrazzo floor and the symbolic marble staircase …
Nothing seems to have changed, except that the colors are gloriously brighter, when the renovated 90-year-old Shanghai Concert Hall was unveiled on Wednesday. The historic building, constructed as a cinema in 1930, closed in March last year for a facelift. It will reopen to the public this Sunday.
The 90-year-old Shanghai Concert Hall has been unveiled in all its glory after 18 months of renovations.
“That’s exactly the point and the challenge — to have the historical elements repaired and looking exactly as they were while incorporating better facilities for a much upgraded user experience for audience and performers,” Zuo Chengli, a chief architect from the Zhang Ming Architecture Firm in charge of the historical parts of the building, told Shanghai Daily.
“Preservation or restoration doesn’t exclude technology or new elements. It’s all in the details.”
A balance between historical preservation and improvement in functionality is key to the facelift.
Such details include modified seats and thicker doors to reduce noise in the auditorium, the latest technology in stage mechanisms and lighting hidden behind the classic walls and columns, and much increased space in the women’s bathroom in the narrow corridor on the first floor, among others.
“It always feels like something is missing whenever I walked past here and saw it completely covered. I’m so glad it’s back now,” said 39-year-old Zhou Jiahao, who used to live in the area and has bought a ticket for the concert’s hall’s upcoming music season.
“I still remember queuing up with my mom for a concert commemorating Beethoven’s birthday — my first classical music experience — when I was 8 or 9. It was such a long line! Now we have many music venues and concerts in the city, but Shanghai Concert Hall is special, for its central location and its rich history.”
Shanghai Concert Hall is known as the city's "music living room."
For many people in Shanghai, the concert hall has long been the city’s “music living room” that gave them the first live music experience, and a building with an intriguing history.
It is a rare surviving example of a Western classic building designed by Chinese architects in old Shanghai — by China’s first-generation modern architects Fan Wenzhao and Zhao Shen. Both changed to other styles shortly after finishing the original Nanking Theatre.
A file photo of the Nanking Theatre in 1930.
In 1929, local English paper China Press called it “Shanghai’s New $500,000 Cinema” with “most up-to-date features in construction,” comparing its apparatus with the most advanced cinemas in New York.
Back then, cinemas were the latest hot spots, not only showing movies, but also giving a stage for acrobatics, theatrical dramas and traditional Chinese operas.
Though designed as a cinema, the building’s structure offered exceptional acoustics and was selected by a group of professionals and musicians when the city demanded a music venue for the Shanghai Spring International Music Festival in 1959. It became the first professional concert hall in the country.
Acoustic improvement was among the highlights of the current facelift.
“Improving acoustics here is like trying to tutor a student who scores 90 out of 100 in tests, but that 10 points can turn him from an excellent student to a near-perfect one,” said acoustic consultant Song Yongmin. “We focused on reducing noise.”
The 16 Corinthian columns were repainted by the same artist who completed the task in 2003.
Each of the 1,185 seats in the auditorium was sent to Japan for maintenance by the same factory that provided seating for Suntory Hall, widely considered one of the finest in the world for its acoustics.
The factory changed cushions to textile with better sound-absorbing effects and added a small mechanism to have the seats return to their original position in silence. In the past, audiences often complained that the seats were too noisy when they stood up.
The local maintenance team also thickened the auditorium doors for better soundproofing.
“The delicate auditorium doors are historical elements that ought to be preserved, but acoustics are also key to the concert hall’s functionality, so we ended up keeping the delicate surface and adding thickness behind,” Zuo said.
“Such balance between preservation and function happened a lot, as different teams specializing in acoustic effects, stage design and historical preservation worked together.”
He added: “To some extent, it was more challenging than the last facelift during the 2003 relocation.”
Each of the 1,185 seats was sent to Japan for repair and acoustic improvement.
That relocation was one of the biggest news stories in the city that year, as the 5,650-ton structure was moved 66.46 meters southeast to make way for construction of the Yan’an Elevated Road. It was considered a huge technical challenge at the time, and its success set a precedent for many historical buildings in the city.
The concert hall also took the opportunity for an overhaul before it reopened in 2004.
Shanghai Concert Hall was moved 66.46 meters southeast in 2003.
Zhang Ming, now 90 years old, was the woman behind the concert hall’s current interior look, particularly the signature oceanic blue and gold tone of the dome. Zuo was also part of the team then, when the auditorium was in a tone of purplish red.
“The structure of the building has remained largely unchanged, according to an old photo of the Nanking Theatre. But there were very little research materials or photos of how it looked inside in 1930, and it apparently went through a few renovations since then, with little archived material,” Zuo said.
“We found a layer of blue color behind the purplish red paint. We combined it with other research of the dome’s structure and popular styles at the time to the current look.”
Workers repair the dome.
The auditorium seats, in matching tones of blue and gold, were also designed at that time. The colors had dimmed after 15 years, so the team repainted the dome and had the seats repaired. Also repainted were the 16 classic Corinthian columns in the lobby, by the same artist who painted the concrete columns with a marble pattern in 2003.
Zuo’s team also restored the terrazzo flooring in the East Hall, which they missed in 2003. At the time, the corridor was used as a rehearsal room, with wooden flooring. The team restored it back into a corridor with new flooring.
“We dug deeper this time, and discovered terrazzo stone hidden under. Such terrazzo flooring was popular in 1930s Shanghai, so we applied 1930s techniques to restore it.”
Terrazzo flooring is restored in the East Hall, which was missed in the 2003 overhaul.
During the 2003 relocation and overhaul, the concert hall was also expanded with a new area and basements. A small multifunctional hall, also known as the Music Cube, was added.
It has been used for small chamber music, music salons, jazz shows and art lectures, but it was not used as frequently as it could have been because of sound from the auditorium above it.
New soundproofing was introduced this time to solve the problem, which will allow the Music Cube to have 100 more events a year.
“We are really glad to be back and to reunite with audience and performers,” said Fang Liang, general manager of the concert hall, as the newly added high-resolution screen next to her in the auditorium showed highlights of the concert hall’s upcoming music season starting on September 19.
New soundproofing was added to Music Cube, the small multifunctional hall.
