Sign of the times: urban renewal dismantles a famous landmark
Print Edition
THE detached wing of Xinzhuang Metro Station, often nicknamed as the “red building,” an icon of the past, has been razed as part of a major construction project to turn the area into a traffic and business hub.
The large sign atop the building, which read xinzhuang zhan (Xinzhuang Station), was dismantled manually from its steel frames, and the three characters were removed to the Minhang District Museum for permanent preservation.
“Because the station continues to operate during construction, we can’t use methods like controlled blasting to demolish old structures,” said an official with the Minhang District City Investment Co, the company in charge of the project. “So that we have to dismantle them one step at a time.”
A special passageway was set up for commuters using the station. During construction, the taxi stand was moved to the south square from its original site on the north square.
The red building was constructed in 1997. In a succession of transformations, it housed the Minhang District Museum, a hypermarket and then several eateries.
Before the removal started, residents living nearby went to the station to pay the last tribute to the “red building” as it has become an integral part of their memories.
When the entire Xinzhuang station project is completed, the present station will be tripled in size, according to officials. The current terminus of Metro lines 1 and 5 will become a 700,000-square-meter complex linked to the Shanghai-Hangzhou and Jinshan mainline railways.
The existing bus station will be retained and expanded.
The current 170,000 daily passenger volume in the station will increase threefold when the whole transport hub is completed.
There will also be a business hub around the station, including shopping malls, office buildings, hotels and residential complexes.
The whole reconstruction project is expected to be completed by 2022.
“This will be the first ‘transit-oriented’ development project in Shanghai,” said He Bin, general manager of Shanghai Xintian Properties Co Ltd, which is spearheading the project. “The model has been widely adopted in developed countries because it combines efficient land and transport planning.”
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