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A HERITAGE building of a former foreign trade company on the Bund is undergoing a facelift and will become another high-end commercial complex, city officials said.
The building, at 27 Zhongshan Road E1, is the former office building of Jardine Matheson Company, a well-known firm established by two British businessmen during the 19th century.
"It will eventually become another luxurious fashion outlet in the Bund area," said an official of the Shanghai Housing, Land and Resource Administrative Bureau.
Located at the junction of Beijing Road E. and Zhongshan Road E1, the building has a typical Renaissance architectural style with Roman-styled arch window-frames and Western-styled embossed engraving at the entrance.
At present, the building is locked and visitors banned. All the former stores at the building have been moved out, including the ground floor which was a Japanese restaurant.
The housing bureau official said the Jardine and Matheson Building was related to another heritage building on Beijing Road E. and the two were likely to be connected by a passage. Both buildings will become key parts of the under-construction Waitanyuan Project.
Waitanyuan, meaning "the head stream of the Bund" in Chinese, is an area surrounded by the Huangpu River to the east, Suzhou Creek to the north, Sichuan Road M. to the west and Dianchi Road to the south.
Overall, 14 heritage buildings will be conserved and a five-star hotel built in the area, officials said.
Extensive renovation works will be conducted to restore the previous glory of those old buildings, mostly constructed during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
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