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Subject:
From:
Mike Devonshire <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
BP - His DNA is this long.
Date:
Sun, 30 Aug 1998 04:18:55 EDT
Content-Type:
text/plain
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Ken-

Thanks, best book tip ever. Tess Johnson is still living in Shanghai and
writing about life there and the demise of "Western" architecture. Our
experience there has been the restoration of the exterior and portions of the
interior of the Guilin Building, on the Waitan, or Bund, the area adjacent to
the Huangpu River which accommodated the headquarters for most of the major
financial institutions during the Consession period of Shanghai's history.
The Guiling Building was designed by Lester, Johnson, Morriss Architects, and
completed in 1923. It housed the North China Daily News until 1951. It also
housed the first Asian offices of AIA, the Asian subsidiary of AIG, the
American insurance company which has taken out a lease on the building and
funded the restoration and rehab effort. The building is 8 stories tall and
constructed (exterior) of Japanese granite and Carrara marble on the lower
floors, and what's known locally as "Shanghai Plaster", a cementitious coating
containing stone and slag aggregate intended to mimic the granite, on the
upper floors. One of the great features of the building, brought back to
daylight during this work, is a series of caryatid figures 1 1/2 times life
size on modillion bases which support the major cornice. These figures are of
carved granite, and unfortunately had been somewhat hacked up and enclosed in
Shanghai Plaster boxes in 1953. They are the only architectural representation
of the human figure on any of the Waitan buildings.

The ground floor entry vestibules feature some fine Italian marbles, including
Portoro, as well as some very fine gold, green and black mosaic work. Bronze
abounds. All of the interior wood trim, as well as doors is of mahogany. The
original wood floors were teak. There is a good amount of decorative plaster
in the main banking hall on the ground floor and in other principle rooms on
this level. Interestingly, the reinforcement of linear decoration is bamboo
shoots rather than muslin, nice local touch

Not to bore you with the intricacies of how we got the project, what is most
interesting to know about that phase of the project is that we were hired
after the GC and the major subs were on board! More about that later, if you
are interested.

Our greatest challenge as you can imagine was to meet the needs of the
building, and client, without knowing up front the skills of the contractors
who were going to do the work, or what technology might be available for a
tightly scheduled project. We also had a limitation of  three site visits for
the duration of the work.

During the first site visit we assessed and measured the building and
compiled a list of no fewer than 30 test samples for the contractor to perform
to determine the level of craftsmanship that we could expect. We had some
PROSOCO samples which we used for cleaning. PROSOCO also arranged for their
rep in Japan, Mr. Aoki, to come over and consult with us - he was great.

Four months later we returned to review the samples. As could be anticipated,
some were very well done, some competent, some poorly done, some not done at
all. We stayed on site until unsuccessful samples were redone and uncompleted
samples finished. With a good set of on-site samples completed, we then wrote
out a methodology for completion of the work, had it translated into Chinese,
discussed it ad nauseum, left the site and crossed our fingers. There was much
telephonic communication in the next ten months.

We returned last month to review the completed work, which was for the most
part satisfactory. Some departures from the methodology took place in our
absence and when this occurred the work was less successful. The client is
pleased, the government is pleased, and the building's longevity is assured.

What would I do over? Without a doubt I would insist next time that we be
allowed more fee for on-site review. The subs were great and well skilled on
this project. I believe that departures from the specified methods took place
only at the urging of the GC, and a few more trips would have allowed us to
have more influence- the owner's on site rep had no experience with historic
buildings.

Sorry I have gabbed on for so long, I've actually left out a great deal (the
politics of the job, Chinese business practices, etc.). I certainly owe you
for the book tip. I am considering returning, perhaps in the Spring, to do
some large format documentation of Western churches in Shanghai, there are
some incredible 19th C. ecclesiastical buildings there.

Regards,

MD

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