After building designs were revealed for the 2008 Beijing Olympics a few years ago, reports turned to stories of displaced local residents and the destruction of historic architecture as the city began revamping its infrastructure. A photo that recently made the front page of newspapers worldwide best captured the activity: a lone house standing defiantly amid a giant construction pit. Nicknamed the “Nail House,” the diminutive dwelling finally succumbed to a backhoe on April 3—its owner, Wu Ping, joining the estimated 300,000 people who have been displaced by construction. But behind these dramatic scenes, a preservation ethic is gradually emerging. Some of the highest profile developments currently under way in Beijing preserve and incorporate old buildings.
In the Qianmen neighborhood, Beijing Dashalan is converting a series of hutongs—traditional courtyard houses—into a residential and retail corridor. And nearby, Handel Lee, a lawyer who developed two adaptive-reuse projects on the Bund in Shanghai, is transforming the Legation Quarter, a 4-acre estate that once housed foreign diplomats, into an upscale retail and entertainment property. Within five landmarked buildings that display a mix of Chinese and Victorian architecture, Gilles & Boissier is designing a restaurant for chef Daniel Bouloud; and Andy Hall, a British architect based in Shanghai, is working on an outpost of the Bouhjis Club.
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