Shanghai tears down home of I.M. Pei clan

Hong Kong Bank of China building is one of Pei's famous design

By Staff and wire reports

SHANGHAI, China -- Workers have begun demolishing a Shanghai mansion occupied for years by the family of the famous Chinese architect I.M. Pei.

Despite an appeal from the world-famous architect for the building's preservation, the three-storey building was slated for demolition to make way for a park.

The work is part of a spruce-up of Shanghai ahead of a meeting of Asia-Pacific leaders this year.

Pei is famous for designs of the Bank of China building in Hong Kong, the glass pyramid at the Louvre and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. He had signed a letter to Shanghai Mayor appealing for help in saving the home.

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Pei never lived in the mansion. In March, he told Reuters that he had no emotional attachment to a mansion but the effort to preserve it was a "worthy cause" given that so much of Old Shanghai was being torn down.

Family members moved out at the weekend at the order of the city government. After tearing down the residence, the government will start planning trees on Friday.

"It's a real shame, a real shame. But there was nothing at all we could do," said Bei Nianzheng, 44, a distant relative of Pei's who adopted the Chinese spelling of the family name.

Shanghai will be holding APEC meetings for Trade Ministers early June and "APEC CEO Summit 2001" mid-October. Business leaders of the region will gather in Shanghai to discuss economic and trade issues.

Witness of history

Bei's home is among many shanghai old constructions to give way to the city's green projects. Shanghai has started an array of environment conservation projects.

The residence survived Japanese occupation, civil war between Communists and Nationalists and rampaging Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution.

Bei Runsheng, great uncle of Pei, bought the building in 1911 and it housed five generations of the clan, including Bei Nianzheng who was born there.

During the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution, Red Guards smashed stained-glass windows from France, tore out carved woodwork, and poured cement on the balcony tiles after failing to tear them up.

Last March, Shanghai's Housing and Land Administration Bureau named the residence a modern historic landmark.

Bei and her husband thought the home would be spared, so they scrubbed its brick exterior, re-plastered its high ceilings and scoured neighboring provinces for rare tiles to repair the roof.

But then she found out city officials had opted to flatten the neighborhood to make room for parks.

"Initially it was under preservation, but this area has to be a green space," Reuters quoted one man with a construction company involved in the demolition as saying.

The Housing and Land Administration Bureau has declined to give reason to the change of plans.

Neighboring homes were also taken down early this year, including one formerly owned by notorious Shanghai gangster Du Yuesheng during the roaring years before the 1949 revolution.

Bei and her family have moved into a modern apartment across town, but she added sadly: "It's not at all the same."

I.M. Pei

I.M Pei has never lived in the mansion. In 1935 when he was 18 years, he left Shanghai to pursue architecture study in the U.S. at MIT and Harvard.

Pei is renowned for his sharp and geometric designs. He received the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1983 and American Institute of Architects Gold Medal in 1979.

Reuters contributed to this report.