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Architecture
The future of the Friendship StorePosted by Jeremy Goldkorn, April 2, 2008 1:08 PM
Beijing's Urbane magazine recently profiled the Australian architect John Pauline of PTW, the Sydney-based firm that designed the Olympic swimming venue usually called the Water Cube. The article included drawings of another PTW design, reproduced here: the new Friendship Store. The Beijing Friendship store opened in 1964 to sell imported and luxury products to the capital's small but growing group of resident foreigners, and moved to its current location at Jianguomenwai in 1973, the year after the next-door Jianguomenwai Diplomatic Compound was built. The area is Beijing's first Embassy District; aside from the embassy buildings, there is also the Qijiayuan Diplomatic Compound, the first buildings of which were completed in 1957. In December last year, the Beijing Municipal Administration of Cultural Heritage declared that 71 'recent era' or 20th Century buildings would be protected as heritage buildings, including the Great Hall of the People, the Beijing Department Store, and the 798 Factory. The Jianguomenwai and Qijiayuan diplomatic compounds on either side of the Friendship Store are included, but not the grand old lady of laowai shopping. There has been talk about the imminent destruction of the Friendship Store for at least a decade. In May 2005, Danwei reported information from a source who claimed to have seen an agreement for the Friendship Store to be turned into a luxury Conrad hotel and mall. In August 2006, writing in The Washington Post, Maureen Fan reported:
Well the last sentence has not proved to be true, but it looks likely that the wrecking balls might arrive shortly after August this year.
Update: Alex Pasternak, one of the co-authors of the Urbane magazine report mentioned above, also wrote this blog post in 2006 about Da Shan, Stanley Ho and the Friendship Store Who needs friends when you have money? Links and Sources
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Comments on The future of the Friendship Store
The Friendship store is also currently at the centre of a minor political scandal taking place in Australia. While in opposition, the new PM Kevin Rudd accepted "sponsored travel" from one of the developers associated with the project and it's suggested that both he and the former liberal/national coalition government used their influence to help the Australian firm win the project. More here - link
Apparently, the Chinese characters (国际大厦) on the CITIC building were penned by Deng Xiaoping himself.
The buildings look so damn ugly!