Shanghai may float more than an idea
In Shanghai's long march to be the international city of the 21st century, no idea is too far-fetched. That, at least, is what Raymond Shaw is hoping.
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A Beijing-born American who runs the China office of an engineering multinational, Mr Shaw has launched a proposal to raise the 20-odd buildings on the Bund - Shanghai's riverfront promenade - by seven metres to put in a new floor of luxury stores. In his eyes, it is the perfect marriage of modern China's twin passions - shopping and engineering.
In most cities, such a plan would never get off the ground. A row of elegant 1920s buildings that once housed the city's financial firms, the Bund is, after all, one of Shanghai's
most distinctive landmarks, even if it is also a reminder
of its colonial past.
But in China the plan will get a hearing. While every fast-growing city has a tension between conservation and modernity, in China the wrecking ball usually wins the day. "I have been here long enough to know that no idea is insane if it is technically feasible," says Christopher Choa, a leading architect in Shanghai.
Such exuberance is part of the charm of living in Shanghai. Across the river from the Bund, in the Pudong financial district, the world's largest building is rapidly taking shape and it is exciting to watch its progress every time you pass by.
But there are also some mis-hits. The Maglev train to the airport floats along the track at 267 miles an hour, the fastest in the world. But the one station is still far from the city centre, making it redundant for most residents and visitors.
And the endless skyscrapers have come at a price: the city is literally sinking under the weight of the 4,000 high-rise buildings. "We will end up like New Orleans if we are not careful," an official quipped to me recently.
Mr Shaw already has a place in the city's engineering folklore. When a new motorway was built beside the city's 1920s concert hall, Mr Shaw's company, Actuant, dragged the building 67m to a quieter spot using hydraulic jacks. "The Bund project is less challenging than the concert hall," he says.
Once the buildings have been lifted - at a mere cost of about Rmb3bn (￡213m), he reckons - then a canopy can be built over the 10-lane highway that separates the buildings from the riverfront park.
The city government has kept quiet so far. But the problem for Mr Shaw is that Shanghai now has an active conservation lobby - made up of local academics and a few foreign experts - and having seen so many of the city's older buildings already destroyed, they will fight to retain the integrity of the Bund.
Mr Choa is reminded of an Abraham Lincoln saying that the ideal height for a man is to be tall enough that his legs reach the ground.
"The buildings on the Bund are just high enough," he says. "They were designed to be exactly that way."
上海：任何主意都不算疯狂？
在
上海向21世纪国际化都市迈进的漫长征程中，任何创意都不算牵强。至少，潇然(Raymond Shaw)希望如此。
潇然是一位出生于北京的美国人，目前管理着某跨国工程公司的中国分公司。他率先提议，将外滩(Bund)20多座建筑物“顶升”7米，新建一层奢侈品店购物区。外滩是上海沿江散步之所。在他看来，这是现代中国两大最爱――购物和工程――的完美结合。
在大多数城市，这样的计划根本就不可能实施。外滩有一排排20世纪20年代的优雅建筑，曾是上海金融公司云集之地。毕竟，这里是上海最具特色的标志性地段之一，虽然它让人联想起上海那段租界历史。
但是在中国，这样的计划能够找到听众。虽然每一个增长迅猛的城市，在保持原貌与现代化开发之间都存在矛盾，但在中国，主张进行破坏性开发通常都会占上风。上海一位知名建筑师克利斯托弗?乔(Christopher Choa)表示：“我在这儿呆了很久，因此知道，在这里只要技术上行得通，任何主意都不算疯狂。”
这种激情正是上海生活的一个迷人之处。在与外滩隔江相望的浦东金融区，全球最大的建筑正迅速成形，每当你经过这里，目睹这种进展确实令人感到激动。
不过，也存在着一些不足。通往机场的磁悬浮列车，沿磁轨以267英里的时速运行，速度居全球之首。但是，惟一的车站距市中心仍然很远，因此对于大多数居民和游客而言，它显得有些多余。
同时，层出不穷的摩天大楼也付出了代价：在4000座高层建筑的重压下，这个城市实际上正在下沉。最近一位官员和我开玩笑说：“如果我们不注意的话，就要像新奥尔良那样完蛋了。”
潇然已在这个城市的工程界占据了一席之地。当该市建于上世纪20年代的音乐厅附近修建一条新的高速公路时，潇然所在的公司――实用动力(上海)有限公司(Actuant)使用液压千斤顶，将音乐厅平移67米，移至一个更为安静的地点。他表示：“外滩项目的挑战没有（平移）音乐厅那么大。”
据他计算，一旦这些建筑物被“顶升”，成本仅在30亿元人民币(合2.13亿英镑)左右，10车道的公路上就可以修建一个顶篷，将这些建筑物与江边公园区分开来。
迄今为止，市政府一直对此保持沉默。不过，潇然的难题在于：目前上海有一支活跃的保护派游说队伍，他们由当地学者和少数外国专家组成。他们已经目睹了太多年代较为久远的上海建筑物遭受破坏，将为保持外滩的原貌而斗争。
乔想起了亚伯拉罕?林肯(Abraham Lincoln)曾有一句名言：一个人的理想高度，就是他的腿能够到地面。
“外滩建筑物现在的高度正好，”他表示，“它们符合当初设计时的初衷。”
