A showcase of modern living in historic buildings
The Brookside Apartments
Historic buildings represent the essence of Shanghai. But sadly, in some cases, the beautiful exteriors conceal "ugly" interiors featuring musty aromas, messy doodles and piles of old junk. Brookside Apartments, however, is charming inside out.
The 90-year-old structure at 699-731 Huashan Road is considered one of Shanghai's best apartment addresses in the 1930s for its top-grade facilities and celebrity residents.
It neatly blended new decorative elements of Art Deco with the classic Spanish-style structure, and what's more it had elevators, a swimming pool and an extensive garden featuring artificial brooks and rocks.
Nowadays, they are commonplace. But still, Brookside is a much sought-after residence, thanks to micro-revamps – improving the local environment with subtle renovations.
"Small changes have made big differences," said 80-year-old Ma Minghua.
When she moved into the apartment in 1976, it was really not anything like as good as it looked.
"I only have misty memories like the dingy lobby and shadowy doorway," she said.
In time, mottled walls, entwined electrical wires and randomly parked bikes contributed to an unsightly and disordered environment. It even affected the tenants somehow and created a frigid atmosphere.
"For a long time, we neighbors actually didn't talk to each other, even when we were in elevators," Ma said. "It was about 20 years ago when we finally started to get to know each other after we found the garden was well-intended."
Gradually, some started morning exercises on the lawn. After that, they sat down and rested in the shade of trees.
"It just came naturally," she said. "Now we do tai chi every morning, and we share tips of how to keep healthy. We get along rather well."
She realized that her neighbors actually cared about the apartment, and they started to participate in neighborhood management with an eye to give the apartment a new lease of life.
Under their initiatives, rounds of micro-revamps have been carried out.
The front gate
The garden
The ceilings and walls have been repaired and repainted. The messy doorway has been cleaned and randomly parked bikes and mopeds have been moved to an especially built parking shelter just next to the apartment. Furthermore, the doorway has been renovated as a "scenic spot."
Outside, above two Roman pillars at the front gate, square panes of glasses on the eave are covered with colorful paper as to create an atmosphere of Art Deco. Inside, sculptures of fish and a mini fountain stand against the backdrop of a giant photo of the whole building.
"There was a fish sculpture long ago," Ma said. "So, we tried to remember all the details and restored one as far as possible. We felt the wall was plain, and the daughter of Qiao Qi, renowned actor and our neighbor, asked professionals to take an aerial photo."
But her favorite is the new mailboxes.
"See, they are beautiful and retro, and it's convenient for me to open it by one hand and take out newspapers by the other," she said.
The original mailboxes were designed in the style of vertical rectangles to receive letters, but today mailboxes are more used to receive newspapers, magazines and other pieces in A4 or larger size. Also, in time, the units were partitioned into smaller flats, resulting in one mailbox shared by several families.
The old design was indeed behind the times. Worse, it triggered tensions in tenants.
"It was common that three to four families used one little mailbox," she said. "Utility bills, bank statements and publications subscribed by tenants were always scattered around. Many complained about lost mail."
Noticing how serious the issue was, Ma and other tenant representatives talked it over. At last, they reached an agreement to build new mailboxes to meet today's demands while preserving the old ones as historical heritage.
New mailboxes
Old mailboxes are preserved.
Now, every family has their own mailbox. The new ones look like they were just rotated 90 degrees from the old ones as they are painted in the original green color, and feature original patterns of cloves and wavy lines.
"We agreed that the new mailboxes should match the building's historic feeling," Ma said. "But we use better materials to ensure durability."
In the lobby there are photos of local celebrity tenants such as "Golden Voice" diva Zhou Xuan and Yueju Opera master Fu Quanxiang hung above as embellishment, with a painting of the building by renowned abstract artist Cai Ju, also a tenant.
Old photos of the building, handicrafts of tenants and even an historical brick picked up from the garden are displayed. Two chairs and a table are placed for people to sit down and chat, making the lobby a "public living room" of the apartment.
The site was originally a garden residence built by a banker, and was later bought by the family of Li Hongzhang, prime minister of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), to be renovated into a Spanish-style apartment building.
In Chinese, it was called Zhenliu Apartments. Zhenliu is a word from the Chinese ancient book "Shi Shuo Xin Yu," literally meaning living beside brook, as a metaphor to leading the life of a recluse. As its name suggests, it was favored by celebrities as their ideal bolt-hole from social life.
"We often call it 'a dormitory for elite artists'," Ma said. "This building has many stories to tell. We hope young people, especially renters, know our history and culture. Also, we, as senior residents, hope to get closer to them."
It has worked. On one International Children's Day, two young female renters placed some books in the lobby as gifts to local children.
"When a mother received the book, she was so touched," Ma said. "She told us that she would like to do something to repay the neighborhood. We also visited these two women and sent them a letter of thanks. After that, they again sent books."
The "sitting room" lobby
Handicrafts by tenants and old photos of the apartment are displayed.
It's a heartwarming tale of human relations.
"Indeed, most of the tenants are senior residents, and we don't have much interaction with young people because of different schedules," she said. "But through thoughts like that, we are getting closer."
Ge Jun, an official from local Jing'ansi Subdistrict, said tenants like Ma play a constructive role in improving the local environment and reviving the spirit of heritage-listed apartments.
They sum up local demands, and the subdistrict pays for solutions.
This year, the subdistrict has received 35 demands from neighborhoods across the subdistrict, such as improving the environment of old alleyways, prohibiting people from charging their bikes in residential buildings and raising pets in proper ways, he said.
