By Zhang Chengkai
"Yo~ now Beichuan Apartment looks so good." Recently, a friend of Aunt Qiu, who lives in Beichuan apartment, exclaimed during his visit.
Now when you walk into Beichuan Apartment, you can see the white wall, clearly visible pattern on the marble floor, the carved railings and the restored columns. The 94-year-old apartment building seems to have returned to its youth and found the heat of the year. These changes started with the previous micro updating of "beautiful corridor".
The Old Apartment Seemed Dilapidated
Beichuan Apartment (also known as Ramos Apartment), located at No. 2079-2099, North Sichuan Road, was built in 1928 and invested by Ramos, an Englishman. It is a famous apartment with a long history.
From May 1930 to April 1933, Lu Xun once lived in Room 4, No. 2093. He also covered Qu Qiubai and his wife, and met Chen Geng here. Feng Xuefeng and his family also moved into Ramos Apartment and edited and published “Outpost” with Lu Xun to commemorate the Five Martyrs of the Left League. On October 31, 2005, Beichuan Apartment was announced as an excellent historical building in Shanghai by the municipal government. It is reported that there are 82 households in the building.
As time goes by, the 94-year-old apartment presents a tired appearance, especially the indoor corridor, which gradually shows the traces of erosion by years. The white cement walls turned yellow and fell off, the marble floor patterns were blurred, and the carved railings and columns also lost their luster in the past.
In addition, the peeling wall in the corridor falls from time to time. Once it is stepped by the residents in and out, the whole ground will look dirty. Aunt Qiu, a resident in the building, said: "One of the most worrying things is that I might be hit by the calcimine peels."
Keeping the Original Style and Restoring the Youthful Appearance
Before the "beautiful corridor" micro updating, Beichuan Apartment experienced a small-sized operation. Chen Yan, Chief of the General Party Branch of Yongfeng Residential Area, North Sichuan Road Sub-district, told that in October last year, Beichuan Apartment’s residents reported that the iron gate always went wrong. Therefore, the General Party Branch tried to coordinate with enthusiastic public welfare enterprises to invest in the installation of new access control card swiping equipment. At the same time, the neighborhood committee coordinated the housing repair department to repaint the iron door, which improved the overall beauty of the apartment.
"The dirty and messy corridor is incompatible with the cultural heritage of the building." Many residents in the building expressed the idea of transformation. After visiting the residents and listening to their opinions, the General Party Branch, under the guidance of the Sub-district Party Construction Office, launched the special fund for serving the masses to implement the "beautiful corridor" micro updating project for Beichuan Apartment, including wall painting, carved railing refreshing, marble floor cleaning and other issues.
In the repair process, workers adhered to the principle of "working in exquisite craftsmanship and keeping the original style", adopted the traditional repair technology to retain the historical charm of Beichuan Apartment to the greatest extent and continue the durability and usability of the building.
At the same time, in order to improve the brightness in the corridor, the micro updating also replaced all the corridor lights. "We are very grateful that the sub-district took the initiative to improve our living environment. Now we are in a better mood to go home!" Aunt Qiu said.
After the repair, the inside of Beichuan Apartment takes on a new look and returns its youthful appearance. Walking into the Apartment, we feel that we were at the moment when the building was to be built in the 1920s. the strong Shanghai style comes to surround us.
The official of North Sichuan Road Sub-district said that there are many excellent historical protection buildings in the area. In order to make the old house with story return to the style of that year, the relevant departments of the district, together with the sub-district, have jointly started the repair of many excellent historical buildings in the area in the past year.
A few days ago, the historic area of Shanyin Road began to be overhauled. In recent days, the 97-year-old Yong'an Lane also has ushered in its largest repair in history. The whole protection and repair work will organically combine the preservation of the style of historical buildings with the new requirements of adapting to modern life, so as to achieve effective protection, rational utilization and scientific management.