Columbia Circle
In May 2018, 1262 West Yan'an Road opened to public after two years of renovation. Behind the Chinese name “上生·新所”and the English name“Columbia Circle”are two unique periods of urban history.
The Americans living in Shanghai established the Columbia Country Club in the spring of 1917. As the number of members increased by hundreds in successive years, they purchased 48 mu of land to the south of Great Western Road (today's West Yan'an Road) to prepare for the construction of a new club, and appointed the American architect Elliott Hazzard to design it. According to the hand-painted drawings published in Millard's Review in 1923, the project was designed with a large swimming pool, gymnasium, dance hall, squash room, bowling room, bridge and mahjong room, barbecue bar, restaurant, etc. Its gable, doorheads, Solomon spiral columns and detailed decorations are characteristic of Southern California's Spanish colonial revival style. The Columbia Country Club was a centre for fitness and entertainment, as well as a venue for social and festive gatherings for American families in Shanghai.
In 1953, Shanghai Institute of Biological Products Co., Ltd. moved to this place. The former house of Sun Ke, separated by a wall, became its office building. The main building of the club served as a meeting and reception room. The second floor served as a biosafety laboratory. The gymnasium became a medium steamer workshop, while the swimming pool continued to serve the staff. In 1965, Guo Bo of the Shanghai Civil Architecture and Design Institute presided over the design of a modern style high-rise building—the eightstorey MMR production building, as a base for independent research & development and production of vaccines.
In 2016, the production base of Shanghai Institute of Biological Products Co., Ltd. moved to suburban Fengxian District, and this prime lot, hemmed in by the three Historic and Cultural Zones of Xinhua Road, Yuyuan Road and Hengshan Road-Fuxing Road, became the first urban renewal project of Vanke in Shanghai. The 20 buildings built in different historical periods, including the Columbia Country Club, the former house of Sun Ke and the MMR production building, as well as a large number of trees in the area have been preserved. The industrial facilities of the biological products production workshop have also been integrated into the new design. Thus, 1262 West Yan'an Road, which has witnessed the vicissitudes for nearly a century, has been transformed into an all-weather urban public leisure space open to the public.