Historic Shanghai: Cosmopolitan Apartments brings 1930s luxury living to life

Seen from the Yan’an Lu highway, the nine-story art deco facade of the Cosmopolitan Apartments, aka "Building 173," stands against the glass and steel skyscrapers along Nanjing Xi Lu. Nevertheless, the 76-year-old building still projects the grandeur and grace of historic Shanghai at its heyday, a history often far more intriguing to us than its futuristic backdrop. 

Currently occupied by both local families and expat residents, Cosmopolitan Apartments’ legendary past has attracted quite a few visiting fans to follow its historic happenings. Among them are Kent Jue, the grandson of the building’s designer Poy Gum Lee, and Petter Eldin, a Shanghai-based Swedish filmmaker who made the documentary "Building 173" in 2009. 

Luxurious apartments of the past

Building 173 is easy to find: Enter from the longtang -- housing that is particular to Shanghai that mixes Western row houses with Chinese-style courtyards -- next to Zara on Nanjing Xi Lu. Go straight ahead, and it's right there.

Finished in in 1934, the Spanish-style art deco Cosmopolitan Apartments were built to satisfy the booming needs for high-end homes for the city's ever-increasing international population. It was owned by Tan Jing, the Canton-born tycoon famed for his collection of arts and antiques. His daughter Linda Tan was later married to Roger Du, the son of the 1930s gangster Du Yuesheng. After the building’s completion, Tan and his family lived on the eighth floor and put all the other rooms on lease.

The building was designed by Poy Gum Lee, an American-Chinese architect who graduated from the Pratt Institute and embarked on his Shanghai adventure in 1923. Lee was famed in Shanghai for his works including the YMCA, YWCA and Mary Farnham Middle School. He was also the finishing architect of the Sun Yat-Sen mausoleum in Nanjing. 

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The owner of Cosmopolitan Apartments Tan Jing (left) and its designer Poy Gum Lee (right).

Walking around Cosmopolitan Apartments and seeing most of it left abandoned or empty, it’s hard to imagine it was one of the most luxurious apartment buildings in the city. Lee equipped every room with an art deco -- the fashion of the day -- interior and state-of-the-art technology like radios. The tenants could play tennis on the terrace. Occasionally the Tan family would host a ball or movie screening in the spacious corridor on the eighth floor. 

“Visually, [Building 173 is] very interesting because it possesses that unique Shanghai feel where old beauty is being neglected, ignored and almost forgotten,” says Petter Eldin, the co-director of Building 173. “Wipe the dust off and it shines. There's so much history between the walls that was staring right at us. We probably only scraped the surface [with our film], but it took us across the Pacific to Roger Du, the son of Du YueSheng.”

The documentary 'Building 173'

Just out of interest we started doing some research about the building, talking to her neighbors and so on. Soon we realized that the building had a plenty of very powerful history…… The stories we found sort of forced us to do it.

-- Petter Eldin, co-director of "Building 173"

A documentary about the historic Shanghai building was made in 2009 by two Shanghailanders -- Swedish filmmaker Petter Eldin and British journalist Charlott Mikkelborg. Through interviewing almost a dozen people closely related to this building's history -- including the owner's daughter Linda Tan, her husband Roger Du, the former lift operator Old Liu and a foreign resident from back in the 1930s -- the film brings to life Cosmopolitan Apartments’ original looks and its eventful history.

Although a historical film, their intention wasn't to make a film about Shanghai architecture and history, explains Eldin. “My co-director [Charlott Mikkelborg] moved into the building with her husband. Just out of interest we started doing some research about the building, talking to her neighbors and so on. Soon we realized that the building had plenty of very powerful history,” he says. “That's how the idea was born to make a film. We never really planned to do a documentary about any building, or the history of Shanghai, but the stories we found sort of forced us to do it.”

It took the crew nine months to film the 52-minute documentary, mostly done over weekends. After a couple of packed local screenings, "Building 173" became the official selection of several international documentary festivals, such as Hot Spring Documentary Film Festival and Regent Park Film Festival.

Eldin considered the whole film-making process an educational trip. “I'm not a historian, so I learned a lot during the process,” he says. “Listening to Old Liu, the former elevator operator of the building, as he recounted the 1930s, it was incredible. He's over 90 years old, but with a vivid memory. ”

Jue is amazed to see that Poy Gum Lee’s (in the photo) Cosmopolitan Apartments building is still standing.

A family connection

Like Petter Eldin, Chinese-American Kent Jue is also a big fan of Cosmopolitan Apartments. The only difference is that, being the grandson of Poy Gum Lee, this building has a starring role in his family's history.

Coming to Shanghai with his partner Stuart last month with a big bag of archive photos and documentaries, Kent planned to find and visit all the buildings his grandfather had designed that are still standing in Shanghai. Cosmopolitan Apartments was his first stop on his first family-history reseach trip last year. He spent nearly two hours in the building, searching every corner from the first floor to the top. Jue also shared his archive photos of the building from 1930s with the old residents in the neighborhood.

“We specifically organized a trip to China and to Shanghai to see the buildings after I learned about the Cosmopolitan Apartments through Cintia's [a friend of Jue] Flickr page. Cintia was actually the person who told us of the other buildings that were still standing, ” Jue explains.

Jue found old photos in a garage in his parent's house in Bakersfield, California. With his mother prefering not to talk much about the family history, these archives became Jue's only source to connect with his family history and Poy Gum Lee, who passed away in 1968.

“It's amazing that so many [buildings] are still standing -- especially given the rate of new building construction in Shanghai,” says Jue. “We came to see as many of the buildings as possible before they were possibly torn down. I think it's also a way to connect to some family history and honor Poy G. Lee's work.”

Jue met Eldin on his trip to Shanghai. “He [Eldin] gave us a copy of the DVD and we have it here in our house. I really enjoyed it,” Jue says. He is more fascinated about the fact that people are interested in a building that his grandfather had designed such a long time ago.

Having come to Shanghai twice, Jue is still finding out more about his connections with the city's history. So are we. Visit more historic buildings in Shanghai on the site by clicking on Shu Yin Lou, Jinjiafang, Ever-Spring Hall and Catalpa Garden.

Tracy You is a bilingual culture and lifestyle journalist based in Shanghai. She is a fan of history, British TV and Wii Guitar Hero. She is the Shanghai editor at CNNGo.

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