In 1987, the Office Building of NPC Standing Committee was built at the west side of Beijing Great Hall of the people (location of today’s National Grand Theater). Over a hundred architects from big design institutes all over the country were invited to Beijing for site design. Mr. Tian Shoulin and Mr. Chen Aixian were sent to Beijing on behalf of the Shanghai Institute. The photo shows that Mr. Tian reported to Mr. Peng Zhen, then Head of National People's Congress, on the scheme and he was praised by Mr. Peng.
In August 1992, the Shanghai government announced that from 1992, economic responsibility system with contracted jobs was put into trial use in first-class survey and design institutes in Shanghai. On August 28, the “Two Institutes” each signed operating contract agreement with Shanghai Construction Committee and Huangpu Taxation Bureau, which was a big step in exploring marketization. On May 11, 1995, the “Two Institutes” were listed among the 32 large survey and design institutes that were pilots of modern enterprise system by the Ministry of Construction. At that time, many famous foreign design companies flooded into China and the “Two Institutes” had chances to cooperate with top international architectural companies such as Kenzo Tange and Leoh Ming Pei. The “Two Institutes” took active part in challenges from both market and technology. Projects of the “Two Institutes” in cooperation with foreign companies at early stage included Jin Jiang Tower and Huating Hotel cooperated with Wong Tung from Hong Kong, Jing’an Hilton Hotel cooperated with Hong Kong Association Architecture Design Firm, Shanghai Hotel Equatorial cooperated with Singapore Chao Tse Ann Firm, Hong Qiao State Guest Hotel cooperated with Simon Lee & Associates Architects in USA, etc. Later, the “Two Institutes” co-designed some large projects such as Shanghai Grand Theater, Super Brand Mall, ICBC Tower and Bank of Shanghai Tower. The success of those projects allowed our designers to acquire valuable experience and expertise open in the market, and therefore, remarkably enhanced their competitiveness; many national academicians and masters came into being. In November, 1984, China carried out its first exploration to the South Pole and built the first research station- the Great Wall Station. In 1991, the East China Institute undertook architectural design of the comprehensive warehouse and food warehouse of the Great Wall Station. Over the years, the building that has withstood usage and tests is still standing in the South Pole.
Opening ceremony of the Design and Research Institute that had been known as the Shanghai Institute, 1993
At the beginning of 1990s, in Shanghai, a city that was in significant development, development of culture was led by Cultural Architecture mainly. The then municipal leaders pointed out that culture should be stressed in Puxi, especially at People’s Square, which should be shaped into a political and cultural center. Against such a background, the Shanghai Museum became a very important project. Its architectural modeling for the first time combined square and circle, a style that had never been seen in museums throughout the world; in the aspect of display mode, open design was adopted both in and outside of the museum, which was unprecedented in domestic museums as well.
Quoted from Mr. Xing Tonghe’s speech at the Symposium on the Past 60 Years
In the project of Shanghai Grand Theater, because our foreign partner was inexperienced in theater design, we overcome difficulties ranging from architectural acoustics, view analysis to special roof structure lifting on our own. During that process, Mr. Zhu Xiurong, Chief Design Officer and Mr. Zhang Qinhuan, Director of Dynamic Group passed away due to overwork. They made outstanding contribution by working day and night to catch up the design process and taking the drawings back home to study on. Their unfortunate death by the end of the project was such a pity to us.
Quoted from Mr. Cao Jiaming’s speech at the Symposium on the Past 60 Years
At the beginning of the Oriental Pearl project, 30-40 persons in the institute were organized to design scheme feasibility in a workshop successively. Later in summer, they were moved to a workshop located on Zhapu Road for further discussion. After more than half a year, we collected a great deal of information of TV towers around the world at that time; we had the original idea of multiple cylinder structure after comparison, for the structure had both style and multiple earthquake proof functions.
Quoted from Academician Jiang Huacheng’s speech at the Symposium on the Past 60 Years
