Art & Architecture
mission to restore an elegant past
While China and the United States simultaneously
build new embassies in each
other’s capitals, symbolizing the healthy
relations between them, a ghost from their past is coming back to life.
A group of private investors are restoring the 103-year-old former U.S.
embassy as an upscale dining, arts and entertainment venue. In the heart of
Beijing, Legation Quarter, is named after the colonial district that once
thrived with the families of foreign diplomats. From the mid-19th century
until the Chinese Revolution, this area had western churches, hotels, banks
and restaurants. The former embassy was built in 1903 by an American
architect to replace an older one destroyed in a fire by anti-foreign
rebels. Today
Legation Quarter is the only intact embassy remaining from colonial
times and it was where former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger met in
secret with the Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai to plan
President Nixon’s historic visit in 1972.
“There is nothing like Legation Quarter in Beijing,” said David Williams, a
partner at Beijing-based Mandarin Ventures Ltd., a private equity group that
led the first round of investing. “The historical quality, Western
architecture and the spacious lawn in front of the embassy are all unique
attributes to have in the city — and to have them 20 yards from Tiananmen
Square makes it even more unusual.”
2008 Olympics
The approximately $30-million property is expected to open in plenty of
time for the 2008
Beijing Olympics. Its presence adds more luster to this growing
commercial and cultural district that includes nearby Tiananmen Square and
the Forbidden City. An older Beijing neighborhood adjacent to Legation
Quarter, known as Qianmen, is being redeveloped at the same time. For the
Olympics, city planners want to redirect traffic flow through this area.
That move is expected to bring millions of Chinese and international
visitors to the area.
Legation Quarter encompasses 170,000 square feet, including five
historically protected buildings, flanking a front and center
25,000-square-foot lawn. The buildings are neoclassical in design with a
façade of grey stone. The main embassy building has exterior granite steps
leading to colonnaded main entrance. Each building is two-stories tall. To
connect the smaller buildings to the main embassy, architects have plans for
modern structures made of glass and marble, which will house a 100-seat
repertory theater, an art gallery, bookshop and a patisserie. Envisioned for
the spacious outdoor lawn are music concerts and possibly an ice rink during
the winter.
Some of the world’s finest restaurants are eyeing Legation Quarter as their
entrée into China, including a renowned New York restaurant yet-to-be named.
Others on board are the Italian eatery,
Enoteca
Pinchiorri, a three-star Michelin restaurant from Florence, and
Aqua, a leading Hong
Kong hospitality group that will operate modern Cantonese and Japanese
restaurants at Legation Quarter. Legation Quarter chairman Handel Lee also
built “Three on the Bund,” a luxury development that launched a commercial
revival along Shanghai’s historic riverside, and he owns and operates two of
Beijing’s most popular upscale restaurants.
Shanghai has many more Western historical properties than Beijing. Since all
of the buildings in Legation Quarter are historically protected, moving the
project through the government bureaucracy took a great deal of time and
effort, with more than 30 separate government approvals before Legation
Quarter is finished.
“That’s just the nature of doing real estate in China, but it is even more
of an issue for historical renovation projects like this one, which are
overseen by the People’s Republic of China Cultural Preservation Bureau,”
said Williams.
Dallas Connection
Mandarin Ventures is a Beijing-based private equity group investing in consumer-focused Chinese companies, but Williams began his career in the Dallas area, where he was general manager of the software division of Richardson-based Micrografx Inc., a publicly traded graphics software company. Williams also received his undergraduate education at Southern Methodist University before going to Harvard University for his MBA. His parents still live in Dallas.
Completion of Legation Quarter is scheduled for June 2007.
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