The French architect Jean Marie Charpentier was commissioned to design a new cultural center for China’s financial capital, in the center of Shanghai. The Shanghai Grand Theater stretches its huge roof to the blue sky, symbolizing a Chinese national treasure bowl holding the universe’s kindness and wisdom. The building facilitates Shanghai’s enthusiastic pursuit of the world culture and arts as well as its flexibility ever since ancient times.
Located at the People’s Square, the Shanghai Grand Theater occupies an area of 2.1 hectares, facing the People’s Boulevard in the south, along Huangpi Beilu in the west, next to the Shanghai Municipal Building in the East. The new style architecture combines the Eastern and Western flavor. While naturally choosing to represent Chinese tradition, Jean Marie Charpentier also wished to make a dynamic architectural statement with his surrounding complex, at the historical center of the city.
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