The Public Works Department Building of the Shanghai International Settlement

The Public Works Department Building of the Shanghai International Settlement

The Public Works Department Building of the Shanghai International Settlement is a Shanghai Municipal Cultural Heritage Conservation Unit.

The Public Works Department Building of the Shanghai International Settlement is located between Jiangxi Middle Road and Henan Middle Road, and Fuzhou Road and Hankou Road. Now known as the Old Municipal Government Building, it has a square layout. Its main entrance faces northeast and is situated at 193–223 Hankou Road. Construction began in the 2nd year of the Republic of China (1913), when the Shanghai International Settlement’s Public Works Department started fundraising for the project. The construction was halted due to World War I, resumed in the 8th year of the Republic of China, and completed in the 10th year. It covers an area of 4,823 square meters, with a total floor area of 22,705 square meters. Originally designed as a four-story building with partial five-story sections, it was later expanded to a uniform five stories throughout. The building was self-designed by architects from the Public Works Department's drawing office and constructed by the Yuchangtai Contracting Firm, featuring a reinforced concrete frame structure.

The building served as an office complex. Arranged peripherally along the streets, it features a central carriage and horse plaza. With relatively high storeys, the interior was well-appointed, including mosaic flooring, oak and keruing wood floors, steel windows, and a granite exterior façade, earning it the nickname "the Stone House." The ground floor had 39 large semi-circular steel windows, while the space between the second and third floors featured thick Ionic-style granite round columns. The second-floor window lintels were adorned with arc-shaped and triangular pediment designs. The fourth-floor exterior walls protruded outward with approximately one-meter overhanging eaves. The entire structure emulated European architectural styles. In front of the main eastern entrance, there was a protruding semicircular arcade supported by four granite square pillars, each surrounded by four granite round columns. This arcade was designed for car parking and featured a platform above. A semicircular balcony was built on the third floor.

The building was among the earlier structures in Shanghai to use steel windows. It housed the offices of the Chairman and various departments of the Shanghai International Settlement’s Public Works Department. After the victory in the War of Resistance against Japan, it became the seat of the Shanghai Municipal Government and was renamed the Municipal Government Building. Upon the liberation of Shanghai, Mayor Chen Yi held the takeover ceremony here. Before 1955, the Shanghai Municipal People’s Government was also based here. Later, the municipal government office and other departments moved to the HSBC Building, and this building was mainly used by agencies such as the Civil Affairs Bureau, the Gardens and Parks Bureau, the Environmental Protection Bureau, the Labor Bureau, the Planning Bureau, and the Health Bureau. At the entrance to the staircase, a stone tablet is embedded in the wall, inscribed with the words “The people of Shanghai build their own Shanghai according to their will,” written by Chen Yi on the first anniversary of the liberation of Shanghai.

It was designated as a Shanghai Municipal Cultural Heritage Conservation Unit in 1989.