Cambridge, MA– Shanghai’s most famous landmark, the Bund, reopened this spring in time for the 2010 WorldExpo, a six-month exposition and World’s Fair celebrating the host city’s surging global prominence. In addition to hosting 70 million expected Expo visitors, the restored Bund embankment with its parks and historic architecture is expected to offer greatly expanded public use and increased economic vitality along its 1.8 kilometer waterfront site.
The Bund renaissance represents a pattern of new waterfront redevelopment across the globe, one where large metropolitan cities are transitioning their waterfronts from industrial-based to more service- and lifestyle-based.
Master planning and conceptual design for the Bund’s riverside promenade and parks was provided by Chan Krieger NBBJ, the Cambridge MA-based studio of global architecture and design firm NBBJ. The firm was hired by the Chinese government after winning a three-stage international design competition in 2007. A three-year planning, design and construction program – spurred on by the decision to host the 2010 WorldExpo – resulted in the relocation of a 10-lane highway underground and the creation of an expanded corridor of riverfront recreation space.
The new promenade designed by Chan Krieger NBBJ restores the grandeur of the Bund. The open space between the historic buildings and the river is now wider and greener, surface lighting provides a safe and active destination at all hours, and the pedestrian experience along Zhongshan Street, the main thoroughfare that parallels the river, includes bustling sidewalks and shops. Overall, the design creates a rich waterfront experience that extends far beyond the water’s edge to include the streets, open urban spaces and other elements that link the water with the adjacent neighborhoods of Shanghai.
“We addressed each and every concern for tourists when designing the riverside promenade,” Zhou Wei, a Huangpu District official, said at a government news conference for the grand opening ceremony. “The renovation restores the old feel of the Bund, which used to belong to pedestrians and tourists before it gradually gave way to busy vehicle traffic.”
Most of the world’s largest cities are located along the water’s edge, and share a similar challenge to Shanghai’s Bund riverfront improvement project: increasing pedestrian access to the water without reducing critical transportation infrastructure. On Chan Krieger NBBJ’s waterfront development projects in cities including Boston, Detroit and Pittsburgh, highways and industrial development limited public access and discouraged recreational and residential re-use.
Alex Krieger, lead master planner of the Bund and principal at Chan Krieger NBBJ said “Urban waterfronts are unrivaled in their potential for providing economic and community vitality, which makes waterfront redevelopment projects one of the most significant urban change initiatives that a city can take on. It’s essential that these projects are looked at as long-term endeavors, addressing the current and future visions of contemporary urban life.”
To gain greater outcomes when planning for new development at the water’s edge, Krieger developed a listing of “10 Waterfront Principles” (read full list of principles here). It starts with a universal principle: recognize that changes along urban waterfronts are “a recurring condition in the evolution of cities,” and take place when major economic or cultural shifts occur. The expected migration of an additional three million people into China’s urban centers in this decade is a dramatic example of a historic shift affecting Shanghai and other fast growth Asian cities.
Two other waterfront principles Krieger offers include adding residential uses and broadening the planning effort beyond just the water’s edge. “Even though a city’s waterfront serves as a natural boundary between land and water, it must not be conceptualized or planned as a thin line,” Krieger advises. The streets and the surrounding neighborhoods leading to the water are all a part of the tapestry.
He also believes strongly in the essential benefits of integrating residential and mixed uses. To make underused urban waterfronts come alive after industry has receded he says, “they must become desirable places to live, not just to visit and recreate. Bringing in residential, restaurant and retail allows people to experience what they love about cities in the place where the aura of the city is often strongest – along its waterfront,” Krieger said.