（DCS系统）和（机器人系统）及（大型伺服控制系统）备件大卖！叫卖！特卖！卖卖卖！
Social change in China has split the history of the legendary Sassoon House into two parts. As the Cathay Hotel, it was famous throughout Far East and set a precedent for luxury and glamor. But Sassoon’s parties came to an end with the outbreak of the World War II. He left Shanghai in 1941.

The building was used by the Shanghai Municipal Government after 1949. It reopened later as the state-owned Peace Hotel in 1956. Until the restoration kicked off in 2007, the ground floor was shared by the hotel, East China Telecom Bureau and Shanghai Commercial Bureau which now has a clothing shop in the rotunda.

“Even I haven’t seen the original rotunda. I only remember the building had three separate gates, one for the Peace Hotel, one for the telecom bureau and the other a shop for selling cheap products like shirts and woolen sweaters,” says Tang who is in her 70s now.

Tang also designed the Shanghai Library and restored the Waldorf Astoria Shanghai on the Bund.

“In the early 1990s, the Commercial Bureau added a mezzanine and a spiral staircase in the shop for flooded shoppers on Nanjing Road, which totally changed the look of the historical rotunda. Fortunately in the 21th century, people have more common understandings of the value and proper use of historical buildings,” Tang says, recalling the background of the three-year restoration from 2007 to 2010.

It took some work to persuade the three state-owned bureaus to cooperate, open separation doors and connect the rotunda and the arcade again, like it was in 1929.

The highlight of the project was to restore the rotunda, which looked rather dim then, to its glory of yesteryears.

“In the 1920s, glass was still a novel material whose quality was not as good as today. So two layers of iron nets were designed above and under the glass dome of the rotunda to eliminate injury in case a piece of broken glass fell down,” Tang explains.

“Now we have laminated glass. Two pieces of glasses stick together with highly elastic glue, which won’t fall down if it snaps, so the iron nets are not necessary. The moment we removed the rusting iron nets and replaced the old glasses with new ones, the rotunda lit up. It very likely looked what it did in 1929. The hotel’s old employees were so happy and they said we rebuilt yesterdays glory,” Tang adds.

Her team also solved a lot of difficulties during this restoration, such as smartly hiding the return air ports for air conditioning around silver relief that decorates the rotunda. The hotel’s 1920s radiator covers have all been preserved but are used as return air ports, too.

The yellow tone of the replaced glass is inspired from yellow lights illuminating through the original shop window glass in the rotunda.

“It’s the first Art Deco building in China but Sassoon’s penthouse was decorated in Jacobean style, with dark, carved paneling and richly molded ceilings, instead of the up-to-date Deco,” says Tongji University Professor Chang Qing, whose team surveyed the building before Tang’s renovation in 2007.

During the survey the professor discovered that Sassoon had a plan of connecting the Sassoon House and Palace Hotel with an overhead gallery in the 1940s. The design was completed but the plan was not implemented due to shortage of fund.

“The hotel impressed me as being an old aristocrat. He was aging but he was still the lord. Everywhere, every detail is so refined and stylish,” he adds. “A building has its life and our urban history is carried by historical buildings. We shall preserve and reuse these buildings and prolong their lives as long as possible.”

After a three-year renovation, the building reopened in 2010 as the Fairmont Peace Hotel. Today, it is again a hotel of art and luxury located on the city’s most expensive corner on Nanjing Road E. and the Bund.