The Legendale Hotel [励骏酒店]: The MOST Ugly Building in the Historical Centre of Beijing, Dongcheng District, Beijing (P.R.China, 2008)

Cui Jinze, nice to meet you, my name is Claus. When was this building that you clearly do'nt like, erected? Very recently, judging the roof construction. Is it already finished? There is still a crane to be seen.

Best regards, Claus

Hello Claus. Yes it's already finished in March 2008...

Hello Cui Jinze, the Legendale Hotel reminds me of hotels in France, built towards the end of the nineteenth century, especially in seaside towns.

Strange to see it in the middle of Beijing, the building seems not to fit very well in the historical surroundings. I can imagine you're not too happy with these developments.

Kind regards, Claus

Hello Cui, if this beautiful building is ugly for you so what about these small dreadful huts???

Alex

Hello Alex, if these beautiful "small dreadful huts" all had been replaced by western style hotels like this, could there be any chances for Beijing still being called Beijing? But not Paris or Rome? In other ways of saying, if one of the beautiful "small dreadful huts" being built in this size, and right in the historical centre of Paris or Rome, would the western world love it and want all of their "ugly" traditional buildings to be replace by Chinese houses? Just imagine!

Yes Claus, the historical city of Beijing, just like what the west has been doing for years, should be protected and architecturally continued by excellent modern designs that respect the tradition and history. That's the right future for Beijing as one of the most important historical cities of China with a at least 3000 years history. While this building has no design at all. It's just a fake model of one of the classical western architectural styles, and it was enlarged into a ridiculous size and then built right in the historical centre of Beijing... Maybe you, as westerners would find it beautiful, but in the sense of cultural and heritage protection, it's pure criminal.

励骏酒店的这种建筑风格与体量，对于它所处的老北京历史地段核心区来说，却造成了严重的侵害。励骏酒店西距北京市市级文物保护单位——中华圣经会不足90米，距北京皇城历史文化保护区不足1公里，距世界文化遗产地——故宫之东华门直线距离不足1.4公里；南距北京市市级文物保护单位——原协和医院别墅区不足25米，距北京市市级文物保护单位——珍贵清代建筑群宁郡王府不足300米；北距著名历史风貌保护区——东四传统四合院地区不足1公里。更为严重的是，2000年11月，在作为金宝街之配套房地产开发工程的励骏酒店建设过程中，紧邻酒店西侧的东堂子胡同75号院——北京市东城区文物保护单位——革命民主主义者、著名教育家、原北大校长蔡元培故居竟被施工人员严重破坏，沿街部分房屋被拆除屋顶，院内房屋若干处被捅破。其拆除理由竟然是“保护性迁建”——也就是说，历史文物保护单位要为开发商置地建豪华酒店而“腾地儿”。此事在社会上引起了巨大反响，《北京晚报》、《中国青年报》等京城多家主流媒体相继报道、呼吁，最终故居被勉强原址保留，但是仅仅隔墙而立的高耸突兀的欧式酒店建筑却对先生故居的原始风貌环境造成了极大的破坏，而集中了梁思成、林徽因故居，金岳霖故居，朱启钤故居等等文化名人故居的东堂子胡同及红星胡同等也被破坏殆尽。

MOST Ugly