Dah Foo Commercial & Savings Bank (in December 2016)
Facade on the Zhongshan Avenue (in December 2016)
Historical background
Dah Foo Commercial & Savings Bank was founded by Cheng Ziju and others in 1935 and the construction of the building began in 1936. The building was designed by Hemmings & Berkely and constructed by Zhong Heng Construction Firm. The building covers an area of 506 square meters with a floor area of 1668 square meters. When Wuhan was occupied by Japanese invaders, the building became the garrison for Japanese military policemen in Hankow.
Architectural features
It is a modern Art Deco building with reinforced concrete structure. The front facade follows the shape of the street corner. With one storey below ground, there are 5 storeys above ground at the corner and 4 storeys above ground in the both wings. The construction of the building adopted the light-frame or light-material-structure technology, which was advanced in the west at that time.Instead of using the complicated classical decoration, the exterior walls were decorated with couples of rectangular patterns between storeys. The top was decorated with simple geometric instead of classical towers. All of these elements made it so-called modern building at that time.
Groud Floor Reused as a Bookstore (in April 2017)
Spiral Staircase Leading to the Entresol (in April 2017)
Cafe on the Entresol (in April 2017)
Readers (in April 2017)
Art Deco Facade Facing the Crossing of Zhongzhan Avenue and Nanjing Road (in December 2016)
Photo by Song Yi