Эммануил Моисеевич ГРАН (1894–1969). Русский текст – внизу страницы ⬇
Born on April 5, 1894, in Samara, Russia; died on June 21, 1969, in New York, USA. First wife Lydia Arnoldovna Gran (b. 1899), second wife – Delight Gran.
Gran studied architecture in Saint Petersburg, and also was a marine officer who fought against the Bolsheviks as part of the Siberian Fleet in 1917. After landing in Shanghai in 1921, he worked as an architect at Palmer & Turner for ten years. During that decade, the company completed its largest projects, including the Glen Line Steamship Co. building (1921), Hongkong & Shanghai Banking Corporation (1923), Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China (1923), Yokohama Specie Bank (1924), Custom House (1926), the remodeling of the Palace Hotel (1927), Beth Aharon Synagogue (1927), Cathay Hotel (1929), Embankment Building (1931), Metropole Hotel (1931) and Hamilton House (1932).
In his interviews in the 1960s, Gran claimed to have designed Cathay Hotel. His name, always placed near the top of the list of Palmer & Turner staff, was the only one without the credentials of the Royal Institute of British Architects. By 1932, local newspapers described Gran as the "author of many notable buildings" and "an architect with an already established reputation."
In January 1932, E. M. Gran – " exponent of the newer tendencies of modern architectural practice" – became partner in the firm of Davies & Brooke. A year later, one of the partners – C. Gilbert Davies – died, so Emmanuel Gran and John Tallents Wynyard Brooke continued as a duo, retaining the firm's name Davies, Brooke & Gran (建兴). During the 1930s, the firm accomplished a number of large-scale projects in Shanghai, most of which survive to this day: a godown and offices for Pilkington Bros. (1933), the Lafayette Court (1933), Medhurst Apartments (1934), Yue Tuck Apartments (1934), Victor Court (1934), Commercial Bank of China, aka Development Building (1935), Villa Bayankara and mall for Zhou Xiangyun (1936), Ashkenazi Synagogue (1937), Magnet House (1938), Hanray Mansions (1939) and two versions of the Pushkin Monument (1937 and 1947).
In 1931, together with colleague N. N. Emanoff, E. M. Gran founded the Russian Engineering Society and was its chairman for years. He was also a lecturer in architecture and vice-president of the Higher Technical Centre of the French Concession in 1936–1941, and chairman of the ORT Society, which promoted handicrafts among Jews, in 1941.
Davies, Brooke & Gran had a branch office in Hong Kong. In 1934, Gran was invited to design the houses for the Kadoorie Estates. In 1936, the office of the firm moved to St. George’s Building, on the estates. By 1937, three houses, a bungalow and six semi-detached houses were completed and occupied, and by the end of 1941, 34 houses were occupied, together with 13 apartments in St. George’s Mansions. The latter building was adjacent to the China Light and Power (CLP) administration building on Argyle Street, finished in 1940. Also in 1940, Davies, Brooke and Gran acted as consulting architects on the construction of the new building of Hok Un Power Station in Hung Hom (Kowloon), designed by S. E. Faber, of the CLP.
The architect Henry Jemson Tebbutt (1893–?) was partner in the Hong Kong branch of Davies, Brooke and Gran, having joined in March 1936. He designed many buildings for the studio, including his own home on Repulse Bay Road (HKFEB).
The 1941 issues of Hong Kong and Far East Builder mention the following projects of Davies, Brooke and Gran in Hong Kong:
– Alterations and additions to Ritz Amusement Park, King's Road. Work in progress.
– One block of offices and residential building to Central Police Station, Hollywood Road. Plans approved.
– Private residence for Sir Elly Kadoorie, Castle Peak. Work in progress.
– Additions to Hong Kong Sanitarium, Happy Valley. Plans in preparation.
– Fanling Development for the Hong Kong Jockey Club. Site leveling work in progress.
– Ice Cream Kiosk on Beach Road, Repulse bay. Work in progress.
– European (Spanish-style) residence for Chun Tak Kwong, Esq, on Repulse Bay Road. Work recently completed.
– Alterations to Race Course Apartments, Gray Estates, Shan Kwong Road. Work in progress.
– Decorative work for Paramount Ballroom at Windsor House.
Meanwhile in Shanghai, Davies, Brooke and Gran pledged their services to designing a building for the Shanghai Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals on the site of the former Italian Club, 285 Rue Maresca.
In 1948, Hong Kong assets of the studio were purchased by Metropolitan Land Co.
In 1949, Gran left China and relocated to New York. He worked as architect and director of interiors for the Hilton Hotels until his death in 1969, having authored more than 45 buildings around the world. Among his works are Brussels Hilton (1967), designed together with Henri Montois, and interior design of Amsterdam and Rotterdam Hiltons (together with Inge Bech). There is also Kuwait Hilton and Budapest Hilton (different from most his creations in that it is a reconstruction of a historic building). In 1966, he designed the 500-room Beirut Hilton. Gran was quoted as saying: “...a hotel is one of the most complex of buildings and that a greater number of specialists and designers from every field must work together to achieve a well-designed hotel when an inexperienced designer tries to copy blindly, he runs into trouble.” (R. N. Kaul, Dynamics of Tourism, Vol II. Accommodation, p. 319).
In various interviews, Gran stated that he had designed his first hotel in 1926, and his interview for TWA Skyliner credits him with the design of Shanghai’s Cathay Hotel. He admitted to occasionally thinking about retiring. "But then last year I met an active architect who was 90 years old, and I changed my mind," he stated a few months before his death. (TWA Skyliner, March 1969).
Gran's vast collection of Chinese art, jades and scholar's objects, amassed during his time in China and exhibited at his home and workplaces, made a splash at major auctions in 2014.
1932
1932 (unrealized?)
1932 (unrealized?)
1932 (unrealized?)
1932
1933
1933
1934
1934
1935
1937
1938
1932 (unrealized?)
1933
1933
1935
1938
1941 (unrealized?)
1934–1941
1941
1941
After the opening of the Paramout Ballroom of the Windsor House, The Hong Kong and Far East Builder wrote in the February-March 1941 issue: “The decorative work was carried out by Messrs. Davies, Brooke and Gran, and undoubtedly the attractiveness of the surroundings has been in no little measure responsible for the success of the enterprise since its inception.
“[...An] advantage of this truss roof is that it permits of the system of concealed ceiling lighting which forms the principal element in the scheme of decoration for the ballroom and at the same time provides a glareless diffusion of light in the variety of colors which is at once pleasant and restful.
“From the main lift hall which has been very pleasantly decorated in light-colored terrazzo, offset with strips of black marble, the reception lobby is visible through glass plate doors, made locally, with chromium plated framing sections. The lobby is a spacious oval-shaped area in which the cigarette and hat and coat checking counters are set on either side of the recessed window. The walls are faced with a highly polished light grained plywood, the floor covered with the uni-colored carpet, and the whole being lit from the ceiling by the same indirect trough lighting as the ballroom.”
1934
Godown and workshop for Pilkington Bros. (1932), 179 Pingliang Road 平凉路179号. Street view.
Residence for Z. Y. Woo, 97 Jessfield Road (1933), now 618 Wanhangdu Road 万航渡路618号.
Lafayette Court, 1248 Rue Lafayette (1933), now 复兴新村, 1248 Middle Fuxing Road 复兴中路1248弄.
Bay View Mansions, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong (1933) – demolished in 1959.
Apartments in North Point, Hong Kong (1933) – location and state to be confirmed.
Medhurst Apartments, 934 Bubbling Well Road (1934), now Taixing Apartments 泰兴公寓, 934 West Nanjing Road 南京西路934号
Victor Court, 76 Route Victor Emanuel (1934), now 56 Shaoxing Road 绍兴路56号
Edgewater Mansions hotel, Tsingtao (1934), now 东海饭店, 7 Huiquan Road 汇泉路7号, Qingdao 青岛
Shops and residences, Myburgh / Park / Tsingtao Road (1934), now 承兴里, Lanes 253–281 Huanghe Road 黄河路253、281弄
Yue Tuck Apartments, 7 Tifeng Road (1934), now Yide Apartments 懿德公寓, 69 North Wulumuqi Road 乌鲁木齐北路69号
Avan Villa, 74 Tifeng Road (1934), now 468 North Wulumuqi Road 乌鲁木齐北路468弄
Villa Bayankara, shops and residences for Zhou Xiangyun 周湘云, Love Lane and Chinhai Road (1936), now 44 Qinghai Road 青海路44号 – partially preserved
Commercial Bank of China, 181 Kiangse Road (1935), later known as Development Building, now 181 Jiangxi Road 江西中路181号
Two blocks of Japanese apartments, 136 Quinsan Road (1937), now Lane 136 Kunshan Road 昆山路136弄
Monument of the poet A. S. Pushkin, Route Pichon (1937), now Yueyang Road/Taojiang Road 岳阳路桃江路
Ashkenazi Synagogue, 102 Route Tenant de la Tour (1940), now 102 South Xiangyang Road 襄阳南路102号
Magnet House, 41 Szechuen Road (1938), now 49 Middle Sichuan Road 四川中路49号
Residence of Zong Chuen Dong, "modern Chinese architecture, with facade in tile and glass" (1936) – location being confirmed
Hanray Mansions 亨利公寓, Avenue Joffre (1939), now 淮中大楼, 1154–1170 Middle Huaihai Road 淮海中路1154–1170号
Restoration of the Pushkin Monument (1947), Yueyang Road/Taojiang Road 岳阳路桃江路
Родился 5 апреля 1894 года в Самаре; умер 21 июня в Нью-Йорке, США.
Эммануил Моисеевич Гран в 1917 году окончил Школу прапорщиков флота в 1917 году и с июня 1918 года служил в белых войсках Сибирской флотилии, сражаясь на Восточном фронте. Оказавшись в Шанхае, в 1921 году Гран вступил в состав архитекторов крупной фирмы "Palmer & Turner", одновременно публикуя иллюстрации в журналах. Отсутствие аккредитации Королевского института британских архитекторов (R.I.B.A.) не помешало Грану стать одним из ведущих архитекторов компании. За время его работы в компании, она выполнила свои крупнейшие проекты: Гонконгско-Китайский банк (1923), Банк Иокогамы (1924), Таможенный союз (1924), синагога Бет Ахарон (1927), отель "Катэй" (1928), отель "Метрополь" (1931) и "Хамильтон-хауз" (1932). В 1932 году Гран был упомянут в шанхайской прессе как "автор множества известных зданий".
В январе 1932 года, Э. М. Гран стал партнером в архитектурной фирме "Davies & Brooke", которая поменяла название на "Davies, Brooke & Gran". Через год основатель фирмы Чарльз Гилберт Дэвис умер, и Гран продолжил дело вдвоем с Джоном Бруком. Компания создала множество крупных зданий в Шанхае и за его пределами, большинство из которых сохранились по сей день: многоквартирные дома "Медхерст" (1933), "Виктор Корт" и "Юэ Так" (1934), Коммерческий банк Китая (1935), новая синагога "Охейл Моше" (1937–1940), здание "Магнет-хауз" (1938), пристройка к многоквартирному дому "Гасконь" (1938), дом "Ханрэй" (1937–1939). В тандеме с архитектором Ливиным и художниками Подгурским и Кичигиным Гран создал памятник А. С. Пушкину (1937), а впоследствии участвовал в его восстановлении в 1947 году. Фирма "Davies, Brooke & Gran" имела отделение в Гонконге (в 1940 году).
Э. М. Гран был председателем Русского Технического общества в 1934–1935 годах, вице-президентом Высшего Технического Центра Французской концессии в 1936–1941 годах и председателем общества "ОРТ", продвигавшего занятость среди евреев в 1941 году. Шанхайское отделение архитектурной фирмы "Davies, Brooke & Gran" проработало до 1947 года, а в 1948 году Э. М. Гран перебрался в Калифорнию и впоследствии в Нью-Йорк. Там он плодотворно работал архитектором и директором по интерьерам в сети отелей "Хилтон", став вице-президентом компании незадолго до своей смерти в 1969 году. За годы жизни в Китае Э. М. Гран собрал обширную коллекцию предметов традиционного искусства и изделий из нефрита, которая пошла с молотка в 2014 году.
China Press, North-China Daily News, Shanghai Sunday Times, Shanghai Times, The Builder 建筑月刊, North-China Hong List directories
В. Д. Жиганов "Русские в Шанхае" (1936)
ГРАН Эммануил Моисеевич: https://artrz.ru/menu/1804681482/1805023257.html
Chinese Works of Art Bonhams Sept 2015: http://online.flipbuilder.com/mpdm/kelq/mobile/index.html#p=13
Shanghai Architecture Series (in Russian): https://magazeta.com/author/knyazeva/
TWA Skyliner magazine
Shanghai Municipal Police Files, certificates of character (1941).