HBA/Hirsch Bedner Associates Appointed to Restore Shanghai's Landmark Peace Hotel.

Renovation to Focus on Preserving the Historical Integrity of the Peace Hotel While Ensuring Its Commercial Viability

SANTA MONICA, Calif. -- HBA/Hirsch Bedner Associates, the world's leading hospitality design consulting firm, has been appointed by Jin Jiang International Group to manage

The restoration work is expected to take about two years. When completed, the hotel will be managed for Jin Jiang by Fairmont Hotels & Resorts. Plans call for it to reopen in the latter part of 2010 under the new name of the Fairmont Peace Hotel Shanghai.

Commenting on the historic restoration, Yu Chong Ming of Jin Jiang, said, "HBA/Hirsch Bedner Associates was appointed due to its unrivalled experience in sensitive historical restoration and its extensive experience with successful hotel projects in China."

"The Peace Hotel has been a Shanghai landmark for more than a century and is the most famous hotel not only in China, but arguably throughout Asia," noted Michael Bedner, chairman and chief executive officer of HBA/Hirsch Bedner Associates. "When it was conceived and built, the utmost attention was paid to the detail of both the exterior and interior design, and to ensuring the finest quality and unsurpassed luxury for its guests. We intend to recreate the grandeur and majesty of this major Asian landmark, and restore it to its place as one of the world's finest hotels," he added.

Originally conceived by British Trader Victor Sassoon, the 12-story Peace Hotel was first opened in 1929 as the Cathay Hotel. Situated on Shanghai's Bund overlooking the Huangpu River, it was built in the gothic style of the Chicago School of architecture with a number of distinguishing features, including granite facing on most of the building and a copper-sheathed pyramidal roof with steep sides and a height of about 10 meters.

Several years later, the structure was renamed The Peace Hotel. Despite having lost some of its "edge" in recent years, the hotel has become the most enduring symbol of the decadent international glamour of Shanghai in the 1920s and 1930s. Among its early guests were a large number of luminaries, including actor Charlie Chaplin and playwright Noel Coward, who completed one of his most famous works, "Private Lives," while staying there.