Four-story building under construction, designed by V. N. Dronnikoff

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Thu, 07/08/2021 - 22:09
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Four-story building under construction, designed by V. N. Dronnikoff

This is one of the projects of the architect Vladimir Dronnikoff, built for Minutti & Partners, photographed during the construction between 1950 and 1953. I am looking for help identifying this building and its location. According to Dronnikoff's CV, this could be "Bellevue Apartments – four-storeyed apartment building for Mr. C. Y. Chen".

Date picture taken
1951
Author(s)
V. N. Dronnikoff
Gallery
1950s Hong Kong
Shows place(s)
St. Paul's Hospital, Causeway Bay (aka The French Hospital) [1918- ]

Comments

Perhaps, in common HK style, the newer site on this plot is also called Bellevue. If so, there is a possible location at 160 Boundary Street? Just a suggestion as I have found multiple times that redevelopments often use or maintain the previous names of buildings.

Edit: on second thoughts, after looking at this photo of the area it doesn't look like the surroundings match.

Thank you both for looking into this! It must be incredibly hard to map old photos of Hong Kong, given how much architecture has disappeared. I often have to struggle with Shanghai.

I can't tell if it's a nullah in the road or just a high central divider. Being able to identify may narrow down the list of potential roads.

Yes, it's very similar to the brickwork on the Waterloo Road nullah. I don't think this is Waterloo Road though. As far as I am aware the open nullah was only on the section north of Boundary Street and this doesn't match that area at all.

Does anyone know of any other roads that had open nullahs which may fit the image?

That type of architecture was mainly found in Kowloon Tong or Yau Yat Chuen. Of the 4 main streets in these areas - Boundary Rd., Prince Edward Rd., Argyle St., and Waterloo Rd., I think Waterloo was the only one with a nullah.

The road one is looking at is Tung Lo Wan Road, Causeway Bay, which in the past had a nullah as a central divider. The building in the photo is probably related to St. Paul's Hospital (French Hospital). The building and nullah can also be viewed here and here respectively. 

Many thanks! I wonder if I should edit the original post or add an "Update" to reflect this discovery? Since this is probably not "Mr C Y Chen's Bellevue Apartments", the likely buldings (from the architect's bio) are either "A school building for the French Mission" or "Hospital Staff Quarters building for the French Mission".

This is probably the case! The question remains, where is it located...

Thanks to the identification work above, the building in the photo is probably the Hospital Staff Quarters for the French Mission, adjacent to the French Convent School further down the road (on the right). I think, this drawing from the SCMP (3 May 1950) shows them side by side, looking from the opposite end of the block (I'm trying to locate a better quality image in Hongkong and Far East Builder).