Central Apartments Building

Nowadays, this is a disappeared project in Shanghai considered sometimes as designed by A.J. Yaron but in this post, I would like to revindicate the authority of the project to be from "Lafuente & Yaron Architects" because they were in partnership until May 1928 as per their personal correspondence found at Leonardo-Perez, A, 2019 UAH PhD dissertation.

In this particular case, the building started in 1925 when Abelardo Lafuente was still living in the city, and it was widely mentioned at his letters and it was originally named as "Lafuente Building". Back then, some of the apartment's residents had several gambling issues with the Shanghai Police Department and that's why it was in different media over the years and with the architect as witness at several court trials. The construction was stopped in December 1925 as was one of the coldest winters in the city.

This building was originally started by Abelardo Lafuente as a real estate investment in the business he had together with some other partners. In this case with one of the Spanish religious orders in the city.
It was an apartment building for rent, with a commercial ground floor level that was used mainly for shops, but also other types of businesses. It is in this building where Abelardo Lafuente had his studio for a few months in 1926 before moving to 316, Bubbling Well Road.

The concept for creating this building was to try to occupy most of the plot and raise it to the maximum possible to maximize both the number of apartments and commercial premises.

It is an eclectic and classicist building, with a classic façade composition with a commercial base, very similar window shafts, and a crown with characteristic elements in the corners that give it importance.
What is of most interest in the facades are the corners or chamfers, since the largest balconies are located there on both floors and the windows are curved and large to give them greater importance.
The central part of the building facing Medhurst Road has one more slab, and it seems that the corner with Bubbling Road had the same compositional importance as the one facing the secondary street (shown in the photo). In both corners, the existence of walkable terraces can be seen, since there are railings of significant dimensions.