Zoya grew up in the mammoth stone post office, built in 1924 to sort the thousands of letters and parcels that came each day to Shanghai, then the Far East's main trade gateway.

Slick marble chutes took the mail from floor to floor and massive skylights funneled light to the third storey, where Zoya and her Russian refugee parents lived in the caretaker's quarters in the 1930s and '40s.

The charm of the building is in the detail, Zoya says, such as the wooden floors in the upper storeys where she and her friends used to dance or the writhing plaster leaves and vines on the lobby ceiling which you have to tip your head back to see.

If the Shanghai government gets its way, they may never be seen again.

China's richest and fastest growing city - which hopes to become the Asian business mecca it was during the 1930s - is considering a plan to gut the nationally protected post office and turn it into a shopping mall.

"I hope they don't ruin it," Zoya said by telephone from her home in California.

Shanghai is adding to its list of nearly 400 heritage sites, but the post office is one of many still facing an uncertain future as the city reinvents itself as a modern metropolis.

Fighting for space

Private investors and the government are throwing billions of dollars into creating a modern skyline for Shanghai, earmarked as China's financial hub, but with 13 million residents also its one of most crowded cities.

Glass-and-steel skyscrapers fight for space with the world's second-largest collection of Art Deco buildings, built early in the 20th century by a parade of European and US traders who came to cash in on a lucrative trade in opium, tea and silk.

Some of that era's buildings are near the end of their useful lives, like many "shikumen" or "stone gate houses" thrown up for Chinese workers, but not built to last.

Most of the city's workers and their families lived in these cramped tenements before the liberation of the city in 1949.

Their uniquely Shanghainese blend of European and Chinese styles belie unsteady foundations and a lack of indoor plumbing.

Many of their 21st century residents still have to empty enamel chamber pots in public toilets every morning.

Some architectural gems that are still in good shape now house bars or guesthouses but also are under threat of relocation or destruction as the city widens its roads and adds badly needed green space.

The word "conservation" is no guarantee of a happy ending.

Recent proposals involve taking down buildings brick by brick, moving them several hundred metres and turning them round 180 degrees.

Planned "renovations" include protected sites being ripped down and rebuilt in the same location using new materials.

Few historic buildings have secure futures, experts say.

"The Bund will stay intact, but the small stuff will continue to go," said Tess Johnston, writer of "A Last Look - Western Architecture in Old Shanghai" and other books about Shanghai's disappearing historic buildings.

The Bund was the prime riverfront commercial district in the 1920s and '30s, but its imposing neo-classical buildings fell into disrepair through years of neglect.

Now, its edifices are scrubbed and spectacularly lit at night for tourists and visiting dignitaries.

'Xintiandi'

The popularity of the Bund and other historic sites has sparked hopes among conservationists and history lovers that more Old Shanghai buildings would get a new lease on life.

"We hope they (the government) will realize the commercial value of preserving architecture, not just the aesthetic value," Johnston said.

Hong Kong developer Shui On Properties Ltd hope she's right.

Shui On spent US$150 million over five years to spruce-up two city blocks' worth of old houses, turning them into a wildly popular combination of yuppie fusion restaurants, boutiques and cocktail lounges called "Xintiandi", or "New Heaven and Earth".

"In some of the houses we could save one wall, in some we saved two walls, and in some there was nothing we could save," said Albert Chan, an architect and manager for Shui On.

But who knows whether any of the houses would have been saved if Xintiandi didn't have powerful neighbours?

The first meeting place of the Chinese Communist Party is part of the Xintiandi site, and the government gave Shui On strict height and aesthetic restrictions for the area.

The 52-hectare project including plans for a man-made lake, office towers and flats had hung in the balance.

"We thought we'd turn the restrictions into an opportunity," Chan said, but added it may take 10 years for the project to see profit.

Although Xintiandi's sidewalk cafes have filled up fast, conservationists' responses were mixed - the whole project will end up tearing down 23 city blocks of "shikumen" and save only two.

Now, "progress" is turning its eyes towards the Shanghai Post Office.

The city government is trying to decide between a mall and a museum, but swears that the building's stern Roman columns and Baroque belltower topped with 20-foot bronze maidens will stay no matter what.

"When we say a protected building, we mean that the outside will look the same, but it doesn't mean we can't put something new inside," said Yin Jianwei, a Shanghai official connected with the post office project.

Zoya Shlakis has her fingers crossed for a facelift, lamenting the linoleum floors and signs of neglect she saw in the second-floor mailroom on a recent visit to Shanghai.

"I hope they will not defile the building - but it does need some TLC," she said.

Agencies via Xinhua

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