Subway Line 8 construction work is ongoing at the south end of Nanluoguxiang. Photo: Guo Yingguang/GT

A design company's makeover plan for Nanluoguxiang, Dongcheng district has received extensive online criticism from experts and residents for altering its original historic structures.

Boston International Design Group (BIDG), a design company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which mainly employs Chinese staff, released a series of artistic impressions of the area's future look on their website.

The design shows two-story buildings replacing the current one-story courtyard houses to the east and west of the south entrance to Nanluoguxiang, along Di'anmen Dongdajie.

The whole area will be filled with new ancient-style buildings and stores with glass roofs and French windows, according to the plan.

"This design would seriously damage the original historic style of the area, which is against the regulations on historic and cultural sites protection," said Hua Xinmin, a land property rights expert in Beijing, who is known for her work protecting the city's hutong.

"Nanluoguxiang is where I grew up and it bears all my best childhood memories. It would be such a shame to see a wonderful place get ruined," said Lin Jie, a resident who used to live in Yu'er Hutong, which connects to Nanluoguxiang.

"The protection of a historic district should at least keep the original residents there," he said.

"Reconstructions everywhere have made Beijing a fake city already, and now people don't recognise their way home," Lin said.

The future look of the south end of Nanluoguxiang, where a number of houses have been demolished already for subway construction on the Line  8 extension, is part of BIDG's project called "Nanluoguxiang subway construction, Dongcheng district, Beijing," connecting to Yu River and Shichahai area to the west, their website says.

"It's a sensitive time to talk about the plan," said Chen Dan, an employee with BIDG's Beijing office. She refused to say whether the Nanluoguxiang plan has received government approval from city planning authorities. Another publicity employee with the company's Beijing office told the Global Times the design is just an idea, and not yet to be put into practice.

Nanluoguxiang may turn into a pedestrian street in the future, according to Zhang Zhipeng, deputy director with Jiaodaokou sub-district administration, which oversees the Nanluoguxiang area, the Beijing Times reported on December 3. The anonymous BIDG publicity employee said the pedestrian street plan is part of their Nanluoguxiang project as well.

However, none of the area administrators or city planning authorities commented on the Nanluoguxiang plan yesterday.

"I don't know of this plan and haven't heard of BIDG," said Yang Sheng, a media department official with the Jiaodaokou sub-district administration. The Dongcheng District Commission of Urban Planning and the district government said they were also unaware of the plan. The Municipal Commission of Urban Planning asked for faxed questions, but had not responded by yesterday evening.

"They are building another ancient-style shopping center, making the same mistake as when Qianmen had a makeover, and it's doomed to fail," said He Shuzhong, chairman of Beijing Cultural Heritage Protection Center. Fake, old-fashioned buildings are only built to cater to government officials and businessman, in the name of cultural heritage protection, he noted.

BIDG has a history of projects which run roughshod over China's architectural heritage, alleged Hua. Many architects have left comments and sent her messages protesting the way the company has destroyed old districts in similar makeover projects across China, Hua said.

BIDG was also connected to the controversial Gulou "Time Cultural City" project, which was aborted after receiving much criticism from experts.

"We just can't wait until the whole of China has been Qianmenized," Hua said, explaining several previous examples of reconstruction of Beijing's old districts has made her terrified that the new Nanluoguxiang plan will one day become reality.