The Shanghai Municipal People's Government decided to build the theater as an urban culture center. The French architect Jean-Marie Charpentier designed it with the Institute of Architectural Design of Eastern China. Construction began in 1994, and it opened on August 27, 1998. The article calls it a crystal-like palace and names no style or main materials. It reports the cost as 3 billion yuan in one passage and a budget of 1.3 billion yuan in another.
It has eight floors above ground and two below, with 62,803 square meters of floor area. The Auditorium is 64 feet (19.5 m) high with 1,631 seats. The Buick Theater has 575 seats, and the Studio Theater has 220 fixed and 80 mobile seats.
It stands in northern People's Square and houses the Shanghai Opera House and other companies.
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