The renovated Harbin Railway Station won the 2019 China Construction Engineering Luban Prize (National Prime-quality Project), according to information released by the Harbin Housing and Urban-Rural Development Bureau on Dec 16.

This prize is the highest honor for engineering quality in China's architecture profession.

Harbin railway station has undergone its fifth period renovation since 1955.

The latest reconstruction of the station started in March 2017 and ended at the end of 2019. It was a bid to improve the station’s facilities and restore the historical features of the station, when it was first established in 1899.

The renovation project of the Harbin Railway Station included construction of the south and north station buildings, elevated station buildings, underground city corridors, platforms and canopies. The whole station covers an area of around 165,385 square meters.

There are eight platforms and 16 rail lines in the station. It can handle up to 15,000 passengers at the same time. The annual passenger flow of the station is estimated to reach 37.6 million.

The new station is designed in the Art Nouveau style, and the overall shape of the north and south station buildings are based on the version of when it was first built.

The roof of the main station building incorporates the Monsa-style roof of the Heilongjiang Provincial Museum.

The mushroom-shaped windows of its bell tower integrate the classic shapes of many Art Nouveau buildings such as the Madier Hotel and the design of the bell tower borrows from London’s Big Ben.

The neo-artistic iron art that prevailed in Harbin in the early days is widely used in the awnings, corridors, railings, and elevators at the entrance of the station.

In addition, the huge relief sculpture in the departure hall integrates the elements of the railways, lilac and sprays, featuring clear regional characteristics and reflects Harbin’s historical development due to the appearance of the railway.