Lake, contained 30 bedrooms, each with a bathroom and a deep-set concrete balcony. Back in Shanghai, Gonda helped his relative, the entertainer Joe Farren (Joe's late sister was the first wife of Joe's brother, Dr Aurel Gonda) design a nightclub at the western end of the International Settlement, which opened in December 1937. The conversion of the garden residence into a ballroom and amusement centre involved “structural alterations of a very complicated nature.” Gonda incorporated his usual indirect lighting scheme, minimalist lines, spring dance floor, and built-in air conditioning. In 1938, Gonda supervised the conversion of an indoor shopping arcade in the Bubbling Well Apartments into the 500-seat Uptown Theatre (平安电影院), owned by the Asia Theatres Inc. In June 1939, the 800-seat Doumer Theatre (杜美大戏院) opened on Route Doumer, converted from the old St. George's cabaret; the owners were Karl Gumpert and Heinz Cohn. The minimalist interior design was done in contrasting colors and had concealed lightning fixtures. In December that year, the Roxy Theatre (大华大戏院) opened on Bubbling Well Road, owned by the Far Eastern Theatres, Inc., reconstructed from the Embassy Theatre, which used to be at this address. Retaining the original foundations and bearing walls, Gonda completely redesigned the building, adhering to “simplicity and grandeur instead of indulging in detailed finesse.” The 1940s In 1941, Gonda designed the residential compound Hardoon Villas (哈同别墅) for the China Star Land Investment Co, composed of 88 three-story buildings, at 910 Weihaiwei Road (now Weihai Lu 威海路). The same year saw the construction of the Queen's Theater (皇后大戏院) on Yu Ya Ching Road (now Xizang Zhong Lu 西藏中路), for the Queen's Theatres Inc, which opened in February 1942. The theatre cost 3,000,000 taels to build and had 1,450 seats, which were unusually wide and arranged on a double incline. The architect departed from the usual ceiling design in theaters by bringing down the ceiling to the proscenium in gradual steps, to enhance the acoustics. In 1942, the 950-seat Royal Theater (上海大戏院) was built in the French Concession, on Rue Lafayette (now Fuxing Zhong Lu 复兴中路), for the Société Française des Cinemas. The decor of the lobby was in rough-texture, multi-colored plaster, illuminated by decorative light fixtures, while the auditorium had concealed fluorescent light tubes. Gonda's final large project in Shanghai was the Bank of Communications (交通银行) on the Bund, designed a decade earlier, but delayed because of the Japanese occupation. The building