West Kowloon Cultural District

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West Kowloon Cultural District
Traditional Chinese 西九龍文娛藝術區
Simplified Chinese 西九龙文娱艺术区
The model of one of the plans

The West Kowloon Cultural District (WKCD, Chinese: 西九龍文娛藝術區) is a proposed and developing project to boast cultural and entertainment establishments at Hong Kong, SAR. Located at a wedge-shaped and waterfront reclaimed land west of Yau Ma Tei, the district will feature a new modern art museum, numerous theatres, concert halls and other performance venues under the management of the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority, which is directly financed by the government with a one-off funding of 21.6 billion Hong Kong Dollars[1] for construction and operation.

The early proposal of the project was once overturned in 2006 due to doubts on financing models and lack of planning. As the project returned to track in 2006, public consultation were being carried out again and the early stages have been completed in December 2007 to decide what facilities to offer and how would they be managed[2], but conceptual plans to lay out the facilities are yet publicized for consultation as of April 2009.

The project was first proposed to attract tourists to Hong Kong, but the focus of discussion thereafter has turned to the benefits for the local residents, both intellectually and economically.

Contents

[edit] Introduction

[edit] Location

The wedge-shaped development site is 40 hectares in area, lies within the Yau Tsim Mong District and is bounded by Canton Road in the east, the Western Harbour Crossing entrance and Austin Road West in the north, and Victoria Harbour in the west and south. It can be seen here on Google Map.

[edit] Origin

In 1996, the Hong Kong Tourism Board took a survey of tourists visiting Hong Kong. The survey suggested that many of the tourists thought Hong Kong was lacking in cultural opportunities. The Hong Kong Tourism Board made a suggestion to Legco in 1998, proposing that new venues for art exhibitions and other cultural events be established. In the Chief Executive's Policy Address of 1998, Tung Chee Hwa proposed the establishment of the West Kowloon Cultural District, hoping to develop Hong Kong as the hub for Culture and Art of Asia.

[edit] Design competition

An international design competition was organized in April 2001[3] to design the district and the ten-member judge panel selected the gigantic canopy design scheme submitted by Foster and Partners as the winner under eight aspects [4], which included "skillful integration of complexes", "singularity of image" and "viability".

[edit] Invitation for proposal

On 5 September 2003, the government announced an Invitation For Proposals for the Development of the district[5]. While the government required provision of certain specified facilities, proponents were allowed considerable freedom in developing viable proposals—in the other words, the developers can sell residents and office space located in the lot for profit as they fulfill the government's requirements as outlined as follow:

Three theatres with at least 2,000, 800 and 400 seats respectively; A performance venue with at least 10,000 seats; A cluster of four museums at least 75,000 square metres in size; An art exhibition centre at least 10,000 square metres in size; A water amphitheatre; At least four piazzas; and A canopy covering at least 55% of the development area.[6]

Three proposals respectively submitted by Dynamic Star International Limited, Sunny Development Limited and World City Culture Park Limited were then consulted with the public from December 2004 to June 2005 in order to select the final proposal. Here are the shortlisted designs as presented during the six-month public consultation in 2005:

Norman Foster's original design

Dynamic Star International's design[7]

Henderson Land's design

Yell Lin International's design

[edit] First public consultation

The Executive Summary of the consultation report [8] showed the Single-packaged development approach, the canopy, the government supervision and the concept of the project most concerned and discussed in the open questions on the consultation form. The report noted there was a strong voice against the Single-packaged development approach and there was a fear that the WKCD project could evolve into an ordinary property development project. Over half of the written submissions were against the canopy.

As the government renewed conditions for the development, the shortlisted proponents failed to renew their proposals and Chief Secretary Rafael Hui Si-yan said the much-criticised giant canopy - centrepiece of the winning design by architect Lord Foster - would be scrapped with the entire to start all new by a review of the basic facilities to be offered.

[edit] Consultative committees

The government appointed members to the Consultative Committee on the Core Arts and Cultural Facilities (CACF) of WKCD on 6 April 2006 and the committee was scheduled to last until June 2007. It re-examined and re-confirmed the need for the CACF for the WKCD as defined in the Invitation for Proposals issued in September 2003.[9]

[edit] Second public consultation

[edit] WKCD Authority

A Board of Directors was appointed to position in October and four meetings have been held as of April 2009[10]. While government officials and experts were recruited to aid the authority operation temporarily, executives and managers are being recruited to prepare for the full-spin independent operation.[11]

In June 2009, Angus Cheng resigned as Executive Director (Project Delivery) of the Authority, less than two weeks after he took up the post, for 'personal reasons'. Until a replacement is appointed, Project Director Augustine Ng is provisionally leading the project, which has a team of seven.[12][13]

[edit] Current usage

Part of the site is used as a temporary promenade (West Kowloon Waterfront Promenade) managed by Leisure and Cultural Services Department, which can be accessed immediately to the east of Western Harbour Crossing toll booths, or via a pedestrian entrance close to the bus station to the west of the toll booths.

Bicycles are available for hire, intended for riding along a short waterfront cycle track, which will be removed when the site is developed.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://www.legco.gov.hk/yr07-08/chinese/fc/pwsc/papers/p08-31c.pdf
  2. ^ http://www.hab.gov.hk/wkcd/pe/chi/Public_EE_Report/report.htm
  3. ^ http://www.hab.gov.hk/wkcd/ifp/eng/concept.htm
  4. ^ http://www.hab.gov.hk/wkcd/competition/first.html
  5. ^ http://www.hab.gov.hk/wkcd/ifp/eng/bkgrd.htm
  6. ^ http://www.hab.gov.hk/wkcd/ifp/eng/public_consultation/intro.htm
  7. ^ http://www.dynamicstarinternational.com/
  8. ^ http://www.hab.gov.hk/wkcd/ifp/pdf/report/eng_executive_summary.pdf
  9. ^ http://www.hab.gov.hk/wkcd/eng/cc/intro.htm
  10. ^ http://www.wkcdauthority.hk/en/about/members.htm
  11. ^ http://www.wkcdauthority.hk/en/job/jobOpp.htm
  12. ^ Angus Cheng resigns from cultural post HK Govt press release, 17 June 2009
  13. ^ West Kowloon authority director quits RTHK, 17 June 2009

[edit] External links

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