Seoul City and the Cultural Heritage Administration have reached a deal allowing the city to restart construction of a new City Hall.
Seoul agreed to preserve the facade of the old City Hall and restore its central hall and dome. The Taepyeong Hall (see demolition photos here), meanwhile, will be pulled down and moved to a new location.
Civic groups say they will sue Seoul mayor Oh Se-hoon anyway, and criticize the decision to allow the city to move the Taepyeong Hall for violating the principle of protecting cultural properties.
UPDATE: Meanwhile, it looks like the historic Pimatgol area along Jongno will be preserved… if you call this preserved:
That, mind you is just for the old Pimatgol alleyways. The rest of the area will look like this:
You can find a map of the redevelopment plan here.
Marmot’s Note: I understand the need for development. Cities don’t exist in a time warp, after all. That said, the best examples of urban renewal make use of the local historical and cultural heritage, not plow it under (like was done to the Singye-dong neighborhood of Yongsan, which was completely demolished). The city — and I don’t mean to single out this particular administration — is going to one day regret its war on its own historical and cultural heritage.
{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }
I agree. One does not manufacture a social environment overnight, despite other attempts at such (Naypyitaw in Burma comes to mind). This current mayor does seem focused on pushing construction jobs where they are not wanted. One can only wonder if Oh is trying to build some personal stature and election vibe at the expense of balanced renovation and development.
With all due respect, R., you misunderstand the market. Seoul’s commercial office space is way undersupplied, as I noted recently on Korea Law Blog — vacancy rates are below 1%. This morning I saw the Jones Lang LaSalle chairman on CNBC saying, on a matter unrelated to Korea, that a 10% vacancy rate is considered full occupancy at which point new construction is merited. Redevelopment is the only way that new buildings get built, you know.
Plus, the vast majority of Korea’s commercial space is abominably grotty. Even relatively clean stuff built as late as 1998 is unsuited for a modern economy, without enough plumbing, electrical, or telecommunications capacity.
Ewwww – so Carr’s office building has those little plastic crap-baskets beside the toilets, with a long pair of tongs leaning against the wall. Thanks for that graphic image, counselor.
Sure thing — it’s all squat pots here at the law firm.
The “market” is only one part the equation. There are other things to consider. By the way, you never did explain what the evil force was linking the Pimatgol protests to the Mad Cow fiasco.
Why would people in Seoul regret this? Nobody in Korea studies History in university anymore and they have the attention spans of fruit flies unless it involves bashing Japan or the US. If Koreans do the bulldozing, everyone accepts it. You can’t speak out against it because then you are seen as a subversive.
I understand the need to redevelop. At the same time, seeing how the city is neck deep into the project, I don’t find it completely unreasonably to expect said city, as it plays SimCity, to make an effort to preserve and utilize a neighborhood’s history and culture.
Didn’t think I had to — an intelligent reader could have deduced the implication that the same sort of demented misrepresentations that Scott Burgeson was recognizing in the Mad Cow protests might also have been foisted on him by the Koreans protesting the Pimatgol condemnations and removals. Liars lie.
It didn’t take a mad cow protest to get Scott to drop his feminization of the Korean counter-culture movement and discover himself to be a didactic member of Korea’s expat community.
I think he did that his first night in a back alley north of Jongno-3-ga.
Ah yes, the demented misrepresentations…now everything is clear.
LAKalbi — It’s real easy to make libelous comments about individuals from the safety of anonymity. You’ve been banned.
BTW, regarding former commenters (including Scott), it’s bad form to attack a guy who isn’t going to fight back. Unless it’s relevant to the post, don’t bring them up.
Thanks for your cooperation.
It is too bad that they intend to turn Pimatgol into a generic mall but the original is filthy, and while I went there often I would never take a visitor there. Some of the other alleys in the area are better maintained though–apparently the whole area is going to be bulldozed? Shame.
BTW that Digital Grotto site is great, thanks for the link.
Marmot, if LAKalbi apologizes and retracts what he/she said, can you just put him on probation? He/She makes decent contributions elsewhere.
It should be obvious it’s yet another incarnation of “swlee”. I don’t see the point of the endless cycle of ban, new sock, ban, new sock, ban … ad infinitum.
“He/She makes decent contributions elsewhere.”
Such as?
@4
And here I was, complaining about single-ply tissue…
The company(ies) that won the bid(s) to demolish old City Hall and build the new one shouldn’t be allowed to bid on or profit from the restorations.
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