Buildings
Norman Foster's Canopy Scrapped in Hong Kong
(archrecord.construction.com - 03/01/06)
By Shirley
Chang
Norman Foster’s giant glass canopy
roof for the Hong Kong government's $5 billion West Kowloon
Cultural Complex (WKCC) has been scrapped.The centerpiece
of the project was first proposed in 1999 and has been mired
in controversy ever since. It failed to win public support
and interest from the three shortlisted developers.
Foster's 390-foot-high, undulating glass roof was to cover
at least 55 percent of the complex’s 100-acre site, and
was estimated to cost more than $500 million. It was criticized
in a recent public review as ”expensive and environmentally
unfriendly”. The public also raised concerns about putting
all of the project’s arts facilities, including four
major museums, under one roof, and awarding the whole site
to a single developer to build all at once. The WKCC was also
to include theaters, other performance venues like an amphitheater
and open piazzas.
The government responded by revising its requirements back
in October 2005, so that the winning developer could only
build on half the site and was required to pay $3.87 billion
upfront. This caused all three developers to withdraw in mid-February.
The government has since insisted the project will go forward
eventually and will review these issues by September 2006.
|
