1 Architects float plan to return Queen's Pier to original spot
Timothy Chui, The Standard 30 July 2008
A plan to resurrect Queen's Pier and the Star Ferry clock tower while relocating Golden Bauhinia to a Central waterfront location is being proposed by architect groups.
There was no evidence to suggest the government had absorbed any public sentiment in its scheme for the Central waterfront, said Peter Cookson-Smith, former convener of the Urban Design Alliance.
"We don't think the public wants an enormous park on the waterfront. The public wants to get to the waterfront, wide promenades, to stroll around the harbor and interesting things to see and places to visit," he said.
The plan released yesterday by Hong Kong Institute of Architects and the alliance also features a new tram line to the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre running parallel to the shore.
Dismissing the government's proposal as sterile, Vincent Ng, a member of the alliance and Harbour-front Enhancement Committee, said the new scheme mixed open space, recognizable landmarks with commercially and culturally viable facilities in a way that would create a more exciting and vibrant shoreline.
The proposal would situate Queen's Pier on its original site within an inner harbor, while the Star Ferry clock tower would also be restored to its former site on an esplanade connecting Statue Square with the Star Ferry pier. Golden Bauhinia would move to a citizen's square open space, opposite the planned Tamar government headquarters.
"Our plan is to bring the harbor to the city and the city to the harbor," American Institute of Architects Hong Kong chapter chairwoman Sujata Godava said. The approach would give greater transition from the harbor to the planned government headquarters and the existing towers to the south, she added.
2 MTR to 'rehabilitate' old police station
Adele Wong, The Standard 30 July 2008
A 70-year-old police station in Western District will be turned into a rehabilitation center if all goes according to plan, MTR Corp said.
The current David Trench Rehabilitation Centre on Bonham Road will make way for a Sai Ying Pun MTR exit, part of the West Island Line development plan, and take over the recently abandoned upper levels of the police station on Hospital Road.
Since the police station is classified as a Grade III heritage building, a building with some merit but not considered a historical monument, efforts will be made to "retain the architectural features of the station," MTR senior design management architect Robert Seddon said yesterday. It was necessary to make certain changes in order to abide by current fire and building codes.
Moreover, "when the station was reconstructed [in the 1930s], it was according to the designs and styles that were popular at the time," said Seddon, referring to the art deco exterior.
"Our project will be based on the influences of our age. We hope the revitalization plan will be well received by the public."
The police station is surrounded by banyantrees, most of which will be preserved, he said.
3 New funding proposal made for Zhuhai bridge
Chloe Lai and Anita Lam, SCMP 30 July 2008
Guangdong will become the biggest shareholder in the long-awaited Hong Kong-Macau-Zhuhai bridge if a new finance model that abandons plans to seek private-sector investment receives State Council approval, sources close to the project say.
Under the tentative new arrangement, the three governments involved in the project - Hong Kong, Guangdong and Macau - would finance the bridge's construction.
Guangdong and Hong Kong would each have a stake of about 40 per cent in the project, although Guangdong's would be bigger, while the rest would be held by Macau.
"The whole purpose of this arrangement is to speed up the project," a source said.
No further details were available, but the arrangement is a turnaround from the previous proposal, which would have seen Hong Kong shoulder the lion's share of any shortfall between construction costs and private investment.
The Transport and Housing Bureau said the Hong Kong government had come up with a funding model agreeable to the Guangdong and Macau authorities. But a spokeswoman said the three parties would continue exploring other options that would help speed up the project.
Zhu Yaozhong, deputy director general of Guangdong's Development and Reform Commission, said: "We have not received any formal information that there will be changes in the bridge's arrangement."
It is understood the Hong Kong and Guangdong governments will discuss the issue next week at a regular meeting on cross-border issues.
Transport experts supported the change, saying the arrangement suggested the bridge might not be commercially viable but would bring economic benefits to the region.
"It is natural that an infrastructure project will bring economic benefits to a region while the project alone may not generate sufficient financial return," the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport's Leung Kong-yui said.
The suggestions are the latest in a long series of proposals stretching back decades. The three governments agreed in February on a funding arrangement to cover any shortfall between construction costs and investment by the private contractor that won the bid for the HK$40 billion project. Under what was described as a cost-benefit principle, Hong Kong would have covered 50.2 per cent of the shortfall, Guangdong 35.1 per cent and Macau 14.7 per cent.
Since then, Hong Kong critics have been sceptical of the bridge's financial viability and whether the construction should be done under the build-operate-transfer model.
Lawmakers urged the government to put forward creative solutions to avoid the bridge becoming a white elephant because of quotas on cross-border vehicle traffic.
The Transport and Housing Bureau said in May that the quota system could limit traffic flows on the bridge to just 14,000 vehicles a day when the span opens in 2016. That number was projected to rise to just 49,000 a day by 2035.
4 Building to house residents of razed rehabilitation centre
Anita Lam, SCMP 30 July 2008
What the police station, which was vacated three years ago, looks like. Photo & Source: SCMP
What the new rehabilitation center will look like: Photo & Source: SCMP
To those who don't know its history, the new David Trench Rehabilitation Centre in Sai Ying Pun will probably just look like another modern building with its glass facade and beige exterior wall.
But it is in fact a Grade 3 historic monument that was used as the regional police headquarters of the Hong Kong Island crime wing from 1935 until it was vacated three years ago.
With the MTR's West Island Line now on its way to Sai Ying Pun, the monument, better known as the No8 Police Station, will soon see new occupants from the nearby David Trench Rehabilitation Centre, which is being demolished to make way for the station exits and ventilation facilities for the new line.
The MTR Corporation yesterday unveiled plans to revitalise the building, which architect Robert Seddon described as a hybrid of stripped classical, art deco and streamline moderne styles.
The corporation said it had been careful not to make any dramatic change except for the wall's colour and the glassing-in of all the balconies.
Most of the trees are also being kept - including a banyan, a red kapok and a 50-year-old camphor that will embrace the centre's entrance and outdoor glass lift.
But legislator Patrick Lau Sau-shing, a member of the Antiquities Advisory Board, which is advising the Antiquities and Monuments Office as it considers whether to approve the plan, said it was not the best design for retaining the character of the old structure.
"Balconies are one of the most outstanding characters of this building, and by obscuring this feature a large part of the original structure's character is gone," he said.
Mr Seddon, however, said it was necessary for safety and security reasons.
"I don't think it is absolutely necessary to retain its character as a police station because buildings serve different functions and purposes over time, and as a clinic, patients' safety is of prior concern," he said.
"The important thing is the glass can be removed and the face of the original structure can be fully restored when it is required."
Lee Ho yin, director of Hong Kong University's architectural conservation programme, agreed.
"The monument is more important on a community level than at an international level," Professor Lee said. "As long as the original structure can be restored, I think the building's function should be given priority, especially when some of the patients are recovering from mental illness."
A new five-storey annexe is to be built to the north of the monument to provide patients with modern facilities unable to fit in the old wing.
As for the change in colour, Mr Seddon said beige would be a better and warmer choice than the existing blue and grey for recovering patients.
"Blue and grey were not the original colour anyway; the original one was lost. And beige was a common colour in architecture of the '30s."
The corporation is expected to finalise the plan by the end of the year, with work to be completed in 2010.
5 Architects present design for 'inner harbour' at Queen's Pier
Joyce Ng, SCMP 30 July 2008
The Urban Design Alliance’s plans for Queen’s Pier, Central. Photo: UDA Source: SCMP
Queen's Pier would be able to stand at its original site and face the harbour once again if a recreational "inner harbour" was created, a group of architects and planners has suggested. The Urban Design Alliance introduced its Central waterfront proposal yesterday, featuring an inner harbour surrounded by long promenades for al fresco dining and strolling, connected to other spots on the shore by boats and a tram.
The old Queen's Pier would stand on the mini-harbour frontage, re-establishing its historic position. The alignment would form a boulevard from the HSBC Building, through the Star Ferry clock tower - restored at the original site - to Queen's Pier and the new Star Ferry Pier.
Patrick Lau Hing-tat, a member of the Harbourfront Enhancement Committee and a landscape architect, welcomed the design. "A shore location for Queen's Pier is the key to respecting heritage, remembering that colonial governors declared rule by the action of `landing' on the pier," he said.
The envisaged mini-harbour is currently a reclamation site. Alliance chairman Paul Chu Hoi-shan said restoration would not involve technical problems.
"It is only about whether the government wants to do it, though with some costs," he said.
The alliance also doubted that the government's existing plan would be able to launch a "vibrant" harbourfront, as it claimed.
"Its proposed promenade is ill-defined by large empty gardens," alliance member Vincent Ng said. "It cannot attract pedestrians to walk all the way along the harbourfront."
Countering the government proposal, the group suggested deleting the two tall commercial blocks planned in front of Two IFC and spreading the floor areas along the waterfront. A handful of three- or four-storey blocks would dot the shore, while a short hotel cluster would be built near Tamar. An extra storey would be added to existing piers for retail purposes.
"The gross floor area would remain unchanged, but by spreading it evenly the whole area will bring more pedestrians," Mr Ng said.
The scheme also proposed converting the PLA berth into a public swimming pool on the harbour's edge, and bringing in a floating hotel and a maritime museum.
A Planning Department spokeswoman said the government would study the proposal. The public consultation ends this month.
