Culture Club | West Kowloon: Can’t we have HK$23b for arts and culture instead?
Apparently, the government thinks that HK$23 billion is good money for the construction of an integrated basement – to honour the Foster + Partners’ City Park West Kowloon Cultural District plan “selected” by people back then – to contain all the road traffic underground in a cultural district that was originally estimated to cost HK$21.6 billion.
Apparently, the government thinks that HK$23 billion is good money for the construction of an integrated basement – to honour the Foster + Partners’ City Park West Kowloon Cultural District plan “selected” by people back then – to contain all the road traffic underground in a cultural district that was originally estimated to cost HK$21.6 billion.
In the latest revised implementation phasing and budget for the West Kowloon Cultural District, Chief Secretary Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor assured us that HK$21.6 billion – the upfront endowment approved by the Legco to build the arts hub in 2008 – would be enough to complete the eight cultural facilities outlined in the first two phases by 2020:
Phase 1, 2015 – 2017
The Park
Freespace [black box + outdoor stage]
Arts Pavilion [exhibition spaces]
Xiqu Centre [Centre for Chinese opera for those who don’t understand the word Xiqu]
M+ [visual culture museum]
Phase 2, 2017-2020
Lyric Theatre [for dance]
Centre for Contemporary Performance [delayed due to express rail link hold ups]
Medium Theatre II [also delayed due to express rail link problems]
There are supposed to be a phase 3 where four more buildings – the Great Theatre, Music Centre, Musical Theatre and Medium Theatre I – have been mooted, but as yet their future remains up in the air. Lam said whether these buildings will be built depends on the state of Hong Kong’s cultural development after 2020.