West Kowloon arts hub merges theatres under revised design
Two performing arts facilities above express rail terminus will instead join Lyric Theatre to form one big complex in bid to sidestep delays
Bosses at the West Kowloon arts hub will adjust part of its design, merging some performance facilities in an attempt to offset endless delays to its construction brought by works on an express railway and rising project costs, lawmakers have heard.
Two small- to medium-sized theatres will be added to expand the scale of Lyric Theatre, which is to be finished in 2020 and opened by the following year.
Those two smaller facilities were originally meant to sit on top of the local terminus of the high-speed link to Guangzhou.
"The revised plan will save us from many uncertainties, including the delay of the express rail link," Louis Yu Kwok-lit, performing arts executive director of the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority, told a Legislative Council committee monitoring the development of the arts hub yesterday.
Yu said the two smaller theatres, which were to have been part of the Centre for Contemporary Performance and the Medium Theatre - both due in 2022 - would be up and running at least two years earlier after the merger with the Lyric Theatre.
"This revised design will also be much more cost efficient."
But the change prompted lawmakers to slam the never-ending woes of the railway works - which had been due for completion this year but were delayed until 2017 - that pushed back delivery of the arts hub.