The only way is not up, says Hong Kong architect who thinks city should rethink its vertical growth

Hong Kong architect William Lim Ooi-lee is surrounded by skyscrapers in the city’s business district, Central – a few of them designed by him.

But looking up, the 60-year-old says he believes that building vertically fast is not the best for the city’s urban development.

Lim, a registered architect in both Hong Kong and the United States, warns that high-rise buildings will add to the problem of traffic congestion as more vehicles will be parking on the streets or going in and out of these buildings.

“One of the side effects of a high-rise is it also increases traffic congestion,” Lim says. “We need tall buildings to solve the housing problems, but they need to be well-planned with good infrastructure and environmental strategies.”

Lim, who graduated from Cornell University with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in architecture, worked in Boston as an architect for five years before returning to Hong Kong in 1987. Five years later, he founded architecture and design firm CL3, where he is now managing director.

Lim says he likes Hong Kong because it is the best mix of old and new. And as many of the city’s old districts have recently been renewed and replaced by high-rise buildings, the father of two sons says heritage is very important to Hong Kong and needs to be preserved. The Blue House Cluster in Wan Chai, according to Lim, is a good example of “great preservation effort”.

“Hong Kong has many old buildings in need of repair,” he says. “I don’t think the solution is necessary to be bulldozing them.”