Towers of Power

High-rises are threating SoHo’s quaint character, but all hope isn’t lost yet. By Hana R. Alberts

What if a slender, 25-story hotel towered above narrow Staunton Street? At a hearing tentatively scheduled for November 18, Town Planning Board officials will rule on whether Sino Land has the right to build a tall, non-residential building in an area dominated by low-rise, old-fashioned Chinese tong laus. Sino Land’s application to the TPB— which isn’t its first for this little plot of land and details its aim to build an 85-meter hotel with restaurants on its lower and top floors—has already been hotly contested among SoHo residents, many of whom have written down their complaints and formally submitted them for consideration.

Take the comments posted at the bottom of an online piece about Sino Land’s proposed development for 20-26 Staunton St. Full of frustration and indignation, they reflect a community that is tired of Hong Kong’s perennial emphasis on profit over preservation. “SoHo is becoming an area flooded with generic-looking high-end restaurants in its cluster of streets, nothing more. A 25-story hotel would speed up the process nicely. Good job, Sino Land,” Ginnie writes.

Another commenter points out, “I’d imagine it would be hard to keep such developments out of SoHo. But sad that this had to come so soon, and I think a 25-story building in that area will just look awkward.” Then there’s the blunt, pointed question on everyone’s mind: “[I’m] so fed up of not being able to see the sky. Why is there zero sense or heritage in HK?” writes Sarah F.

Experts agree, too. Peter Cookson Smith, president of the Hong Kong institute of Planners and founder of Urbis, a Hong Kong-based urban planning and design consultancy, says: “I’m totally against the Sino scheme. It’s something completely out of place and out of context, and it’s something that breaks down the character of the area. It’s an alien intervention, so to speak.”

Sino Land’s Staunton proposal, however, is far from the first attempt to build a high-rise in SoHo. Some efforts have, of course, succeeded—take for instance the newly completed CentrePoint development on Bridges Street. Built by Henderson Land, which owns several properties in the area, it rises 27 floors above the ground despite the fact that the future of the surrounding area is in the hands of the Urban Renewal Authority and is still being hotly debated. But there have also been small victories, like community residents’ participation last month in defeating CSI Group’s tall office building at 2-4 Shelley Street, a site alongside the escalator that is home to Cicada and Bacar at the street level. But according to community activists and urban planning experts, the fight to keep high-rises out of SoHo is far from over.

“If Sino gets away with building a commercial building there, then what about its next-door neighbor, and the next-door neighbor to that? In other words, a residential area becomes a commercial area.” says John Batten, convener of the Central and Western Concern Group. “It’s a whole change in the character of that place.”