University of Chicago unveils sleek Hong Kong complex on site of former Victoria Road Detention Centre
More than 100 students on university’s executive MBA programme have already started using campus in Pok Fu Lam
It once held inmates arrested after the city’s 1967 leftist riots but now jail cells have been converted into a sleek classroom, and floor to ceiling windows showcase a view of the sea along Hong Kong Island’s westernmost coast.
On Tuesday, the University of Chicago unveiled the results of a US$75 million (HK$586 million) restoration and construction project that breathed new life into the former Victoria Road Detention Centre in Pok Fu Lam and turned it into a modern academic complex.
More than 100 students on its 21-month executive MBA programme, which costs HK$1.305 million in tuition fees, have already started using The Hong Kong Jockey Club University of Chicago Academic Complex/The University of Chicago Francis and Rose Yuen Campus in Hong Kong and there are also plans for members of the public to experience its rich heritage.
From December, the school will organise tours around the campus on 168 Victoria Road and open a heritage museum. The original centre was built in the 1950s on a disused gun emplacement that had been part of the Jubilee Battery used to defend the city in the second world war.
Later, the Special Branch, the counter-espionage arm of the Hong Kong police, took it over and used it for both left- and right-wing detainees.