Urban design critics said yesterday that the international competition to redesign the plaza in front of the Presidential Office was a waste of taxpayers' money as the contest concluded on Thursday without choosing a winner.
"We call on the Taipei City Government to stop this embarrassing promotion scheme immediately and avoid wasting more social resources," said Wu Wen-yu (
"What the general public thinks should be taken into consideration, instead of the [city government] making a unilateral decision only to find eventually that its solution is unacceptable," he said.
Instead of honoring one final winner, six panel judges in the final stage were deadlocked and announced three winners -- two Japanese and one Spanish.
Their designs, along with those of the other 12 finalists, will be on display at the Sungshan Tobacco Factory (松山菸廠) until the end of August. Then they will move to Chiayi County, Tainan City, Hsinchu City and Ilan County in September and October.
Contributions from the public during the three-month display will be integrated within the final designs, which will go to the Cabinet and then to the president for final approval.
According to the city's Bureau of Urban Development (
Another possibility given to solve the problem is to conduct an opinion poll and solicit professional opinions from urban-design experts.
But [the bureau's] inability to solve the problem was a sign that the competition was a failure in the first place, Wu said.
"The panel judges had such a hard time deciding on a final winner because none of the designs were mature and feasible enough, even though they considered the works praiseworthy in regard to creativity," he said. "The competition is an arbitrary and impractical one because it lacks social debate and public participation."
Wu added that a series of political compromises will ensue regarding the fate of the plaza.
"The ambiguous result will definitely lead to a power struggle among the city government, the Presidential Office and the Cabinet," he said.
Although Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (
"It's simply impossible to remove politics from the redesigning of the 82-year-old building and the plaza, because they're so rich in history and culture," he said.
The site itself has changed dramatically in the last 300 years.
It used to be a hunting ground of the Kaitakelan tribe at the end of the 17th century. In 1882, Ching dynasty authorities decided to make Taipei into an administration center and started to build walls around the town.
The area within the walls, dubbed the "inner city," was the last city in Taiwan planned and built by the Ching dynasty in accordance with the ideas of Chinese geomancy.
Taipei City was named the capital of Taiwan Province in 1885 during the Ching dynasty. The construction of the Presidential Office was completed in 1919 during the Japanese colonial period. Part of the building was rebuilt after being severely damaged during World War II, and it was then renamed "Chieh-Shou Hall (介壽堂)."
When the KMT government retreated from China to Taiwan in 1949, it declared Taipei its temporary capital and proclaimed martial law.
Several years after martial law was lifted in 1987, the Presidential Office was opened to visitors for the first time in 1995. However, a ban on motorcycles on Chungching South Road was not lifted until 1996.
That was the same year the city first invited public entries for the design of the plaza, during Chen Shui-bian's (
The contest, which began Dec. 19, is a two-phase competition.
Eight individuals were chosen from the 48 entries in the semifinals stage to go on to compete with the seven international designers invited by the city. These seven designers did not have to compete in the semifinal contest, but were automatically entered into the final.
The city hopes to start the construction project some time later this year and has received financial endorsement from the central government, which has agreed to shoulder half of the construction costs.
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