The architectural firm that had been selected to design the National Palace Museum’s Southern Branch has withdrawn from the project.
Antoine Predock Architect PC said on Tuesday that it was quitting the design project with immediate effect and billed the museum headquarters in Taipei for NT$40 million (US$1.2 million) in compensation for losses incurred.
The firm had been selected by a competition jury four years ago from a field of six finalists to design the museum in Chiayi County.
Chiayi County officials in charge of cultural affairs said the firm’s unilateral decision to pull out may have been the result of a failure to reach an accommodation with the museum over serious construction delays, design methods and the quality of building materials.
The officials said that if the museum had agreed to the firm’s demands, it would have led to a 30 percent increase in construction costs.
The project could still proceed despite the firm’s withdrawal if the museum were to reopen international bidding for the design and the budget is approved, the officials said.
“The southern branch could still be built by 2011 as scheduled if the construction budget is passed by the Legislative Yuan in time,” they said.
The Executive Yuan approved the construction of the southern branch in 2003, estimating that the branch museum would be built on a 70 hectare site with a total budget of approximately NT$6 billion.
The budget for clearing the land, which included digging an artificial lake, planting trees and installing irrigation and water-drainage systems, is NT$450 million.
The project had been scheduled to be around 20 percent complete by Jan. 7, though the actual completion figure was listed as 11.9 percent. The government has also not approved the project’s annual budget allocation since 2003.
The 60m-tall building was to have been built in the shape of Yushan, and would have been visible to passengers on the high-speed railway.
Explaining the design concept in 2004, Antoine Predock said: “Our proposal brings into focus a synthesizing concept of the intimate, varied pan-Asian universe that the National Palace Museum Southern Branch intends to illuminate: ‘The need to know ourselves and other Asian regions as well.’”
“Like Lin Hwai-min (林懷民) and Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan’s 2001 production Cursive, visitors move through space and atmosphere, ‘imitating the linear route of ink, full of lyrical flows and strong punctions, with rich variations in energy,’” he said.
Chiayi County Commissioner Chen Ming-wen (陳明文) gave an assurance earlier this year that the branch would open on schedule in 2011, despite serious construction delays.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
RSS