The Taipei City Government’s Cultural Assets Review Committee on Monday designated the Hung Lu (虹廬) building a cultural asset, despite objections from the building’s residents.
Thirteen committee members voted 9-4 to list the building as a cultural asset.
The residents said they would contest the decision via legal means.
Photo: Yang Hsin-hui, Taipei Times
Architect Wang Da-hong (王大閎) designed the building in 1984 and oversaw its construction.
The residents raised their objections to the building being designated a cultural asset when the Taipei Department of Culture and the committee inspected it in July last year.
They said that once the building is listed, they could face difficulties when applying for an urban renewal project, adding that they have handed the forms for an application to department officials during the inspection.
Resident Lee Chih-fu (李志甫) said that he was sorry to hear the decision.
The decision contravenes residents’ right to property, as it would make it nearly impossible to sell their apartments, Lee added.
The residents’ wishes should be respected, said Lin Yi-chen (林宜蓁), who represents people who own properties in the building.
The decision contravenes residents’ constitutionally guaranteed right to own property, Lin said, adding that the building’s age and renovations have greatly altered its original design.
The building is representative of Wang’s work, committee member Kuo Chiung-ying (郭瓊瑩) said, adding that its aura of mystery and quality of a quiet haven in a metropolis are reasons to preserve the building as a cultural asset, despite alterations to its original design.
Committee member Hsueh Chin (薛琴) said that negotiating with the residents was important and the city would compensate them with apartments of the same size as their current residences.
The right to property must be protected and it is possible for other organizations, including the city government, to purchase the building and repurpose it into a public area, Kuo added.
The Wang Da-hong Architectural Research and Preservation Association had said it was willing to purchase the building, but balked at its price of more than NT$100 million (US$3.24 million).
The residents said they were willing to sell their properties at market prices to interested parties.
Wang’s more famous public works in the city are the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs building.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,