Farglory Land Development Co (遠雄建設) yesterday criticized the results of a Taipei City Government investigation into the safety of the Taipei Dome (台北大巨蛋), attacking the assumptions used by the city’s evacuation simulation.
“We cannot accept demolishing either the Dome or the neighboring shopping mall,” Farglory general manager Tang Chia-feng said. “Given that we have already received full marks in safety simulations, there is absolutely no reason to tear down a single wall.”
Architect Stan Lo (羅興華) — whose firm Archasia Design Group Ltd (瀚亞聯合建築師事務所) was contracted by Farglory to design the Dome — criticized the design of the city’s evacuation analysis, stating that it assumed fleeing spectators would be unable to leave the complex’s surrounding plaza.
“Concentrating on the plaza [surrounding the Dome] is extremely unreasonable,” Lo said. “The only way this would happen would be by barricading the plaza’s parameters to keep people from leaving.”
The city’s analysis found that the plaza could only hold 60,000 people, compared with the 140,000 people who would flood it in an emergency.
Lo said the city’s analysis failed to take into account additional dispersal space offered by the neighboring Songshan Cultural and Creative Park, which would increase the site’s capacity to 260,000 people if included.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
In reality, the city would also likely block off traffic along neighboring Guangfu S Road and Zhongxiao E Road to allow people to quickly disperse in the event of an emergency, he said.
Assuming people could leave the complex, 30,000 people at most would be concentrated in the plaza at any one time during the evacuation process, he said.
He also dismissed concerns that fire trucks would not be able to reach the structure during an evacuation.
“The Taipei Dome would not burn on its own because there is nothing to burn,” he said, adding that his firm estimated that any fire would be put out within 10 minutes by the Dome’s automatic fire suppression system.
Even if a fire continued, the Dome’s huge volume would keep temperatures to safe levels long after spectators had been evacuated, he said.
Lo added that the presence of a neighboring shopping mall would not influence the evacuation because of the concentration of spectator seating. As a baseball stadium, the Dome was designed to place the vast majority of seats away from the shopping mall, which is next to the stadium’s outfield, he said.
He said that a fireproof wall between the shopping mall and Dome would prevent any fire from spreading between the two structures.
Lo said that the standards and software used by the firm were in full accordance with international standards, denying that the firm’s simulations had failed to take into consideration the presence of seating as an obstacle to the evacuation of the Dome.
Tang said that Farglory was yet to make a decision about legal action, given that it remained unclear what steps the city government would take.
The firm’s lawyer, Wang Shih-kai (王師凱), said the company was on firm legal ground because it had already received the requisite permits for the construction from the Ministry of Interior’s Construction and Planning Agency and the Taipei City Government. With the exception of mediation over missed construction deadlines, the firm was in full accordance with its contract.
Tsai Chung-i (蔡宗易), vice president of Farglory Land Development’s public relations department, said that if the city insists on implementing the recommendations of its committee, the firm would require the city to purchase the complex for its full value. He declined to provide an estimate of the exact figure, adding that the firm had yet to conduct an analysis.
Lo’s comments sparked an online caricature.
Lo said that buildings he designs do not need firefighters, because “if a modern building cannot extinguish a fire within 10 minutes, let it burn.”
The comment was satirized with three pigeon firefighters saying: “Write down the names of the buildings built by this designer, then we do not have to go to these buildings if there is a fire.”
Additional reporting by Jake Chung
MILESTONE: The foreign minister called the signing ‘a major step forward in US-Taiwan relations,’ while the Presidential Office said it was a symbol of the nations’ shared values US President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed into law the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, which requires the US Department of State to regularly review and update guidelines governing official US interactions with Taiwan. The new law is an amendment to the Taiwan Assurance Act of 2020 focused on reviewing guidelines on US interactions with Taiwan. Previously, the state department was required to conduct a one-time review of its guidance governing relations with Taiwan, but under the new bill, the agency must conduct a review “not less than every five years.” It must then submit an updated report based on its findings “not later
CROSS-STRAIT COLLABORATION: The new KMT chairwoman expressed interest in meeting the Chinese president from the start, but she’ll have to pay to get in Beijing allegedly agreed to let Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) around the Lunar New Year holiday next year on three conditions, including that the KMT block Taiwan’s arms purchases, a source said yesterday. Cheng has expressed interest in meeting Xi since she won the KMT’s chairmanship election in October. A source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a consensus on a meeting was allegedly reached after two KMT vice chairmen visited China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Director Song Tao (宋濤) in China last month. Beijing allegedly gave the KMT three conditions it had to
STAYING ALERT: China this week deployed its largest maritime show of force to date in the region, prompting concern in Taipei and Tokyo, which Beijing has brushed off Deterring conflict over Taiwan is a priority, the White House said in its National Security Strategy published yesterday, which also called on Japan and South Korea to increase their defense spending to help protect the first island chain. Taiwan is strategically positioned between Northeast and Southeast Asia, and provides direct access to the second island chain, with one-third of global shipping passing through the South China Sea, the report said. Given the implications for the US economy, along with Taiwan’s dominance in semiconductors, “deterring a conflict over Taiwan, ideally by preserving military overmatch, is a priority,” it said. However, the strategy also reiterated
‘BALANCE OF POWER’: Hegseth said that the US did not want to ‘strangle’ China, but to ensure that none of Washington’s allies would be vulnerable to military aggression Washington has no intention of changing the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Saturday, adding that one of the US military’s main priorities is to deter China “through strength, not through confrontation.” Speaking at the annual Reagan National Defense Forum in Simi Valley, California, Hegseth outlined the US Department of Defense’s priorities under US President Donald Trump. “First, defending the US homeland and our hemisphere. Second, deterring China through strength, not confrontation. Third, increased burden sharing for us, allies and partners. And fourth, supercharging the US defense industrial base,” he said. US-China relations under
RSS