The Taipei City Government yesterday said that it would transform a site in the city’s Yuanshan area (圓山) previously allocated for the planned Taipei City Museum into a 170-hectare “natural landscape park” and that the museum would be relocated to the Taipei City Council’s former site near the Taipei Railway Station.
The adjustment was made in an effort to preserve the 4,500-year-old Yuanshan archeological site, which is inside the project’s proposed site and would have resulted in management problems for the museum, Taipei Deputy Mayor Charles Lin (林欽榮) told a news conference in Taipei.
The museum, which was to be built inside the Taipei Expo Park and consist of two venues, was designed to introduce Taipei’s history.
The revised project has a budget of about NT$340 million (US$10.36 million), which is NT$700 million less than the original budget, Lin said.
He rejected reports that said plans to build the museum — which had been partly contracted out during former Taipei mayor Hau Lung-bin’s (郝龍斌) term — had been terminated, saying that it would be relocated to the city council’s former site on Zhongxiao W Road.
Under the terms of the contract governing the distribution of land, the firm that wins the bid to develop the site, which has an area of 42,813m2, would be allowed to build commercial properties such as hotels and parking lots, Lin said.
In return, the developer will be required to give the city government about 40 percent, or 17,125.2m2, of the available space, which is where the museum is to be built, he said. A structure to house international tourism industry non-governmental organizations, which would cover about half of the space, has also been planned for the site.
An online request for bids on the project, which has a minimum royalty requirement of NT$3.2 billion, was issued yesterday and is to end on Nov. 6.
The city government has proposed the creation of a natural landscape park at the museum’s originally intended site, which is to host two historical sites, three wetlands and possibly two museums, Lin said.
The park would be largely based in Yuanshan, with a separate smaller portion encompassing the Chihshanyen archeological site (芝山岩遺址), he said.
Lin said the city government is exploring the possibility of building a second museum in the park, which already houses the Taipei Fine Arts Museum.
The proposed park would rank lower than Yangmingshan National Park, but higher than community parks, and that it would be the first of its kind, boasting the city’s biodiversity.
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