A meeting yesterday of the Taipei City Government’s Cultural Assets Review Committee on the relocation of the Mitsui Warehouse degenerated into slogan-chanting as committee members raised questions over the purpose of the relocation.
The meeting came on the heels of a Taipei Urban Planning Commission meeting late last month, during which Taipei Deputy Mayor Charles Lin (林欽榮) said that the building is to be moved 51m east to free up space for a project aimed at improving traffic flow near the North Gate on Zhongxiao W Road.
Lin said that unless the committee came up with arguments strong enough to make the commission reconsider the relocation, the warehouse would be moved.
Photo: Peggy Yu, Taipei Times
Yesterday’s meeting saw officials from the Taipei Department of Urban Development (DUD), Department of Transportation and Department of Cultural Affairs take turns giving presentations and reiterating points they made almost two weeks ago.
Department of Urban Development deputy chief engineer Chen Chien-hua (陳建華) said that dismantling the warehouse before rebuilding it at the new site is a better alternative to refurbishing it at its current location.
The dismantlement would be carried out by hand, with all of the building’s components fully preserved and restored, while repairing it at its original site would involve the partial dismantlement of the building, which Chen said is in a dilapidated state.
Committee member Chang Kun-chen (張崑振) took issue with a plan to build two four-lane roads north of the North Gate.
Chang said that the traffic condition in the area could become more human-orientated by 2050, in which case it would defeat the purpose of building the roads.
He said moving the warehouse would greatly reduce its historic value.
Assuming that the warehouse would be relocated, the agencies in charge should first clean and reinforce it in case it is moved back to its present location by 2050, Chang said.
Committee member Kuo Chung-ying (郭瓊瑩) criticized the cultural department’s passive role in the project, saying that, judging from its presentation, she felt the agency was cooperating with the urban development department.
“As this involves a historic building, the cultural department should guide the DUD instead,” Kuo said.
Other committee members asked the same fundamental questions that the Urban Design Review Commission asked last month, questioning the necessity of moving the warehouse and whether enough research had been conducted to determine the warehouse’s historic importance.
Several members spoke at length about the struggle between urban developments and cultural preservation without proposing a solution.
Shortly after the meeting began, a group of cultural preservation activists started a commotion outside the meeting room, protesting what they said was the committee’s attempt to exclude them from the discussions.
The committee issued documents inviting them to participate in the meeting, but they were kept on the sidelines to audit, preservationist Lin Quei-miao (林奎妙) said.
The preservationists protested loudly throughout the meeting over what they said was a conflict of interest caused by Lin Jou-min (林洲民), who is doubling as Department of Urban Development director-general and a member of the committee, which could sway opinions and affect a show-of-hands to determine the warehouse’s fate.
Despite lasting for three-and-a-half hours, the meeting ended without the officials coming to an agreement.
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