Press File
ge 39
VII, cont.
or even a railway station.
11.
The accommodation provided is simple, accessible from open galleries and readily adaptable to a number of different purposes. We would recommend the removal of the existing steel and glass roof over the concourse which lack's design quality and is in less good condition and its replacement in connection with the new development proposals.
12.
As Mr. Watson, Secretary to the Commonwealth Association of Architects commented to us during a recent visit to Hong Kong, the building has in fact a distinctly civic appearance, "looking more like a Town Hall than a railway station" when viewed from the Star Ferry
approach.
13. The space enclosed by the "U" forms a concourse (see 11 above) with a ticket office in the middle, and it is in the design of this space, and the space beyond the open end of the "U", that lies the secret of the success of any future rejuvenation scheme.
14.
Certainly to recycle this old shell is an obvious solution, and intelligent renovation and extension would give it the new lease of lii. it deserves. Such an ercise in itself would be an education for the public in the appreciation of the visual arts.
15. That is is 60 years old, is old for Hong Kong, but precisely because it is ONLY 60 years old that this formidable structure has many centuries of service yet to offer.
16.
If we destroy it, we do not sweep away colonialism, but we deprive ourselves of a rare relic which cost our grandparents a great deal
in time, skill, money and hard work.
VIII.
THE HISTORIC AND CULTURAL VALUES.
1.
The Director, Urban Services and the Chairman, Antiquities Advisory Board have said that the K.C.R. building has a historical
to association of people using the railway travelling and from China, Mr. B. D. Wilson and that the Station represents cultural values. added that the K.C.R. Station was constructed about 60 years ago