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includes the installation of individual flush toilets, the use of fibreglass doors, the installation of non-slip floor tiles and whenever possible the provision of compartment for the use of the handicapped.
Capital Works projects take time to plan and implement. The Capital Works programme is indeed fortunate to have inherited quite a lot of forward momentum under the leadership of the previous chairman of the Select Committee. One of the innovative ideas was the employment of private architectural consultants to supplement the staff of the Architectural Office. To date, 8 packages of 82 projects have been farmed out to private architectural consultants, and 28 of these projects have been completed with 10 under construction, and the balance under planning. The procedures for approval of projects have also been streamlined and I understand that they will be streamlined even further this coming year.
At this point, I would like to express my sincere thanks to the staff of the Architectural Office of the P.W.D. as well as the staff of the Planning Division of U.S.D. for their close co-operation and hard work.
At the beginning of April, the Cultural Complex Sub-Committee was dissolved and the responsibility was passed onto the Capital Works Select Committee. As most of you know, Tsim Sha Tsui Complex consists of several buildings. The Administration Tower consists of offices for the U.S.D., a restaurant block with Chinese and western restaurants, and an Arts Library. This phase of the complex is estimated to cost $105 million and will be met by the Urban Council. Piling work for this Administration Tower has already been completed in November last year and tenders for construction are being invited with the aim of completing the block in late 1983.
Other buildings in the Auditoria Block will consist of a concert hall for the performances primarily of music with a seating capacity of 2280 seats, a Lyric Theatre adjacent to it for the performances of opera and ballet with a seating capacity of 1930, a Studio Theatre for the performances of experimental drama with a seating capacity of 450. The estimated cost for these facilities is $369 million, to be met by the Central Government.
Piling for the Auditoria Block is scheduled to begin in March 1982 and construction work to begin in January 1983, and the completion date is expected to be 1985–86.
I am happy to report that the Public Works Department is in the process of appointing various consultants in order to ensure that this complex will be one of the best possible. On the part of the Council, the Urban Services Department is prepared to work closely with the Public Works Department to ensure that from an operational point of view, the building will be designed for maximum efficiency. It is much more preferable to anticipate problems and learn from other people's mistakes rather than to commit mistakes and learn from them the hard way.
The last building in the Complex will be that of the Museum of Art. This project hopefully will be up-graded to category A after the consultant submits his report sometime this spring.
Science Museum
Several councillors including yourself, Mr. Chairman, have spoken on the subject of the Science Museum during the past several years. Slow, but significant progress was made last year and there is every indication that even more significant progress will be made in the coming year. A leading authority on the subject of science museum will be coming to Hong Kong in February to advise on the proposed schedule of accommodation of the museum. Once this consultant has rendered his report, I am hopeful that the Science Museum project will be up-graded to category A/B so that active planning may proceed. Throughout the year, popular science lectures consistently attracted attendance figure of 90%. As the Chairman of the Museums Select Committee has just said, a large scale exhibition on Electricity and Magnetism was held at the City Hall, Low Block, during August 1981. In a period of 9 days, 64,222 persons attended the exhibition. If the attendance figure of this exhibition as well as the attendance figure of the Space Museum are used as a yard-stick, I have no doubt that if and when the Science Museum is built, it will be a most popular attraction for the citizens of Hong Kong.
Cultural Presentations
During the calendar year from January to December 1981, the Council presented a total of 442 performances ranging from Chinese and western operas, ballet, instrumental and vocal concerts as well as lectures and master classes. The Council also presented jointly with other local cultural organizations 258 performances. These performances include film shows, vocal, instrumental and dance performances. All in all, during the year about 230,000 persons attended these presentations.
Amongst some of the well-known artists who performed in Hong Kong during the year were: pianist Abbey Simon, Olivier Gardon; violinists Yu Yasuraoka, Philip Lewis; guitarist Gerald Garcia; cellist Jungshin Lim and flutist Jean-Pierre Louis Rampal.
As for larger scale presentations, some of the notable presentations were the concert by the Sadao Watanabe Jazz Sextet, Hong Kong Japan Cultural Week, the French Film Festival '81, 'Opera Gala' by singers of the Metropolitan Opera, the Dutch National Ballet, the Annual Chinese Opera Festival, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Mime performance by Adam Darius and Kazimir Kolesnik, the Young Vic Drama Company performance of Shakespeare's 'King Lear', and the Operas 'Don Pasquale' and 'La Boheme' produced by Mr. Lo King-man.
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