No_2_August_1964 — Page 114

An American Architect Looks at the Colony

IMPRESSIONS OF HONG KONG

O the itinerant architect visiting To

the Colony, it would seem that great and enviable opportunities exist in Hong Kong. Topography, and the presence and activity of the harbour have endowed many sites with great interest. Climate allows considerable openness, particularly in residential buildings (many North American cities experience temperature ex- tremes from 20° F to 100°F.

requiring often that 40 per cent of total expenditure for a new building, plus a great deal of space, be devoted to air handling equip- ment). Labour costs. cheap

cheap by American and European levels, seem to keep building costs down, while the duty-free status of most building products and materials, if accompani- ed by a reasonable budget, should allow an interesting selection of materials and finishes.

Impressive use is made of these assets and opportunities; yet many obstacles are apparent. It is impossible to be unimpressed by the amount of current construction in Hong Kong, particularly in the Central District (noise, dust, and difficulty in walking are continual reminders). Hopefully some spaces will remain, however.

Street caverns

open

The Wall Street area of Lower Manhattan in New York City ex- perienced a similar growth appro- ximately thirty years ago, when many buildings up to 400 feet high were completed on either side of 20- foot roadways with adjoining 6-foot footpaths. While the resulting "can- yons" are curiously exciting spaces, the congestion is terrible, fumes and noise never dissipate, the pedestrian rarely sees the sun, and due to a slight bend in the street he may be entirely trapped at the base of

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masonry walls four hundred feet high. One need only peer into the dark diesel haze of Queen's Road Central, or stand facing toward the harbour on Ice House Street at Queen's Road, to foresee the "cay- erns" of Wall Street.

by

Charles H. Brown Jr.

B. A. (Amherst), B. Arch. (Harvard).

Redevelopment planning envisages the widening of streets, and plot ratio formulae will allow more light to penetrate the "canyons". The greatest benefit, however, would be derived not from broader streets, which give linear spaces, but from intelligently located significant open spaces, which by contrast would ap- pear more interesting and generous if connected by narrow streets.

more

Baroque planners in Rome were forced to this solution; significant open spaces now are linked by nar- row streets, whose axes turn or are terminated at each plaza. Looking down these streets to open spaces is visually very rewarding, while traffic moves terrifyingly fast.

Economic pressures are of course primary obstacles: the high cost of land, problems of compensation, and the resulting embarrassment were Government to raise funds to buy back leases or freeholds, which as open or park area would in turn produce no revenue.

American cities are more fortun- ate in that municipal and federal tax structures exist which enable cities and property owners amicably to overcome problems of compensation

which could greatly hinder renewal schemes. The 66-storey Chase Man- hattan Bank Building, recently com- pleted in the Wall Street area by Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill, architects, furnishes an example. A sheer steel slab without setbacks, the office tower occupies a very small portion of its large city-block site. A generous landscaped plaza at second floor level induces pleasing pedestrian circulation above street level, while adjacent buildings profit from the new open space.

Through a complex system of tax concessions and rebates, the city agreed to set a low property assess ment on the building: prestige and location immediately attracted full occupancy despite high rents. while both city and owner profit from the high (taxable) income re- turned by the building. Aesthetically the benefits are great, and similar planning has been encouraged else- where in the city, notable in the generous plaza of the Seagrams Building (Mies van der Dohel on Park Avenue. It seems unfortunate that no such economic mechanism exists in Hong Kong to encourage similar relief in the Central District.

Like Wall Street

Other parallels exist or will exist between Wall Street and the Central District of Hong Kong. Perhaps five hundred yards from the new Chase Bank one stumbles upon Trinity Church and cemetery, built in the early in the early nineteenth century by the architect Upjohn. It is at first surprising that Wall Street. den of the Robber Baron, should con- tinue to honour its dead at potential- ly several thousand dollars US per square foot. The open space, how- provides a relief similar to that afforded by the Chase buildings plaza, while the church building is itself an asset, in that its small and pedestrian scale and rather frivolous Gothic features provide amusing re. lief in contrast with its giant neigh- bours.

Many older buildings remain in Hong Kong whose presence could prove valuable in the same manner.

THE HONG KONG & FAR EAST BUILDER VOLUME 19, NUMBER 2