From the design competitions to the CEO appointments, from the development objectives to resource usage, problems can be traced back to when the idea was first conceived.
In 2002, British architect Norman Foster won the competition to design the district, with a canopy meant to hover over the entire area. This was not well received and many questioned the practicality and cost of the design. In 2003, developers were invited to bid for the project. Five consortiums submitted proposals based on Foster’s design, which the government changed to require a canopy covering just half the area.
Architect Norman Foster with a model of his original design on March 15, 2002. Photo: David Wong
But amid heavy criticism and cost concerns, it was all scrapped in 2005 and the project went back to the drawing board. In 2010, another design competition was announced and it was won again in 2011 by Foster. It had taken nearly a decade just to get the West Kowloon Cultural District designed.
This was followed by a revolving door of the executives in charge. The first, former Hong Kong Disneyland executive Angus Cheng Siu-chuen, started in June 2009 as executive director and quit a week later, citing “personal reasons”. The second, former artistic director of the Barbican Centre Graham Sheffield, lasted only five months as chief executive, citing “health reasons” for his departure.
In 2011, former Southbank Centre chief executive Michael Lynch became the third chief, resigning in 2015, citing family reasons. And then there was Duncan Pescod, forced to step down in 2020 before his tenure ended. For those of us on the outside, it all looked like a combination of personality clashes and extremely bad luck.
More to the point, the idea that one can simply build a cultural district is questionable. It hardly counts as a vision to point to a location, call it “cultural” by throwing museums and theatres in the mix, then expect it to be well-developed and profitable.
Culture is born, cultivated and explored through customary or historic practices, through artistic performances and expression. Urban fabric is important and prudent city planners would study how well a new public venue knits with and enhances its surroundings.
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How Hong Kong lost its neon glow
How Hong Kong lost its neon glow
There are preserved neighbourhoods across the world that have been named as cultural districts, with efforts to conserve their identities and offerings. But this rarely happens, if at all, with a piece of vacant real estate. A “cultural district” built from scratch is folly in itself.
While Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Cultural District was mired in delays, Singapore’s Marina Bay underwent a similar large-scale development.
Never branded as a “cultural district”, the bay welcomed a mega casino-hotel-retail complex, an art and science museum, a pay-to-enter horticultural garden and a street racing circuit for its popular F1 Grand Prix night race – I’m not ashamed to admit that I was one of the many people recently drawn to the city for the very reason.
A bird’s-eye view of the Singapore F1 Grand Prix Marina Bay City Circuit seen from Swissotel The Stamford in Singapore, on September 17, 2013. Photo: AP
We don’t need to compare ourselves with others, but in the spirit of self-development, we can do better. What do we need to successfully develop the wedge-shaped piece of land at the southwest corner of Kowloon?
Any successful development demands expertise. From the leaders who craft the vision to the think tanks that come up with fresh and exciting ideas, to the execution team with the technical know-how, West Kowloon deserves the best and brightest minds that have undertaken similar large-scale developments and challenges before.
To be sustainable, the project needs to maximise its social, environmental and economic potential. It takes right-brain artistry and creativity, as well as left-brain analysis and methodology. It takes hardware and software, thinkers and doers to all work together to achieve something special.
If Hong Kong has been removed from the Formula E motor race calendar because its 1.86km Central route is too short, let’s trace a new 2.2km street circuit in Kowloon to bring back the global green racing event. If Cirque du Soleil has toured Hong Kong several times but never managed to make a permanent home here, let’s build an irresistible world-class venue to welcome them.
If the varieties of street food and global cuisines are what visitors love the most about Hong Kong, let’s go beyond temporary “night vibes” markets and create a “must visit” food and drink destination in the district. If the world embraces kung fu and worships Bruce Lee, let’s build a dedicated museum to honour his life and achievements, making it a worthy pilgrimage for the world’s martial artists.
There are many ways to think outside the box. As much as we respect Tang, who almost became Hong Kong’s chief executive in 2012, land is not our only resource in the West Kowloon Cultural District. The greatest resources we can contribute to its development are our ingenuity, talent, stamina, efficiency and diligence.
Dennis Lee is a Hong Kong-born, America-licensed architect with years of design experience in the US and China
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