What I find most amazing about this article is not that construction is being held up because of a dispute over cultural preservation, but the land these buildings sit on was bought for $15 billion:
Booyoung Group’s buildings have been designated as modern architectural assets by the Seoul city government. [SEOUL METROPOLITAN GOVERNMENT]There are seven decaying buildings strangely ornamented with rectangular shapes right in the center of Seoul, where land is worth its weight in gold, a stark contrast to the clean modern structures surrounding them.The seven old buildings are located beside the Westin Chosun hotel in Sogong-dong, Jung District, central Seoul. The cafes, massage parlors and other shops in these buildings were all closed down last week. A restaurant on the first floor of one of the buildings had a notice that said, “Due to the reconstruction of this building, we are closing our restaurant on Dec. 22, 2015,” indicating that the reconstruction did not take place for seven months.
The seven buildings sit on about 6,562 square meters (1.6 acres) of land, which the construction company Booyoung Group purchased for about 1.7 trillion won ($15 billion) from its previous owner, Samwhan Corporation, in order to build a hotel. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read more at the link, but the Seoul government is making preservation demands on the construction company which is halting their plans to build a hotel. I think this architect quoted in the article does make a good point:
An architect who requested to remain anonymous said, “We need to reevaluate how much the designated buildings are worth, culturally speaking. Just because a building looks old does not mean it’s worth being preserved.”
Looking at the buildings it is not like they are architectural masterpieces. They are quite honestly ugly rectangles. It will be interesting to see what happens with this development in the coming years.
It should be interesting to see what comes out of this study from NASA where they are trying to determine how much of the pollution over Seoul is produced domestically compared to what blows in from China:
The cockpit warning blared insistently as the plane spiraled downward to 500 feet above Seoul: “Too low, too low, terrain. Pull up, pull up, pull up.”
The pilots ignored the automated voice despite a nervous glance from a visiting reporter. Their mission was to take the DC-8 as low or as high as the NASA scientists working in the back required.
The flight was part of a six-week joint Korea-U.S. air-quality field study — known as KORUS-AQ — which officially kicked off on April 29. The timing coincided with the so-called yellow dust season that sees fine particulate matter swept into the air from neighboring China’s Gobi Desert. [Stars & Stripes]
Considering some of the drunken and mentally unstable incidents I have seen happen on the Seoul subways this is a job I have a lot of respect for the people working it:
Wearing stab-proof vests over their uniform shirt, they patrol underground during duty hours. Their mission is to help secure safety of people and keep peace.
Policemen? No, they are Subway Guards helping prevent crimes and incidents and establish order at more than 300 subway stations in Seoul. (……)
Although guards do not have the power to arrest, unlike police officers, most of them are well-trained professionals, each mastering several martial arts.
“I majored in security science. I am a third-degree black belt in Taekwondo and fourth in Hapkido. Many guards here have similar backgrounds,” Han Ji-yong, Lee’s partner, said.
The number of guards for Seoul Metro has increased from 40 in 2011 to 133 this year. According to Seoul Metro’s data, the guards were involved in 53,448 cases of violations in 2015, up 20 percent from three years earlier. The daytime shift workers take on the job from early morning — 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. — and from then come nighttime shifters to work until the last train arrives at 1 a.m. Ten guards work each shift per line.
The work becomes tough when they have to face violent drunken passengers. “They are usually typical patriarchal men in their 50s and 60s,” Lee said. [Korea Herald]
Gocheok Sky Dome is the city’s newest indoor baseball stadium. The stadium, based in western Seoul, has a capacity of 16,000 and is home to the Nexen Heroes baseball team. The dome officially opened in 2015 and is the country’s first stadium of its kind containing transparent soundproof panels keeping the noise from the game from disrupting the neighbors. The Gocheok Sky Dome is also used to host concerts and has a swimming pool as well as other sporting facilities at the site. With a fantastic, futuristic exterior and an almost guaranteed super atmosphere inside, Gocheok Sky Dome is certainly worth a visit! [Seoul Flickr Page]
![Booyoung Group’s buildings have been designated as modern architectural assets by the Seoul city government. [SEOUL METROPOLITAN GOVERNMENT]](https://i0.wp.com/pds.joins.com/jmnet/koreajoongangdaily/_data/photo/2016/08/17202325.jpg?resize=350%2C247)
