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Taipei’s Songshan Cultural Park to open in 2013

Songshan Cultural Park in eastern Taipei is scheduled for completion next May. (CNA)

• Publication Date：04/24/2012
• Source： Taiwan Today
• By  Grace Kuo

Songshan Cultural Park is set to become the ROC capital’s latest architectural and cultural landmark upon opening in May 2013, Taipei City Mayor Hau Lung-bin said April 23.

Hau’s announcement came at the beam erection ceremony for the new park. Also in attendance were renowned Japanese architect Toyo Ito, one of the main designers of the project, and Fubon Financial Holding Co. Chairman Daniel M. Tsai, whose group is one of the project’s principal shareholders.

“The park will make Taipei the cultural creative capital among ethnic Chinese communities and serve as the basis of the city’s bid for world design capital in 2016,” Hau said.

“We hope the park can promote and encourage the development of Taiwan’s cultural creative industry,” Fubon’s Tsai added.

Converted from the 75-year-old Songshan Tobacco Factory in eastern Taipei, the park encompasses an 18-story building that includes a hotel, theaters, offices for the cultural industry and an Eslite Bookstore.

Next to the building, and an integral part of the park, are 6.6 hectares of abandoned factories and renovated warehouses.

“Back in the 1930s, the tobacco factory was like a utopia, providing its employees with everything they needed in life,” Ito said. “The project seeks to integrate the historical site with new construction and natural ecology, and will be showcased to the citizens and the world.”

According to the Taipei City Government, Fubon Group invested NT$8.6 billion (US$287 million) in the project, with NT$7.3 billion as the construction cost, while the rest is for development royalty. (HZW)

Write to Grace Kuo at morningk@mail.gio.gov.tw