By This has been something that has been about as long overdue as moving Yongsan Garrison to an area south of Seoul:
The government says that 16 organizations of the central government and 20 government affiliated offices will be relocated to Sejong City, Chungcheong Province in three phases starting September next year.
The government on Friday held a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Kim Hwang-sik and finalized the relocation schedule.
Under the three-stage relocation plan, six ministries and six affiliated organizations will move to the city by the end of next year. The Prime Minister’s Office will be the first to relocate in September next year. The six ministries planning to move include the finance, agriculture, land and transport and environment ministries.
By 2013, six ministries and 12 government offices, including education, culture and economy ministries, will have transferred their base to Sejong City.
The relocation will be completed by the end of 2014 when four organizations, including the National Tax Service and the Ministry of Government Legislation, move to the city. [KBS Global]
7:50 pm on November 19th, 2011 1
What construction company owns land in that town?
8:52 pm on November 19th, 2011 2
I am not so updated on this matter. Why are the ministries and offices moving out of Seoul? To not be so vulnerable in case of a North Korean attack?
11:30 pm on November 19th, 2011 3
#2,
The government’s been talking about doing it for years, supposedly to decentralize the government and develop the provinces…But, real estate and construction contracts is definitely a consideration.
11:56 am on November 20th, 2011 4
To be fair, the government has already moved a few things outside of Seoul proper. There’s an entire government complex in Kwachŏn, on the other side of the mountain from Seoul, and KAIST was placed out in Taejŏn as part of the decentralization process.
Moving major government offices to Kwachŏn is the equivalent of placing federal stuff in Maryland or Virginia, but it does go some way toward separating some national entities from the corrupt cronyism from the National Assembly if they’re an hour away.
1:10 pm on November 20th, 2011 5
As of now, Sejong City seems like a massive disappointment in planning and execution… which no amount of lofty carbon reduction goals or trees surrounded by concrete will fix.
Once it is completed, I fear that Korea should be ashamed of it and it should never be mentioned again.
There is seldom a chance like this to build an entirely new city on fresh land with no need to be concerned about existing construction, road networks, or infrastructure…
…a blank slate to design and build a fantastic ultra-modern city demonstrating Korea’s artistic vision, long-term planning prowess, technical expertise, construction abilities, and world-class forward thinking.
Sejong City could have… SHOULD have… been designed as a global showpiece for the next generation of urban habitation on a city-wide scale…
…a national experiment in future living… backed by the weight of the government and with a large population of government employees living there who could report on its successes and failures… and had the pull to correct mistakes and improve the experiment…
…a beautiful city which would be on the cover of every tourist magazine, every civil engineering journal, and very architecture textbook…
…and which would eventually pay for itself in tourist revenues and energy-saving/lifestyle-enhancing technologies which would propagate to other cities and other developments.
But that’s not what was vomited upon the land.
What was made appears to be a typical jumbled block of crackerbox apartments… mixing a few of last year’s design with mostly last decade’s design… interspersed with relatively narrow roads that are going to be a true nightmare as hundreds of cars will have to make two left turns to get into some of the apartments.
The river has been dredged, the park has been made alongside it, and there is a fantastically expensive and impressive bridge with a tower and lots of cables… that works no better than the flat poured concrete one just up the river from it. But a bridge and a park don’t make a city.
Here is the pathetic residential skyline of this “planned” and “created” city. The bridge and even-worse commercial section is just out of frame to the right.
http://pds.joinsmsn.com/jmnet/koreajoongangdaily/_data/photo/2011/10/09223048.jpg
Here is the bridge and two of the apartment buildings from the previous picture. If that wasn’t horrifying enough, the commercial skyline is the narrow strip of basic white cubes hacked from solid blocks of mediocrity you see along the bridge road.
http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/312164_10150393207908823_133597558822_8601898_1215470416_n.jpg
Very, very, very uninspiring.
And it didn’t have to be that way.
Shame on you, Korea. Shame, shame, shame!
7:41 pm on November 20th, 2011 6
5. Wow. Craptacular to say the least. Opportunity wasted.
7:44 pm on November 20th, 2011 7
Thanks a lot for explaining!
8:45 pm on November 20th, 2011 8
Anybody got specs on the bridge? Single or continuous span? How many streamers? Measurements of the I-beams? Or just give me the straight MLC class. I think Chickenhead is right…
12:05 am on November 21st, 2011 9
Kangaji,
In keeping with the theme of lack of vision, the satirically unimaginatively-named “Gumgang No. 1 Bridge” knows not what an I-beam is. It is made of prestressed concrete… much like the cheap-but-functional one just upriver from it.
As an extradosed bridge, the cables and tower are pretty much an expensive aesthetic addition.
“Gumgang No. 2 Bridge” will be a cable-stayed bridge… again, prettier than the current flat concrete bridge… but not really necessary for a short span over very shallow water.
According to the blueprints…
Gumgang No. 1 Bridge
total length: 735m
span lengths: 87.5m, 185m, 185m, 185m, 87.5 m
It was designed by the German firm, Leonhardt, Andrä und Partner for/with Yooshin Engineering Corporation.
Construction is by SK Engineering & Construction.
Gumgang No. 2 Bridge is still in the project phase.
I’m all for fancy bridges… but a fancy skyline of an ultra-modern functional city is a dream few countries have a chance to make.
Korea had that chance, let it go, and will try to cover it by including the bridge in any city picture… not fully realizing that, unless you are San Francisco, a fancy bridge (which looks like a LOT of other bridges in the world) is the cheapskate way of trying to show off a city…
…and everybody realizes it.
6:49 am on November 21st, 2011 10
It’s all about the money.
Either you own and live in an apartment in Gangnam…or you don’t. That’s where you’ll realize the best property value gains…that’s where the best schools are (that will ensure the best opportunity for your kid(s) to get into Seoul National/Yonsei/Korea National University…that’s where you and every other Korean aspire to be.
No amount of incentives will convince anyone to take a job in Sejong City. They could give apartments there away for free…and the only takers would be men who will use it for a year or two while they live the life of a geographical bachelor…and put up with having to be separated from their families. Because mama and the kids are gonna stay back in Seoul – land of milk and honey.
7:28 am on November 21st, 2011 11
“where you and every other Korean aspire to be.”
Nope. I’m shopping around for a building (yes, a building) out here in the provinces. It’s in the same town as my in-laws. We plan on moving there when we retire. And my friend, Mr. Moneybags, owns a brand new multimillion dollar penthouse in Gangnam, one of the most expensive condos in South Korea…But he doesn’t live there. He lives out here in the provinces. No plans to move there soon, either. His daughter was recently accepted in good high school, but since that condo is way too expansive for her and her bodyguard/chaperone, he’s renting a smaller apartment for them near her school.
7:30 am on November 21st, 2011 12
Yes, expansive. It’s not a typo…It’s $#%&ing huge.