When West Kowloon Cultural District, home of M+ museum, was first proposed in 1999 and the arguments that followed about its construction
- On December 14, 1999, a contest to design a cultural and entertainment complex on reclaimed land in West Kowloon was announced, the Post reported
- After much haggling over finances and the scrapping of Norman Foster’s first plan, on March 5, 2011 Foster’s firm won the right to design the city’s arts hub
“A proposed cultural and entertainment complex at West Kowloon will be put to open competition,” reported the South China Morning Post on December 14, 1999. But “legislators warned that the venues and facilities created by the winner would determine cultural policy” and could lead to “too much autonomy”.
On November 19, 2003, the Post warned “Hub costs ‘will go through roof’”, despite the feature being the reason “to award the tender for the $24 billion project to a single consortium”.
Five months later, on April 27, 2004, Kwan Pak-lam, a project manager in the government’s Territory Development Department, told the Legislative Council that “construction of the canopy does not necessarily have to go ahead. If everybody thinks it’s too expensive we will reconsider the whole approach.”
Finally, on February 22, 2006: “The roof caves in on culture hub dream. After 7½ years and hundreds of millions of dollars, West Kowloon project is back on the drawing board – minus the canopy.”
