Seoul Station 7017: Forget 2017?

Seoul city announced Friday that MOUs have been signed with five downtown buildings for connections to the future Seoul Station 7017.

In case you missed the previous episodes listed below, the highly controversial SS7017 (a.k.a. Seoul's Highline) is Mayor PARK Won-soon's pet project to crown his mandate in 2017:

• January (among Seoul's urban regeneration projects): "Diagonal crossings, High Lines, and Business Verticals (how pedestrians and businesses remodel Seoul... and vice-versa)"
• January (focus): "Seoul Station Elevated Park (Seoul Station Project 7017? The Seoul Vine?) - An Update"
• May (Winy Maas wins the competition): "Seoul Station 7017 blooms into Seoul Arboretum"
• July (mention of Seoul's intense lobbying / advertising / calls for suggestions): ""Sejongdaero" competition officially started"

Here are the 5 buildings, all in Jung-gu (I listed their addresses), all around the Toegye-ro / Tongil-ro intersection facing the station:

• Metro Tower (10, Toegye-ro) 
• Daewoo Foundation Building (18, Toegye-ro) 
• Hotel Manu (19, Toegye-ro) 
• Seoul Square (416, Hangang-daero) 
• Yonsei Jedan Severance (Yonsei Severance Foundation - 10, Tongil-ro)

Among other buildings likely to plug in later, the Namdaemun Church, and the Hilton Hotel*, which itself shall serve as a gateway to Namsan Park. Seoul confirmed April 2017 as the target for the inauguration.

*

Now these MOUs were signed in January. So what's the actual message? 

That Seoul Mayor is not giving up his dream.

The Seoul Station  7017 project is officially dead because national authorities have blocked it for many good reasons: major safety concerns, awful design ruining the surroundings of the old Seoul Station, unsolved traffic issues...

One more good reason is the fact that many people don't want PARK Won-soon to parade with a spectacular new landmark just months before the 2017 presidential elections. If Saenuri's KIM Moo-sung is closing the gap, PARK is still leading in polls that, one should note, don't include BAN Ki-moon (will the UNSG run for South Korea's most suicidal job?):

PARK Won-soon still leads in polls for 2017 prez, but KIM Moo-sung up (NB: no BAN Ki-moon): gallup.co.kr/gallupdb/reportContent.asp?seqNo=677
(twitter.com/theseoulvillage/status/632069833425727489)

Every month of delay makes less likely a delivery on time for the elections.

Personally, I wouldn't have bet on this very risky SS7017 as my main option for a landmark. For instance, solving the Seun Sangga conundrum was also very tricky (starting with safety issues), but much more important for Seoul's balance and urban regeneration.

Still time to reassess priorities, I guess.


Seoul Village 2015
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* The Hilton was not among the 5, as I wrongly thought last Friday:

Seoul announced 5 MOU with buildings for connection with Seoul Station 7017 (Hilton etc). National authorities nixed projects, PWS needed lobbying power. (twitter.com/theseoulvillage/status/634720342787796996)

Return to Seoul Station

Strange feeling, yesterday, as I roamed the inaugural exhibitions at the brand new old Seoul Station ("Countdown" and YIPPA 2011 - see "Culture Station Seoul 284").

To start with, the light was special, and with that Latino group performing in a distance it almost felt like a summer evening in Spain before a storm. But the air was dry, and the rain wasn't announced before Friday. Yet every color was enhanced, every person on the street an actor on stage. Brighter than ever, the orange of Seoul Square. Saddening as always, the scattered army of the homeless guarding the old Seoul Station.

Even from a closer range, it's hard to believe this landmark has been completely renovated. And as you enter, you realize how small it was : a provincial station at most, and except for the two of us, only a handful of people inside, including the staff.

We started with the Yonhap photo expo, which certainly didn't lift our moods : UN Millennium Development Goals are about tackling every dimensions of human misery, and in "Share the Moment, Share the Future", photographers from all horizons are precisely pointing their fingers where it hurts. Tough images, utter despair, with just the occasional glimmer of hope...

We then moved to "countdown", which doesn't exactly lifts art to new levels, but provided the perfect alibi for a visit to ole Seoul Yeok. Restoration it is, and in its most basic form : each room recovers its initial aspect, and sans furniture ni human traffic, the old train station has the green, gloomy atmosphere of an abandoned hospital. Even the "VIP rooms" feel like the Kubrick's version of King's Overlook hotel. But guess what, that's exactly what I expected and hoped for : unpretentious, not overdone, and respectful of an original architecture that includes charming staircases and cute alcoves as much as dull corridors.

Imperfections are welcome, even if the green wooden windows didn't have to be that respectful of the old days : as you can see on this picture (sorry for the quality, I'm all thumbs with picturephones), they are not weatherproof.

The second floor offers a much brighter face with its 240 degree view on Hangangno, Namdaemun, the Toegyero overpass, Dongja-dong, Galwon-dong, and (for how long ?) Inwangsan and Huam-dong. The former barber shop has been converted into a permanent exhibition about the restoration : judging by the initial state of the building, they had to do more than just scratch the surface of the walls, but considering Korean construction standards in 1925, the Japanese did a pretty decent job in the first place.

This is only the beginning for the "New Old Seoul Station" - again, a more official inauguration is scheduled for March 2011 -, but as expected, it is already a very promising venue for cultural events, and a key asset in a middle of a neighborhood about to experience major redevelopments.

Seoul Village 2011
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NB: I wasn't allowed to take a full picture of the main hall because of the works on display. The first photo above, a partial one, was taken from an angle that reminded me of Orsay Museum. I don't remember the stained glass on the ceiling but then again, I was not a frequent user of the old station.