HK builders need to keep history alive

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By Hong Liang (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-06-10 08:06

Michael Kadoorie is one of the few Hong Kong tycoons who have a touch of class.

Although I have met many business leaders and interviewed quite a few of them during my long career as a business reporter in this commercial town, I have never had an opportunity to talk to Sir Michael in person. But like many thousands of local residents and foreign visitors who have patronized the Peninsula Hotel across the street from what used to be the old railway terminal, I admire the dignified splendor of the facade and the hushed luxury of the interior, which are a tribute to its owner, the company controlled by the Kadoorie family interests.

Of even more significance to our "collective memory" than the Pen, as the hotel is affectionately called, is the Peak Tram, which is also owned by the same company. In one single day on May 30, more than 10,000 Hong Kong citizens took a ride down memory lane on the tram to commemorate its 120th anniversary. Many of them waited in heavy rain for hours to get on board that day.

To be sure, both the hotel and the tramway are viable commercial enterprises that produce reasonable returns. But in Hong Kong, as in some mainland cities, few commercial enterprises can generate as big and fast a return as that from selling apartments a year or so before they are scheduled for completion to eager home buyers and daring speculators.

In the relentless pursuit to maximizing profits, the property barons and merchant princes of Hong Kong have been tearing down landmarks after landmarks to make way for non-descript residential complexes and office towers that have disfigured Hong Kong's once breathtaking landscape. Architectural excellence is judged solely by the number of square footage that can be squeezed out of the government-set plot ratio for each construction site.

In response to widespread criticism for erecting an office tower of controversial design at the waterfront, the developer was quoted for declaring that beauty was in the eye of the renter. To him, the most beautiful building was the one that was fully let.

His ultra-pragmatic view on architecture and design obviously is shared by many other developers. It is not uncommon for a real-estate company to use one blueprint as the basis for the design of all its development projects.

One would expect the property barons of Hong Kong will want to erect some kind of monument to themselves in the form of, say, their corporate headquarters buildings. But other than perhaps the futuristic-looking home of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp, it is hard to identify one that merits a special mention.

In this environment, the will to maintain something that is beautiful and cherished by the public can easily be dissolved by the cold deliberation on opportunity cost. The investment on modernizing the Peak Tram, whose operation is now largely computerized, while preserving the old-world charm of the line, could arguably have generated significantly larger gains if it had been deployed in property investment.

Of course, it doesn't mean that everything good must be old. Hong Kong International Airport in Chap Lap Kok has repeatedly won the accolades for being one of the world's best airports not just for its functionality. The stunning design of its structure is worthy of its status as the premier gateway to Asia. The efficiency of the design and operation of the Hong Kong Mass Transit System has always been a source of pride for Hong Kong people.

What we need are business people willing to spend more money and accept a slightly lower rate of return to preserve what we cherish and erect new landmarks of which we can be proud.

E-mail: jamesleung@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 06/10/2008 page8)