Kim Chung-young's Suwon Microscope (42) The Story of Building the Gyeonggi Arts Center with Many Episodes

- The Site Changed Three Times, the Name Changed Four Times

The history of performance venues in Korea is not very long. Originally, the site of the Sejong Culture Center housed the Seoul Citizens' Hall. The Seoul Citizens' Hall was Korea's representative performance venue at the time. However, on December 2, 1972, a fire broke out at the Seoul Citizens' Hall and it was completely destroyed. At that time, Korea had no other major performance venues besides the Seoul Citizens' Hall.

Because of this, the need for a comprehensive performance venue to replace the Seoul Citizens' Hall was raised. In January 1974, construction of the Sejong Culture Center began on the site of the Seoul Citizens' Hall and opened in April 1978. The next city to pursue the construction of a cultural center was Busan.

In 1984, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism promoted the construction of regional cultural and arts centers in various provinces to develop local performance culture. This directive was passed through Gyeonggi Province and issued to Suwon City.

Suwon City assigned the construction project of the culture and arts center to the Construction Division. At the time, I had been promoted from Grade 8 to Grade 7 and was transferred to the Construction Division's Sewerage Section in the Urban Planning Division in August 1983. At that time, the Sewerage Section had minimal work. The budget was only a few hundred million won, consisting of repairs to drainage ditches along roadsides, dredging of blocked sewage pipes, and maintenance of rivers damaged by heavy rains.

Construction Division Chief Lee You-ha at the time judged that I, having experience in relatively available workload and urban planning work, was the right person for the task and assigned me the Suwon Culture and Arts Center construction project.

The first task in the construction of the Suwon Culture and Arts Center was to select the site. It was decided that the Culture and Arts Center would be built on what was called the City Council site, located to the left of City Hall. Subsequently, when an architectural design competition was announced, several entries were submitted.

After forming a selection committee and reviewing the entries, the work by Lim Jang-yeol of Sung Lib Architecture, who designed the Busan Culture and Arts Center, was selected. The review committee at the time pointed out that considering the characteristics of a culture and arts center, the site was too small and requested that it be built on a larger plot of land. Given various conditions, the only suitable location for the Suwon Culture and Arts Center was Olympic Park in front of City Hall.

Therefore, the location of the Suwon Culture and Arts Center was changed to Olympic Park and detailed design was pursued. In the middle of 1985, when the detailed design was nearing completion, document review for building permits began. However, during the process of checking the Urban Park Law, a serious error was discovered. The Urban Park Law contained a provision that the building coverage ratio could not exceed 10% of the site area. I felt as though the sky was falling.

The land in front of Suwon City Hall was 58,454 square meters (17,682 pyeong) in Gwonseon-dong, Lot 1012. Under the Urban Park Law, the maximum building floor area was 5,845 square meters (1,768 pyeong). However, the Suwon Culture and Arts Center had a building area of 8,817 square meters (2,667 pyeong) and a total floor area of approximately 22,000 square meters (6,655 pyeong), exceeding the building coverage ratio. So I fell into deep worry.

I became anxious about how to overcome this obstacle. Yet I couldn't simply report this out of the blue to my division chief. I began looking for alternatives. Coincidentally, the Korea Land Corporation had designated a district on December 31, 1984, for the Maetan 1st District housing development project on 949,000 square meters (287,071 pyeong) in the Ingye-dong and Maetan-dong area, which was on the boundary of the Gwonseon Land Readjustment Project District.

The Korea Land Corporation was to develop a key strategic area of East Suwon according to the contents of Suwon City's basic urban plan. It would develop a neighborhood park of 225,180 square meters (68,117 pyeong) located next to the East Suwon central commercial district through housing development. After land compensation in the future and upon project completion, the land would become Suwon City's property.

Therefore, I conducted a detailed review of the case of building the Suwon Culture and Arts Center on the park site of Maetan 1st District. There were problems. One was that a significant portion of the detailed design would need to be redesigned. I thought this could be resolved through consultation with the designer, as some of the error was the designer's responsibility.

The other issue was that the housing development project needed to be promoted quickly in order to start construction of the Suwon Culture and Arts Center. I reported these matters to Construction Division Chief Lee You-ha. Upon hearing this, the division chief immediately wanted to visit the site. At that time, the site consisted of forest and fields. He made the judgment that it was suitable as a location for the Suwon Culture and Arts Center, and the chief breathed a sigh of relief.

Then he scolded me, saying how someone who had been involved in urban planning for so long could make such a mistake. Afterward, the division chief reported this situation to the bureau chief, deputy mayor, and mayor, and obtained their approval. The remaining task was to persuade the designer. First, even though the detailed design wouldn't change, because the site location had shifted, dozens of floor plans would need to be redrawn. However, the designer raised a new issue.

When a building's site changes, a new soil test must be conducted on the location where the building will sit. In this case, it was standard practice to pay additional soil testing fees. However, since this was already last year's project budget, there was no money available.

I had to persuade the designer. Fortunately, he accepted the reality and conducted the soil test at his own expense, allowing us to complete the process without issue. Meanwhile, I promoted the sewerage division's core work—establishing sewage usage fee collection ordinances and basic sewage system plans, conducting feasibility studies for sewage treatment facilities, and conducting sewage system design projects—over about two years and put them on the right track, so that the project was able to proceed from 1986.

As matters developed this way, Suwon City promoted the Construction Division's Sewerage Section to the Sewerage Department on October 31, 1985. However, at that time, a subtle undercurrent was forming. As a member of the Construction Division's Sewerage Section, I had been responsible for both the Suwon Culture and Arts Center design work and all sewerage division operations. Therefore, I thought it would be natural to move to the Sewerage Department.

However, when the Sewerage Department organization was created, the appointment of the Sewerage Department Chief came first. Then the Sewerage Section moved to the Sewerage Department office to conduct work. When delays occurred in the section chief and staff appointments, Construction Division Chief Lee You-ha and Sewerage Department Chief Sung Nak-hun engaged in a "tug of war" over my position. The construction division chief said, "Kim Chung-young belongs to the Construction Division, so he should remain in the Construction Division."

The sewerage department chief argued that naturally I should be transferred to the Sewerage Department so that the work promoted so far would continue continuously. However, I had worked in the Urban Planning Division for a long time, and urban planning was my specialty. Actually, when I left the Urban Planning Division two and a half years earlier, they had expressed regret. My personnel transfer on October 31, 1985, was to the Urban Planning Division, neither the Construction Division nor the Sewerage Department.

Therefore, I handed over the sewerage division work to Lee Yong-ho (Civil Service Grade 7, former Director of Urban Policy at Suwon City), who was transferred from Anseong County to Suwon City. He subsequently took charge of the Suwon Culture and Arts Center. Then, on December 18, 1985, a groundbreaking ceremony for the Suwon Culture and Arts Center was held. Kolon Construction undertook the construction. At that time, the first-phase construction cost was approximately 500 million won, and civil engineering work including site development and foundation excavation was conducted.

However, there was someone who testified that there was someone interested in the Suwon Culture and Arts Center at that time. A few days ago, after reading "Kim Chung-young's Suwon Microscope Episode 37: Stories Related to Suwon City Hall," I received a text message regarding the promotion of the Suwon Culture and Arts Center. The testimony comes from Park Deok-hwa (former Chief of Yeongdeungpo District), who worked in the Accounting Division from June 1984 to June 1988.

Vice Governor Baek Sae-hyun, who served as Vice Governor of Gyeonggi Province from December 27, 1983, to December 16, 1985, requested in November 1985 that a report be made on the progress of Suwon City Hall construction and the Suwon Culture and Arts Center project. At the time, Gwon Young-ju, then Chief of the Accounting Division, Park Sa-jun, Head of the Usage Department, and Park Deok-hwa went to report on the progress.

Vice Governor Baek had served as Mayor of Suwon from August 2, 1978, to May 8, 1980. He was of the Suwon Baek clan. Due to this relationship, Vice Governor Baek had great interest in Suwon. According to the account, he asked, "Why the Suwon Culture and Arts Center? Why not the Gyeonggi Province Culture and Arts Center?"

Suwon City, lacking budget, asked to transfer it to Gyeonggi Province. Additionally, even though Suwon City Hall had Interior Ministry regulations, he persuaded authorities to build it as a minimum 5-story building and introduced Interior Ministry officials. Thus, the Suwon Culture and Arts Center was transferred to Gyeonggi Province in 1986.

From then on, Gyeonggi Province took charge. In fact, at that time, Suwon City's budget could not accommodate construction costs of 25 billion won. Thus, Suwon City's burden was reduced, but by becoming the Gyeonggi Province Culture and Arts Center, the inconvenience was that operational rights belonged to Gyeonggi Province, not Suwon City. Additionally, the building was under Gyeonggi Province's jurisdiction while the land belonged to Suwon City, creating an issue of property rights mismatch.

Moreover, the Gyeonggi Province Culture and Arts Center experienced an accident on July 29, 1988, around 1 p.m. during construction. The support structure of the third-floor slab broke and collapsed, burying five workers in concrete, resulting in their deaths, and six others suffering minor injuries—a major accident. The project suffered the pain of both accident cleanup and a prolonged suspension of construction work.

The Gyeonggi Province Culture and Arts Center was completed on December 31, 1990, five years after groundbreaking. Subsequently, with an opening performance on June 27, 1991, it took root as a cultural hub for the Suwon region.

In December 2003, it became a foundation corporation and the name was changed to "Gyeonggi Province Hall of Culture." In March 2020, the name was changed to "Gyeonggi Arts Center."