"A joint Hungarian-Japanese proposal by Péter Janesch and Kengo Kuma has won the design tender for the government quarter complex near Nyugati railway station.Hungarian Péter Janesch yesterday told Napi Gazdaság that he and his partner “did not intend to follow architectural traditions, but rather create a tradition of their own.” The jury panel described the winning bid as a environmentally-friendly office block that does not use fossil fuels and features numerous roofs and hanging gardens. The complex will be 400 metres long and 30 metres high. The selection jury included Polish-born US architect Daniel Libeskind, former chief architect of Berlin Hans Stimman, and Barcelona’s chief architect Josep A. Acebillio Marin.
Janesch and Kuma received Ft 20 million for the winning tender, while the second-placed bid from Finta és Társai Építész Stúdió won Ft 19 million. The near 30-hectare site, which is hemmed in by Nyugati tér, Teréz körút, Podmaniczky utca, Dózsa György út, Vágány utca, Ferdinánd híd, West End City Centre and Váci út, will be implemented in three stages over ten years. The complex will be built as a public-private partnership project, with the government funding Ft 800 million of the Ft 1.6 billion overall costs. The government quarter will be completed by late May 2009, then reconstruction of the railway station will follow, after which office buildings, hotels and parks will be built by private investors.
Government quarter communications leader Balázs Láng claimed that the budget could recoup Ft 140 billion over the next 25 years by moving into the new quarter. The government line is that if the ministries remain in their present locations, costs would be Ft 213 billion over 25 years, and Ft 250 billion including necessary renovation work.
“The sale of the present government buildings constitutes the squandering of national property,” Baross Gábor National Economy Sponsorship Society executive president János Pakucs said."
Source: Hungary Around the Clock.
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03.08.2007