Site unveiled for new National Convention Hall

The prime minister approved the ministry’s proposal for the 64-hectare site in Me Tri Thuong and Me Tri Ha villages last week, the source said.
Hanoi People’s Committee is completing procedures for land clearance, allowing the site to be transferred to the project’s management board soon. The National Convention Hall is to be finished in time for Vietnam to host the 2006 APEC summit.
The hall was to have been built next to the new Ba Dinh Hall, on 5.77ha surrounded by Doc Lap, Bac Son, Hoang Dieu and Hoang Van Thu streets.
However, the discovery of precious artifacts at this site forced authorities to go back to the drawing board.
Archaeologists discovered the vestiges of the former Thang Long capital, now Hanoi, including vases and water wells, on the site.
Early last November, the Politburo accepted a government proposal suggesting the National Convention Hall be relocated to another site.
“The relocation of the Convention Hall to another site will not damage the architectural scene of the Ba Dinh complex,” historian Tran Quoc Vuong said.
Archaeologists meanwhile continue to assess the importance of the Ba Dinh site. Their report is to decide whether or not the hall would be built there or not.
“Archaeological results should be assessed from different perspectives,” said Duong Trung Quoc, a famous historian and a currently National Assembly member.
“The historical value of the vestiges found is very clear.
However, [we] should consider whether Vietnam can preserve them bearing in mind [our] technical and economic conditions,” he said.
Sharing Vuong’s view, Quoc believed that a part of the selected site in Ba Dinh might be reserved for construction of the new Ba Dinh Hall, while the remaining area should be developed into a museum.
It is estimated the assessment will take one year, three quarters of which have elapsed since archaeological work began.
In the remaining time the National Assembly will continue to hold its sessions in the existing Ba Dinh Hall.
The Politburo’s approval also meant changes would be required to the design of the Convention Hall.
If built in the previously selected area in Ba Dinh, the height of the building would not have been higher than the Mausoleum of President Ho Chi Minh opposite the site, which is 21.6 metres high.
Designs have so far been approved for the buildings of the Convention Hall and the new Ba Dinh Hall.
The design is developed by Gerkan-Marg & Partners the firm that participated in the design of a series of famous building in Europe, including the German governmental house in Berlin.