Treating the Symptoms - A Critical Review of ... - Civic Exchange

The MertonThe Merton in Kennedy Town provides the worst example of an unsuccessful pedestrianscheme. The Merton is a three-tower residential development split between two sites oneither side of Catchick Street on the Kennedy New Town Praya waterfront. It is one of theURA’s first projects, having been inherited from the LDC. Its construction was completedin 2005.Kennedy New Town PrayaIn return for bonus plot ratio of 2 for site A, and 1.8 for Site B, representing a total of11,605m 2 , two covered pedestrian concourses and an elevated footbridge (not yet built) wereprovided for pedestrian passage. In addition to the pedestrian passages, two separate areashave been set aside for public open space, which are managed by the Leisure and CulturalServices Department (LCSD). (The recreational areas will be discussed in the followingsection). The map of the ground floor plan on the right shows the pedestrian concourses. Allare located under the building podium, where they are intended to relieve pedestrian foottraffic on the pavement by allowing people to travel directly from one end of the building tothe other. Both sites’ passages are ineffective, and one has been seriously mismanaged.At Site B, the pedestrian concourse has been rendered unusable due to metal railings (markedin red on the map) blocking off access and converting the through-passage into a dead end. Asign at the entrance describes it as a “landscaped garden”, open to the public between 6 a.m.and 10:30p.m. However, it is unused because it is not very accessible, unattractive, poorly lit,and feels unsafe. It appears that the building management installed the railings to discourageuse in order to minimize maintenance needs. The TPB did not foresee this outcome whenit approved the Master Layout Plan, and Site B was granted an additional 4,117 m 2 of floorarea under the Buildings Ordinance in return for it.The pedestrian concourse on Site A is physically accessible, but is rarely used for a number ofother reasons. Firstly, it provides a path from the Davis Street open space to Cadogan Streeton the opposite side, where the old abbatoir used to be (it is now a construction site for theMTRC). This does not follow existing pedestrian desire lines and is a detour for anyonetravelling along Catchick Street.Cadogan StreetMERTONSITE APublicOpenSpaceResidentialLobbyPedestrianConcourseResidentialLobbyCatchick StreetRailingsPublicOpenSpaceResidentialLobbyMERTONSITE BPedestrianConcourseRailingsDavis StreetTram LineExistingBuildingsExistingBuildingsHau Wo StreetExistingBuildings67Pedestrian circulation around the Merton is low in any case because the purely residentialland use does not attract people. The pavement may have been crowded in the past becauseshops used to be there, but now they are gone.Additionally, the concourse looks more like a private entrance for the building than a publicarea. Only the building’s residents were seen using it to access their residential lobbies.ExistingBuildingsBelcher’s Street