by Jun Lin The park sits in a hollow with grassy slopes rising on all sides. Children run along the winding boardwalks and wooden decks that come all the way down to and around the koi pond at the heart of the park, where the willow trees bow towards the emerald water. Observatory decks and bridges with see-through floors stretch over the pond, granting a beautiful view of the park and the towers that surround it. Nearby a pathway matted with scraps of cypress wood, people lie down on the fields and chat in the cool afternoon shade cast by the tall neighboring buildings. Amid towering buildings and bustling streets, Maple Garden Park sits by one of the busiest traffic junctions in Taichung City. The park covers three hectares of land, but it is unusual for a park this size to be built in the 7th Redevelopment Zone, a fast-developing commercial hub in the Xitun District, where grand boulevards are lined with office towers, shopping centers, and expensive apartments. Property prices here reach up to 800,000 NTD per ping. You’d be curious as to why anyone would decide to build a park right where they could have made a more profitable investment. The truth is, Maple Garden Park was no ordinary park to begin with. In the early 2000s, the ground it now sits on was originally planned for a new expo center. Shining Building Business Co. was approved to carry out the BOT project in 2004 and began construction the next year. The project was due by the end of February 2008. Yet by then the only progress made was a massive hole dug around the construction site, which had filled with rainwater after four years and was left hollow and wasted. Eventually, the project company was so far behind schedule that it was impossible to see the construction completed. The project, full of problems, was thus terminated, leaving a massive pit of stagnant water in one of the most expensive neighborhoods in the city. It would cost more than an estimated 200 million NTD to recover the lost earthwork and to fill up the hole. Instead of trying to restore it, the government decided to rebuild the site into an ecological park. A different construction company undertook the new project. The water-filled pit was converted into a wet pond, a 20-meter deep detention basin that would store up to 200,000 cubic meters of water and protect the area against flooding. A park was designed around it, and Maple Garden Park opened in September 2012. People debated whether converting it into a park was the right decision to make, considering its location. Some have half-jokingly referred to it as “Taiwan’s Most Expensive Park.” Indeed, if the government tried to sell it they would make an estimated 22 billion. But the positive effects of having a park that is free and open to everyone are hard to quantify. In 2014, Maple Garden Park won the Prix d’Excellence in the Public Infrastructure/Amenities Category at the 65th FIABCI World Congress, an annual summit gathering of global real estate leaders.
Today Maple Garden is one of the city’s best known landmarks. Being right next to the Chaoma bus stop and close to a line of department stores, it is a popular tourist attraction. It’s also become a great place for families and friends to close off a lazy Sunday afternoon. In the evening, the park holds music performances on the round wooden platforms, and at night the bridges are strewn with colored LED lights. A small on-site restaurant serves drinks and light meals from 9.30 a.m. to midnight, but the park is open anytime to anyone. Maple Garden Park might not be the grandest or the most spectacular park that has ever been built, but it is nevertheless endearing in its own way. So step away from the noise and the traffic. Come take a walk in the park. a
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May 2024
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