IC clarifies position over Ponte 14 project, ‘building is not heritage’

The Cultural Affairs Bureau (IC) has clarified that its opinion on the urban conditions plan (PCU) for the project of the old Ponte 14 in Macau’s Inner Harbour is based on the fact that “the building is not classified and is not considered to be heritage,” president of the IC Deland Leong said yesterday morning, on the sidelines of the plenary meeting of the Cultural Heritage Council ahead of a discussion on the PCU at the Urban Planning Committee.

Questioned by the media on the position of the IC regarding the building, Leong noted the building is not classified. It is a place designed for a commercial area, in the IC’s opinion. This means that some flexibility would be allowed on the development of the new projects for the area that are connected with the revitalization of the Inner Harbour and Avenida de Almeida Ribeiro.

The opinion issued by the IC on the PCU only requires the maintenance of some architectural characteristics, allowing the transformation or demolishing of the existing structures as long as the height is kept according to the existing buildings, and also capping the height of new ones to 20.5 meters.

“The building is not considered a cultural relic. When we observe its location [we might think otherwise], but in reality it is just a commercial space. In our opinion, sent to the CPU, we have noted that we want to retain its current height, volume, and building characteristics. This means that these cannot be demolished but will allow another kind of space to be based on the existing building foundation,” Leong said. He further explained, “The concessionaire can make some adjustments and so we need to have a certain degree of flexibility to allow transformation for the future, instead of a certain rigidity that has been standardized,” she concluded.

‘no historical evidence’ on Red Market’s clock

On the sidelines of the same Council meeting, Leong was questioned about the ongoing imbroglio over the new clock that the Municipal Affairs Bureau (IAM) installed after the revamp of the Red Market (formally Almirante Lacerda Municipal Market).

According to Leong, “there is no historical evidence [as to] how the original clock of the market looked, we know that [there was] a clock but we don’t know exactly the position of its bell, and whether [the] clock face was a circle, a square, or some other form. We could not ascertain any of that from the previous design drawings,” she said.

She noted that for the time being, the bigger concern was to do with the lighting of the clock, which has been controversial.

“We believe that to be integrated with the building design it should be always white and black and currently there is a problem related to that when the lights are turned on. We are negotiating with IAM to achieve a consensus and a solution for this,” Leong concluded.

According to IAM, the revamped market is expected to reopen to the public in early June after two years of work.
A public outcry occurred recently as the revamped facility started tests and many citizens were not happy to see a neon green color tone on the market clock when the lights were turned on.
When it was originally built the market had a clock tower with a bell that can be seen in old photographs from the building, but not a clock.