'Museum and Apartment Complex to Be Built on Yongsan Railroad Hospital Site Left Abandoned for 10 Years'

Location map of the former Yongsan Railroad Hospital site. (Provided by Seoul City)

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyemin] A complex of 685 residential units and a history museum will be built on the site of the former Yongsan Railroad Hospital.

On the 26th, Seoul City held the 9th Urban and Architectural Joint Committee and announced on the 27th that it had approved a revised detailed development plan for the Yongsan Railroad Hospital site located at 65-154 Hangangno 3-ga, Yongsan-gu.

The site is where the Yongsan Railroad Hospital, designated as Registered Cultural Heritage No. 428, is located. It operated as Chung-Ang University Yongsan Hospital from 1984 until its closure in 2011 and has since been left vacant. It is adjacent to Hangang Elementary School and Yongsan Technical High School, and redevelopment projects such as the reconstruction of Asia Apartments are actively underway in the surrounding area.

The city, after preliminary negotiations with the landowner, Korea Railroad Corporation, since January last year, established a development plan to build residential complexes and a history museum on the site.

First, the registered cultural heritage Yongsan Railroad Hospital will be operated as the Yongsan History Museum. To this end, the comprehensive medical facility will be abolished and replaced with a cultural facility by changing the district unit plan. The museum will be located on the lower floors, and the top floor will feature an observation space and an open community facility shared with citizens.

With this decision, a complex building including 685 residential units with 6 basement floors to 34 above-ground floors and a total floor area of 94,000㎡, as well as neighborhood living facilities, will be constructed.

Approximately 66.5 billion KRW of public contributions generated by the project will be allocated as 47.4 billion KRW for remodeling the Yongsan Railroad Hospital for museum use and installing storage facilities. Additionally, 11.1 billion KRW will be invested in building and relocating a daycare center and introducing a futsal field, and 8 billion KRW will be spent on new road construction.

A Seoul city official said, "The long-neglected former cultural heritage site, Yongsan Railroad Hospital, will be transformed into a museum and newly utilized as a historical and cultural space. The lower floors are expected to be revitalized by the street-type shops and resting areas arranged around the public pedestrian pathways."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.