Reasons for Building the Lee Kun-hee Donation Hall in Songhyeon-dong with a Rich History

Preliminary Feasibility Study Within This Month
Scheduled Completion and Opening in 2027
Six Criteria Including Location and Connectivity
Rated 'Superior' to Yongsan
Significant Effect on Domestic and International Visitor Influx

[Asia Economy Reporter Donghyun Choi] The "Lee Kun-hee Donation Hall" will be established on the "ill-fated land" in Songhyeon-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul. On the 9th, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced that it will build a donation hall to exhibit and store more than 23,000 artworks and cultural assets left by the late Lee Kun-hee, chairman of Samsung Group, at this site. A preliminary feasibility study will be conducted this month, followed by an international design competition starting in the second half of next year, with plans to complete and open the hall in 2027.

Since July, the Ministry has been conducting research and committee reviews on two candidate sites for the donation hall: Yongsan and Songhyeon-dong. According to the "Basic Plan Research for the Construction of a Special Donation Exhibition Hall" conducted by the Korean Cultural Space Architecture Society, Songhyeon-dong outperformed Yongsan in all six evaluation categories: location significance, connectivity, accessibility, site utilization, landscape and view, and others. In particular, Songhyeon-dong scored three times higher than Yongsan in the categories with the highest weighting?location significance, connectivity, and accessibility. In the final evaluation, Songhyeon-dong received an importance score of 72.93%, 2.7 times higher than Yongsan's 27.07%.

The area around Songhyeon-dong has been the center of politics, economy, culture, and arts since the Joseon Dynasty. It is within a 10-minute walk to the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art and Gyeongbokgung Palace, and has abundant cultural and tourism infrastructure such as Insadong, the hub of Korea’s traditional art market. It also offers excellent pedestrian and transportation accessibility to various cultural facilities within Jongno-gu. In contrast, Yongsan is surrounded by apartments and railway tracks near the site, and there was the burden of needing to purchase additional access roads. A Ministry official explained, "The Songhyeon-dong site is easy to collaborate with organizations possessing expertise and capabilities such as the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, and it has good accessibility," adding, "It will also have a significant effect in attracting domestic and international visitors to areas like Bukchon Hanok Village and Insadong."

The Songhyeon-dong site covers 37,141.6 square meters, of which 9,787 square meters will be used for the donation hall construction. The donation hall will be built with a total floor area of 30,000 square meters. It is planned to be developed as an independent center for collecting and exhibiting donated items, serving as a hub for convergence and fusion cultural activities that transcend boundaries of East and West, eras, and fields. The nearby site will be developed into an urban park.

"Lee Kun-hee Donation Hall" is a tentative name, and the exact name of the donation hall has not yet been finalized. The Ministry stated in a press release that "the name will be changed to one with greater extensibility after gathering many opinions." There is also a possibility that the chairman’s name will be omitted and the facility will be established solely as a museum dedicated to donated items. Kim Young-na, chairperson of the National Donation Lee Kun-hee Collection Utilization Committee, who has overseen the candidate site review, said, "Initially, only Chairman Lee’s donated items will be exhibited, but if others wish to donate in the future, there will be no reason to refuse," adding, "Further discussion is needed regarding the name of the donation hall."

The Ministry will receive the donation hall construction site by exchanging it with other state-owned properties. Currently, the Seoul Metropolitan Government is in the process of transferring ownership of the Songhyeon-dong land from the Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH). In this regard, on the 10th at 11:30 a.m., Minister Hwang Hee of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and Mayor Oh Se-hoon of Seoul signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for the donation hall construction at the Seoul Craft Museum in Anguk-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul, overlooking the Songhyeon-dong site.

The Ministry and Seoul City agreed to consult on urban planning facility decisions regarding the donation hall site and the nearby park. They plan to form a separate preparatory group to discuss detailed matters necessary for the donation hall construction.

Once the ownership of the Songhyeon-dong land is fully settled around the first half of next year, this much-debated area will be solidified as the site for the donation hall and park development. After liberation, the Songhyeon-dong land was used as housing for U.S. Embassy staff, then sold to Samsung Life Insurance in 1997. Samsung Life Insurance intended to build a museum but was unable to proceed and sold the land to Korean Air in 2008. Korean Air’s plan to build a hanok hotel was blocked by regulations. Due to management difficulties, Korean Air announced the sale of the Songhyeon-dong site in 2019. Ownership then transferred from Korean Air to LH and subsequently to Seoul City, finalizing the land’s ultimate use.

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