Tapgol Gongwon

Date

1902 (originally opened);December 2000 (redevelopment design/planning);July 1998-June 2002 (The Planting the 10-million Trees of Life Project)

Location

Asia->South Korea->Seoul (special city)->Seoul->Pagoda Park

Description

Pagoda Park was originally built in 1902 on the site of Wongaksa (temple) in Chosun Dynasty. It was the first modern public park in Seoul and the birthplace of "3.1 Movement," an historic event in Korean history. In 1992, its name changed to Tapgolgongwon, which literally means "pagoda park."
Tapgolgongwon was remodeled in 2000. The project includes preserving the existing cultural properties, reorganizing the existing park facilities to emphasize the historical symbolic meanings of the park, and adding a memorial plaza at the entrance.
The park was redeveloped as a part of the Planting 10-million Trees of Life (also called Trees of Life Campaign) project. The project was organized by both city and administrative districts of Seoul to achieve six goals: Greening neighborhoods, preserving and creating an urban greenbelt, reforesting barren lands and edges of natural parks, enhancing citizen participation, promoting a green maintenance system, and establishing a Green policy. Forty-seven urban outdoor spaces, which include urban parks, ecological parks, pedestrian walkways, gardens, pocket parks, public plazas, and roof gardens were introduced.
Location: 38-1 Jongro2-ga, Jongro-ku, Seoul, South Korea.
Developer: Seoan Consortium
Contributed by Eui-je Lim, PhD.

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