Seoul City and Government Clash Over High-rise Plans Near Jongmyo Shrine
Conflict continues between Seoul City and the central government over the plan to construct high-rise buildings up to 142m in height in the Sewoon District 4 area in front of Jongmyo Shrine. While the central government raises the possibility of losing World Cultural Heritage status, Seoul City dismisses this as “unfounded concern,” with both sides maintaining parallel positions. Looking at overseas cases, UNESCO’s emphasis on “visual integrity” appears to be the key factor.
According to the UNESCO World Heritage Committee and other sources on the 24th, UNESCO places the highest importance on “Outstanding Universal Value” (OUV) when selecting World Cultural Heritage sites. This means the site must have overwhelming global value and possess cultural and historical significance for people worldwide, not just for specific ethnic groups or nations. To preserve OUV, UNESCO requires “Visual Integrity,” which means maintaining the landscape, urban context, and visual background that the heritage site possesses.
The controversy surrounding the redevelopment of Sewoon District 4 in front of Jongmyo ultimately depends on the extent to which visual integrity would be compromised. There have been several cases where World Cultural Heritage status was revoked due to violations of visual integrity.
The most notable example is Liverpool’s “Liverpool – Maritime Mercantile City” in the United Kingdom. The Maritime Mercantile City, inscribed as a World Cultural Heritage site in 2004, was added to the List of World Heritage in Danger in 2012 due to the “Liverpool Waters” development project and was removed from the list in 2021. Liverpool Waters was a 30-year project to develop Liverpool’s north docks into an ultra-high-rise, commercial, and residential complex, completely transforming the 19th-century industrial landscape into a modern high-rise skyline. When the ultra-high-rise skyline visually overwhelmed the old dock landscape, UNESCO determined that visual integrity had collapsed and decided to cancel the inscription. Although the British government and Liverpool City lowered the height of some high-rise buildings and submitted impact assessment reports, these measures were not accepted.
The Historic Centre of Vienna in Austria is currently on the List of World Heritage in Danger. Austria announced plans for the “Vienna Ice Skating Club-InterContinental Hotel” project, which includes constructing high-rise towers up to 75m in height. UNESCO had highly valued the medieval to Habsburg Empire period architecture and urban structure of this World Heritage site, considering the historic urban landscape as its core value, but assessed that visual integrity and the “authenticity of the city” were damaged by high-rise development.
Conversely, there are considerable cases where World Heritage inscription was maintained despite high-rise building development. In most cases, while UNESCO expressed concerns about development, central governments and local governments modified and coordinated development plans, lowering building heights and receiving positive evaluations for maintaining visual integrity.
The Banks of the Seine in France is a representative example. Paris had long maintained a height restriction of approximately 37m, but around 2010, it announced plans to relax height limits to 180m for outlying areas, causing UNESCO to express concerns. Particularly when the Triangle Tower was planned at 180m height, it was assessed as threatening to compromise visual integrity. In response to continued criticism, Paris thoroughly separated high-rise buildings outside the heritage district and strengthened view axis protection plans. By scaling down some high-rise projects and maintaining “historic landscape preservation” as urban policy, it received positive evaluations for maintaining visual integrity.
Cologne Cathedral in Germany was also a case that was added to the “List of World Heritage in Danger” and later removed. Initially, Germany pursued a redevelopment project to construct high-rise buildings up to 160m in height across from Cologne Cathedral. When UNESCO raised concerns, Germany completely withdrew the 160m tower plan and lowered heights from 120m to around 75m. They relocated the position to move away from the cathedral’s view axis and designed new urban planning with fixed height restrictions.
Seoul City maintains that the Sewoon District development is outside the heritage area and poses no problems for development, considering views and other factors. A Seoul City official explained, “There is no objective evidence that Sewoon District development damages Jongmyo’s OUV,” adding, “High-rise buildings have already existed around (Jongmyo) for 30 years, and external building views are partially blocked from inside Jongmyo.”