Word: vietnam
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...appreciates that more than the Vietnamese, who consider the city their cultural and intellectual wellspring. The challenge is to save it from its own creative destruction. In the frenzy to modernize the capital of what Vietnam's leaders hope will be Asia's next economic ``tiger,'' Hanoi is beginning to take on the more disturbing qualities of Bangkok, Taipei or Seoul. Historic shop houses and old temples are being pulled down to make way for chrome-and-glass hotels and offices--monuments to raw capitalism. Where the leafy streets were once blessedly quiet, they now reverberate with the rumble...
Hanoi's crisis is not just a race between urban planners and entrepreneurial developers. It is also about redefining Vietnam, in the words of Deputy Foreign Minister Le Mai, ``as a country, not a war.'' Established in 1010 during the Ly dynasty, Hanoi remained an unremarkable place until the turn of the last century, when France sent its best architects to what had become its richest colony. They designed grand theaters and government buildings, using the same proportional guidelines that gave Paris such remarkable balance in size and form, though French liberals of the time groused over ``la folie...
...have saved the city. With miraculously few scars from the 36,000 tons of U.S. ordnance that fell during the 1972 Christmas bombing, economically backward Vietnam missed the boom that swept the rest of Asia during the 1980s. When the government announced an economic- reform program in 1989, Hanoi stood out as a place with relatively little industry and few cars, clean air and no traffic. Though neglected, architectural gems like the Ecole Francaise d'Extreme Orient and the former Bank of Indochina were resurrectable. ``For anyone interested in architectural questions, Hanoi is where the action is because there...
...means clear that they will, though. Outside investment has pushed both ways. Dozens of spacious villas in the old French quarter have been restored to their original splendor by foreign companies eager to establish offices from which to cash in on Vietnam's 9% annual growth rate. Demand for commercial and residential space has pushed rents to Hong Kong and Tokyo levels. As a result, many investors would rather replace the old three-story buildings with office towers. Late last year Hanoians looked on in wonder as demolition crews razed the historic--though architecturally undistinguished--prison known as the ``Hanoi...
...Vietnam's first businessman mayor, Nghien intends to run Hanoi with the same determination he used to build the country's biggest electronics conglomerate, Hanel Co. Amid great fanfare last fall, officials rolled out the city's first master plan in nearly a century. It aims to preserve Hanoi's historic center with strict height restrictions on new buildings. As in Paris and London, modern office towers and apartment blocks will be pushed to the outskirts of town. The plan, which has yet to be implemented, also provides for new regulations governing sewage treatment and power generation, details that have...