Architectural gems are disappearing across Vietnam

Heritage groups try to catalog sites as preservation fails

Once an architectural gem emblematic of Vietnam’s era as a French colony, the Tax Trade Center with its iconic Art Deco facade is now mostly rubble.

Despite a petition drive spearheaded by a growing historic preservation movement, the building was demolished in recent months. In its place, developers plan a 43- story complex with a connection to the first subway line in the city.

The tax center, built in 1924, is one of many historic buildings in the past 20 years that have been razed or severely altered, according to a joint French- Vietnamese government research center.

Preservationists say developers and government officials are intent on making this city modern and care little for the vestiges of its colonial past. But destroying so many historic buildings, they warn, makes the city less livable and less attractive to tourists — which could undercut economic growth.

“The more people get caught up in a consumerist lifestyle, the more difficult it is to address what are considered ‘ luxury’ concerns like heritage preservation,” said architect Tran Huu Khoa, 27, a leader of the petition drive that couldn’t save the Tax Trade Center. “But I’m optimistic that a strong civil movement is growing in Vietnam.”

The Heritage Observatory website launched in late January, open to anyone who wants to call attention to any threatened historical building in any Vietnamese city. The information will be relayed to government and civil groups who could intervene.

The government has no such system in place.

“We cannot preserve or protect anything if we don’t know where it is,” said Daniel Caune, the French software developer behind the website, who has worked in Vietnam for seven years.

Caune is also developing an iPhone app that would prompt users to take photos of heritage sites they visit, simultaneously educating them and using geolocation to place the sites on a map.

Kevin Doan, an architect in Ho Chi Minh City who is an organizer of Heritage Observatory events, said food shortages and housing were the main concerns after the war ended.

“Now that the economy has opened up and people of the older generation have some money, they consider building a new house to be a big improvement,” he said. “But more and more young people are registering for heritage preservation organizations” — despite the risks of associated with openly opposing their government.

Vietnam’s century- old French villas and colonial- era government buildings are a draw for the 8 million tourists who visit the country every year.

“Even in France we don’t have so many examples of the beautiful wrought- iron railings and staircases that you see here,” said French Consul General Emmanuel Ly- Batallan.

Protests and petitions often have little effect, particularly when the developer is wealthy. The Ba Son Shipyard, built in 1790 for the Vietnamese royal navy, was demolished in 2015, even though it had been designated a national heritage site.

It was sold to private corporations for development. A riverside complex with luxury housing surrounded by a park, a cultural center and a transportation hub is under construction where it used to stand. Multiple 60- story skyscrapers also are planned.

The petition to save the Tax Trade Center, which garnered 3,500 signatures, gained enough attention that developers promised to save certain elements of the building and add them to the façade of the new skyscraper.

ALEANDRE GAREL The Ba Son Shipyard undergoes demolition in 2015. The shipyard still had many original French workshop buildings.