good news!!!! they found a contractor and it will definitely be built!!!
http://taiwantoday.tw/ct.asp?xitem=78764&CtNode=416
Bidder selected for Taichung opera house
Bidder selected for Taichung opera houseAn artist's impression of the Taichung Metropolitan Opera House. (Courtesy of Taichung City Government)
* Publication Date:11/18/2009
* Source: China Times
Work on Taichung’s long-awaited Metropolitan Opera House is set to begin following the city government’s unveiling of local firm Lee Ming Construction as winning bidder for the project.
“Once completed, Taichung Metropolitan will be a landmark structure on par with Australia’s Sydney Opera House,” said Taichung Mayor Jason Hu Nov. 17.
The 2,013-seat Grand Theater is expected to cost NT$4.36 billion (US$135 million) and will take just over four years to complete. Featuring a beamless design and irregular curved walls, the structure is the brainchild of Japanese architect Toyo Ito, whose work on the Kaohsiung Main Stadium attracted worldwide praise.
Originally set to open this year, the opera house is now on track for a December 2013 ribbon-cutting. According to Taichung City officials, the project was put up for bid five times over the past several years but failed to attract suitable tenders due to associated engineering challenges.
Downplaying the delay, Hu said work on the Sydney Opera House took an extra 15 years and ran 10 times over budget.
The mayor predicts Taichung’s opera house will be an architectural marvel that leaves visitors awestruck. “Ito’s design has no main construction surface in the building level except the floor,” Hu said. “The continuous double-curved surface has left many foreign and domestic construction companies scratching their heads.”
A spokesman from Domino Architects and Associates, Ito’s project partner in Taiwan, said Lee Ming Construction has won praise from Japanese experts for its construction techniques and attention to detail. “The company performed two trials earlier that were positively evaluated.”
Wu Chun-shan, president of Lee Ming Construction, said building such a structure containing three-dimensional curved walls was generally thought impossible. “But we are making the impossible possible.” (PCT-JSM)