rss feedWant to restore Bruce Lee’s Hong Kong house? Registration ends Aug. 31
Hong Kong officials are asking for design plans to turn Bruce Lee's house into a memorial and tourist attraction. Photo source: BaronRock flickr account
Architects around the world and ordinary people are pulling their best design ideas together following this week’s call for entries to restore Bruce Lee’s former house in Hong Kong.
Hong Kong officials and Yu Pang-Lin, the property owner, announced the competition Monday, the 36th anniversary of the international martial arts star’s death, according to a statement from the region’s Commerce and Economic Development Bureau.
Competition guidelines call for the original facade and layout of Lee’s two-story house at No. 41 Cumberland Road Kowloon Tong to be respected. The plan also calls for an exhibition hall, library, audio-visual room and a “kung fu” corner.
Officials did not release information regarding the estimated budget or say who would cover the costs.
Yu is donating the approximately 5,600-square-foot house and property to the Hong Kong government. Lee lived at the house until he passed away at the age of 32 on July 20, 1973, according to the competition Web site.
The site includes a YouTube video link showing the house’s interior.
Interested parties must register by Aug. 31 and submit their plans by Oct. 15. Entries will be accepted in English and Chinese.
A seven-member jury including Lee’s daughter, Shannon, will select the winning entry. The competition results are expected to be announced in November or December with an awards ceremony scheduled for next year.
The Hong Kong Commerce and Economic Development Bureau explained that the competition is designed to recognize Lee’s exceptional martial arts skills and film career, as well as turn the location into a tourist destination.
Hong Kong officials plan to make at least two films about Lee, including one documenting the restoration project, and would like to show them inside the new building.
The Associated Press reported that the house is the site of a love motel.
Judges will pick the winning proposal based on design creativity and feasibility, project advisor Bernard Lim said in a statement. Design harmony with the neighborhood also is a factor.
Competition officials reserve the right not to use any aspect of a plan.
Professional architects, interior designers, landscape architects, planners and surveyors can submit proposals in one category. Members of the public can file proposals in another competition category.
The professional category carries a first-place cash price of $50,000 HK dollars, or about $6,450 US dollars. The first-place prize for the public category is a trophy.
Lee once lived in Seattle, Wash. and is buried at Lake View Cemetery, which is in the city.
Last year, the Lee family unveiled plans to build a Bruce Lee Action Museum in Seattle, a structure that could cost up to $50 million and occupy an entire city block.
Before a Seattle ceremony to mark the 35th anniversary of his death, Shannon Lee, his daughter, explained that her dad loved the West Coast city.
“His happiest times were from his time spent in Seattle,” she said.
He met his wife, Linda Lee Cadwell, in Seattle and also opened his first training studio in the city’s International District, which includes Chinatown. Their first date was at the Space Needle restaurant.
While Lee is known for his role as Kato, the fighting chauffeur, in the 1960s television series, The Green Hornet, his widow said in an interview last year that she wants him also to be remembered for his love of Eastern and Western philosophy.
Lee consistently demonstrated fast and superior skills, particularly when he used his own special style of martial arts. It was called Jeet Kune Do, which translates into “Way of the Intercepting Fist.”
His widow last year recalled that his own studying broadened his outlook. While martial arts were part of her husband’s life, she said he developed his own philosophy and realized that fighting was not always necessary.
Several of his former students still live in the Seattle area. His first student, Jesse Glover, attended last year’s Seattle memorial for Lee.
To learn more about Lee, visit his official Web site, which includes video, or his foundation Web site.
To see photos and a video of Shaolin-trained monks perform martial arts at the University of Washington, click here.
