Gyeonggi Province's New Gwanggyo Provincial Office Set to Become Comprehensive Administrative Town

The new Gyeonggi Provincial Office to be relocated to Gwanggyo New City will be built as a comprehensive administrative town format rather than a complex building, it has been learned.

In pursuit of this, Gyeonggi Province has proposed that the Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education move into the new provincial office, marking a new phase in the Gwanggyo relocation project for the provincial headquarters.

On the 21st, a Gyeonggi Province official stated, "The Gwanggyo Provincial Office will not be a complex building; instead, we are pursuing a method of complex development in the surrounding area."

The province's sudden shift in the provincial office construction plan from a complex building to a comprehensive administrative town where administrative and educational government offices share occupancy is interpreted as consideration for shortening the construction period and improving business convenience.

A provincial official explained, "If we proceed as a complex building as currently planned, we could face bottlenecks in construction timeline and implementation momentum. We can build the office as an office building and create cultural and welfare spaces next to the office to enhance the synergy effects of the complex building."

The province has pursued construction of the Gwanggyo Provincial Office as an innovative building centered on the keywords of "innovation and communication" since Governor Nam Kyung-pil took office, and it was planned as a complex building format in which cultural spaces for communication with residents, cafes, and other convenience facilities would be co-located.

To this end, while collecting foreign examples from Greece, Japan, and the United States, and considering that the newly designed office of 3 basement floors and 25 above-ground stories could be criticized as authoritarian and extravagant, various options including lengthening the structure were also considered.

Meanwhile, Gyeonggi Province Governor Nam Kyung-pil informally met with Gyeonggi Provincial Superintendent of Education Lee Jae-jeong, who attended an extraordinary session of the Gyeonggi Provincial Assembly on the 20th, proposing "let the office of education also move into the new Gyeonggi Provincial Office together," and Superintendent Lee reportedly responded, "Let me think about it."

In 2009, the Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education had planned to relocate to the administrative town in Gwanggyo New City, Suwon, as demand for teacher training increased, and planned to convert the vacant office into a training center. However, it abandoned the relocation and built a training center in Icheon instead.

As the finalization of the roadmap for the new provincial office construction has been delayed, the original target of beginning construction in November this year has been postponed to the second half of next year. As the new provincial office construction is expected to take at least 3 to 5 years to complete, the original goal of completion in December 2018 is also expected to be further postponed.

After gathering opinions from Gwanggyo New City residents, the province plans to officially announce the new roadmap for Gwanggyo Provincial Office construction on the 30th.