Part of Historic Building, Meant to Be Preserved, Destroyed After Miscommunication

Part of a historic building, meant to be saved from demolition and recognized as a heritage site, has been bulldozed thanks to a miscommunication. 

The Hanoi People’s Committee had previously decided to knock the building down in order to construct a new ring road. According toDan Tri, many in the capital had expressed a desire for the building to be restored, leading the committee to alter its plans. Local experts, architects and town planners all petitioned for the building to be saved. 

The elegant two-story house at 128C Dai La Street features archetypal red roof tiles, egg-yolk facades and is of significant historical importance. Once a French radio transmission station, the villa was the first home of the radio station The Voice of Vietnam.

On September 7, 1945, its first broadcast proclaimed its own birth, as well as the independence of Vietnam: “This is The Voice of Vietnam, broadcasting from Hanoi, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.”

At 11:30am on that day, Duong Thi Ngan read out the Vietnamese Declaration of Independence given by Ho Chi Minh at Ba Dinh Square just five days prior. This announcement, which reached all people throughout the country, and even many countries worldwide, began with the phrase, “All men are created equal...”

According to recent reports from Tuoi Tre, preservation experts and city officials met on February 10 to discuss the proposal to preserve the building. 

Due to a communication error, the building's owner, a private company, had already begun demolishing a section of the building on February 9. The company said they hadn't received any orders not to destroy it. The only thing they have on paper is the request to bulldoze the building to make space for the new ring road. 

While officials were able to halt the destruction, a large section of the building has already been flattened, as can be seen in numerous photos in the Tuoi Tre article. It is yet to be decided how efforts to preserve the building will continue.