Drawings and photographic material, Statue Square (1965–1966), Hong Kong 香港皇后像廣場（1956至1966年）繪圖及影像資料

W. Szeto & Partners’ design for Statue Square, led by Alan Fitch, was the result of a joint 1965 commission by the Hong Kong government and the Hong Kong Shanghai Bank. A British architect, Fitch also designed the new City Hall just off the square beginning in 1966.

Statue Square is set on a plot of land reclaimed from Victoria Harbour in the late nineteenth century. The square’s name refers to its statues of British monarchs and colonial administrators, most of which were removed during the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong in the 1940s. Fitch’s design for Statue Square intended to re-establish a connection between an existing but newly invigorated public space and the waterfront, especially the Queen’s Pier. The plan weaves an array of rectangular pools and lush green spaces into multiple levels of paving, creating a three-dimensional fabric of circulation and seating areas. A set of pavilions marked by abstracted traditional sweeping roofs provides additional spatial depth, as well as shade and cover.

Tapping into 1960s discourses of horizontal, connective, mat-like arrangements, Fitch’s design defines a civic outdoor space that resulted from a new era in colonial government and that responded to a rapidly densifying mid-century Hong Kong. Queen’s Pier was demolished in 2007 to allow additional land reclamation, leaving Statue Square without its urban anchor. Still, the square remains an important leisure space within the city (most famously for the Filipina domestic workers who gather there on Sundays).