The Symbol of Reconstruction in Gangnam: Seoul Passes Plan to Reconstruct Eunma Apartment into a Complex with Buildings up to 35 Stories Tall

A complete view of Eunma Apartment in Daechi-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul. Su Sung-il

The reconstruction of Eunma Apartment in Daechi-dong, which has been the symbol of reconstruction in Gangnam, Seoul, passed a review by the Seoul metropolitan government 19 years after the project was launched. The construction of Eunma Apartment was completed in 1979, and the complex has represented old apartment complexes in Gangnam. Eunma will be redeveloped into a massive complex with 5,778 apartments in buildings up to 35 stories tall.

On October 19, the city of Seoul announced that it passed revisions to the reconstruction plan for Eunma Apartment in Gangnam-gu in the eleventh meeting of the Urban Planning Committee. The city passed the reconstruction plan 19 years after an organization was established to promote the reconstruction and five years after the reconstruction plan was first submitted to the Urban Planning Committee. Eunma Apartment was built more than four decades ago. Apartment owners first began promoting reconstruction in the early 2000s, but failed to obtain the city’s approval due to safety problems.

Now that the Seoul Urban Planning Committee has passed the latest maintenance plan, Eunma Apartment will be born anew as a complex with 5,778 apartments in 33 buildings as tall as 35 stories. The complex will also include 678 public housing apartments. The building-to-land ratio will be 50% or less, and the floor-area ratio must be 250% or less. According to the Seoul Urban Planning Committee, the complex will include shared streets (for pedestrians and cars), a neighborhood park and a cultural park as public contributions. Public offices such as a police branch office, will also be located in the new apartment complex.

Eunma Apartment has been regarded as a symbol of Gangnam reconstruction. There were movements to reconstruct the complex since the mid-1990s, but homeowners began to take real action after a reconstruction committee was established in 2003. In 2010, the complex received a conditional approval for reconstruction in a detailed safety examination.

The reconstruction committee submitted a reconstruction plan including 49-story buildings in August 2017, but the city refused to review the plan due to the 35-story restriction. Meanwhile, conflicts among residents on the reconstruction method intensified, leading to lawsuits.

After Oh Se-hoon was inaugurated as the mayor of Seoul, the reconstruction regulations were eased, adding momentum to the Eunma reconstruction project. The reconstruction committee submitted the revised plan with buildings up to 35-stories tall to the Seoul metropolitan government in February. A subcommittee in the Seoul Urban Planning Committee advised another review of the building arrangements in the west side of the complex in August.

Eunma Apartment, which is now in the process of establishing a reconstruction association, will have to undergo a construction review by the city after it is established. A representative of the city government said, “By establishing a maintenance plan that goes in harmony with neighboring living spaces, we will also improve the residential environment of adjacent areas,” and added, “We expect this to add momentum to the future reconstruction projects in Gangnam-gu.”