In the next four years, the Ministry of Culture will spend $20 million to remodel the Antigua Aduana (old Customs Warehouse).  This was formerly used to clear freight import from Costa Rica’s ports by rail.  The Minister of Culture, Guido Sáenz, confirmed Wednesday that in January of 2006, the rebuilding of the structure will begin. 

The project is widely supported in the Legislative Assembly and the Interamerican Development Bank will fund the project. The reconstruction is inspired in France’s Parc  la Villette in Paris. The Parc de la Villette was developed as part of an urban renewal plan on the site the former national meat market and slaughterhouse.  According to galinsky.com "Tschumi won a competition for the design of Paris’ largest park in 1982.

Related to his theoretical work on ‘event space’, his proposal for a distinctly urban park called for the deployment of a number of abstract, programless structures, dubbed ‘follies’. It was intended that the bright red structures would then house various events and groups related to the activities of the park. Many do just that, but not all, and not always the activities envisaged.

The design questions the conventional conception of a park as green open space. While there is plenty of grass here, the ‘natural’ park is clearly designed to express the fact that it is artificial, domesticated. Several thematic gardens are incorporated into the scheme, offering places of discovery and unexpected encounters and juxtapositions between seemingly natural and man-made artifacts."

The Costa Rican version will host cultural shows, fairs, expositions, recreational areas and will have parking for 400 cars.  In spite of the high cost and the fact that Minister Sáenz will be out of office in a few months, he insists that the project is a done deal. "La Aduana will pay for itself in the long term, from rentals generated by the activities. ", he said.

The project is backed by the French Embassy, and several private sector enterprises, who will sponsor it with money and technical assistance.