The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced that it has completed the creation of a 7,750-square-meter street forest garden in the Guro-gu area, marking the first milestone of the Garden Valley Project, which aims to transform the G-Valley (Guro and Gasan Digital Complexes)—an area previously lacking parks and green spaces—into an industrial complex where young people want to stay.

Although G-Valley is a major hub for employment with a high concentration of companies, it has faced criticism for a lack of green spaces where workers can rest or spend time.

The Garden Valley Project is an initiative to turn G-Valley into a green industrial complex by 2030. The city plans to create a total of 100,000 square meters of green space, including 40,140 square meters of street forest gardens and 60,900 square meters of shared gardens.

The street forest garden in Guro-gu is the first change under the Garden Valley Project, with a total of 183,600 plants installed across six sections, including Digital-ro.

The planting includes trees and shrubs such as zelkova, panicle hydrangea, golden spindle, and blue angel, as well as flowering plants like gaura, speedwell, and hosta. Large trees were placed in areas with wider pedestrian paths, while shrubs and flowering plants were arranged in narrower sections.

The Seoul Metropolitan Government plans to begin construction on 10,410 square meters of street forest gardens across five roads in the Gasan Digital 1-ro area of Geumcheon-gu in the second half of this year, with completion scheduled for November.

Next year, the city plans to add another 21,980 square meters of street forest gardens across nine roads in Guro-gu and Geumcheon-gu.

Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon visited the street forest garden and the site for the shared garden in the Digital-ro area of Guro-gu this afternoon to inspect the progress and meet with young workers and citizens in G-Valley.

Previously, Mayor Oh visited the area in December last year and expressed regret over the lack of greenery, promising, "I will secure green spaces that citizens can enjoy together and transform this into an environment where people can work with joy."

Mayor Oh introduced the project today, stating, "The Garden Valley Project is a new urban innovation project that transforms industrial complexes from mere workspaces into green spaces where citizens can stay, walk, rest, and enjoy vitality in their daily lives."

He added, "By expanding gardens and green spaces in phases until 2030, we will transform G-Valley, once a symbol of a gray city, into a representative green industrial complex of Seoul and a landmark space for Seoul as a world-class garden city."

(Photo: Provided by Seoul Metropolitan Government, Yonhap News)