Heritage:
JP/P.J. Leo
The building on Jl. Teuku Umar in Menteng, Central Jakarta, which formerly served as the immigration office during the early years of independence, is now home to the Bistro Boulevard restaurant. It was built in 1913 and was neglected for years before taken over by a private company.

The Jakarta administration should buy historical buildings, especially those which have been abandoned, in the Menteng area of Central Jakarta to save them from being torn down by their owners, an urban analyst says.

Marco Kusumawijaya of the Rujak Center for Urban Studies said as the number of heritage buildings in the area decreased, the administration should move quickly to protect them. “They can buy the buildings, the neglected ones, and turn them into their offices or duty houses for some of the staffers,” he said in a discussion on the preservation of historical buildings in Menteng.

Besides buying some of the buildings, he said that the administration could also set up a program that provided funds for the preservation of some heritage properties. “The administration could start by giving the start-up capital, and then they could ask private entities to join in.”

He said that owners’ inability to pay high maintenance fees and taxes had forced them to sell their homes, which in turn led to an acceleration in the number of buildings that were remodeled into modern styles.

Adolf Heuken, the author of several books on Jakarta’s history and heritage, said that the decreasing number of heritage buildings caused the area lose its classical status.  “Look at the building on Jl. Cilacap that is in the process of being changed into a hotel. The area will no longer be a quiet residential place,” he said, referring to a two-story building that was once the office of the Central Indonesian National Committee (KNIP) and the Education and Culture Ministry.

Heuken added that the building was once listed in Category A, meaning that it could not be torn down. “It’s a historical building, the design was the only one of its kind, and the structure was still strong too.”     

However, the Jakarta Construction Supervision and Regulation Agency (P2B) said that the building was listed in Category B that the construction was allowed as long as its external structure was maintained.

Due to their specific styles, the administration protected buildings in Menteng under the 1999 Bylaw on the Preservation and Utilization of Heritage Buildings.

Many buildings in the area have been altered with more modern styles, and some have even been changed into offices and restaurants.  

The city lost a historic building, when the iconic house located on the corner of Jl. Cik Di Tiro and Jl. Ki Mangunsarkoro was torn down. It was often rented out as a location for films and sinetron (soap operas), including The Big Village and Dunia Tanpa Koma (World without Comas).

Menteng, founded as a housing complex for society’s well-to-do in 1908, was the first thoroughly planned urban area in Indonesia and many of its houses were built in the Dutch Indische Woonhuizen (Indies Residence) style.