After nearly eight years of work, the Yilan Branch of the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency (FANCA Yilan) completed the historical and cultural survey, restoration work, landscape design and operational preparations of the Japanese-style wooden longhouse complex at Luodong Forestry Culture Park. After the restoration was completed, the operating rights were awarded to the Starbucks Coffee Company (Starbucks) through public tender. The Starbucks Forestry Culture Park Store officially opened today (7/23), attracting members of the public to visit, shop, and take photos. This is the first Starbucks store in Taiwan to be located in a century-old forestry station. This historical building complex, featuring five buildings and seven spaces, has finally entered a new stage of revitalization and reuse after sitting idle over the years. According to Starbucks’ official website, the store officially opened at 9:00 AM on July 23, at the address No. 1, Lane 124, Zhongzheng North Road, Luodong Township, Yilan County.The Luodong Forestry Culture Park was formerly the Luodong Branch Forestry Office of the Taiwan Government-General, which began operating in 1924. It was an important base for the transportation, storage, and distribution of timber in Taipingshan. The site was registered as a Cultural Landscape in 2012 as “Luodong Forestry Station” under the preservation category of “Industrial Landscape.” The revitalized building complex includes five buildings with seven spaces, comprising a guesthouse, laundry facilities, small rooms, a wooden longhouse, and a brick warehouse. These buildings were not constructed all at once, but rather gradually added on to meet the accommodation, living, and service needs of the forestry station across different eras. It is a historical record of the lives of forestry station workers spanning the Japanese colonial period to the post-war period.The wooden longhouse complex is located along the northern perimeter of the park, between the north entrance service area, the living landscape area, and the administrative area, adjacent to Zhongzheng North Road and the surrounding residential area. It is an important facade of the park facing the urban hub of Luodong. According to the park’s zoning plan, this space is not the core area for industrial landscape and cultural and historical exhibitions. Therefore, the FANCA Yilan chose to introduce appropriate lifestyle services while not compromising the core preservation and display functions, allowing the long-vacant buildings to be reopened for use. The FANCA Yilan also made improvements to the north entrance of the park, the pedestrian environment, and the urban landscape.During the process of attracting tenants and coordinating signage design, the FANCA Yilan shared the common goal of “integrating the brand into the cultural landscape” with the operations team. As can be seen from the completed storefront, the entrance signage is on a smaller scale and uses side lighting to avoid creating an overly prominent structure. The brand lettering and various signs on the wooden longhouse are designed around wood materials and low color saturation, echoing the tones of the original wooden structure, clapboard siding, porch, and courtyards. This allows the brand elements to blend naturally into the old structures, old trees, and forest landscape, such that the century-old cultural landscape remains the visual focus of the overall space.This achievement did not come about through a short-term renovation. Since 2018, the FANCA Yilan has proactively sought funding from the Ministry of Culture to carry out restoration and reuse projects, conduct cultural and historical research, and establish a forestry culture database for the Lanyang (Yilan) region; the promotion of restoration design and cultural heritage reviews started in 2019, and the FANCA actively proposed their inclusion in the “Luodong Forestry Culture Park 2020-2025 Medium and Long-Term Plan” approved by the Executive Yuan. Construction began in 2023 and was completed in 2024. From 2025 to 2026, the project saw the completion of the operating permit, surrounding landscaping, indoor micro-exhibition curation, financial assessment, public tenders, and leasing and operational preparations, a collaborative effort that took almost eight years to complete.The restoration project started with old maps, aerial photographs, architectural structural plans, and historical documents to preserve architectural features such as kyōro-gumi roof truss, orioriki-gumi framing, komai-kabe bamboo-and-mud wall, saobuchi-tenjo ceiling, copper tiles, smoked silver-black clay tiles, and clapboard siding. Additional installations included structural reinforcement, water mist fire suppression system, accessible pathways, gender-friendly toilets, and drainage improvements to ensure that the historical building meets the needs of contemporary public use. The project utilized approximately 75% domestic timber. In addition to repurposing existing Taiwan cypress structural components, it also reused Taiwan cypress driftwood from Taipingshan sourced from the park’s onsite log yard, thereby implementing carbon reduction, resource conservation, and the preservation of traditional craftsmanship.The restoration of the wooden longhouse complex won the Outstanding Work Category under the Ministry of Agriculture’s 2025 Excellent Agricultural Construction Project Award and the Gold Award under the Heritage Category of the FIABCI-Taiwan Real Estate Excellence Awards in 2026. The surrounding landscape also won an Honorable Mention in the Cultural and Urban Landscape Category of the 13th Taiwan Landscape Awards of the Taiwan Institute of Landscape Architects. All aspects of the project, from the building itself, traditional construction methods, and fire safety to the creation of a cultural landscape, have won recognition from professional judges.Starbucks has long used “sharing more stories with you while you enjoy a cup of coffee” as its philosophy for its signature stores, incorporating old buildings, local materials and community culture to shape the store experience in different cities and locations. The Luodong Forestry Culture Park store continues this philosophy, using contemporary services as an entry point for the public to understand forestry culture.In addition to coffee service, the independent exhibition space (converted from a small laundry room) located to the right of the store entrance also features “Tadao Kano’s Mountain Adventures,” a micro-exhibition on natural history curated by Hsueh Hung-Pin. The exhibition focuses on the former Luodong Forestry Station’s role as a key transport hub to Taipingshan, presenting the mountain travels and nature surveys of naturalist Tadao Kano. The story of Tadao Kano’s 1926 encounter with the aurora swallowtail butterfly in the Kōshiro-dani Valley of Taipingshan, where he described its silhouette as a “pink-tinted dream,” is used to connect the century-long natural history of the Luodong Forestry Station, the forestry railway, and Taipingshan.The exhibition recreates the scenes of the naturalist’s investigations a century ago with artifacts and replicas from the same period. Items on display include butterfly specimens, Leica I cameras, telescopes, maps, collection tools, insect collection boxes, and travel documents. Among them, Tadao Kano’s book Mountains, Clouds and Aboriginal People has been painstakingly reproduced based on the first edition published by the publishing house Chuokoron-Shinsha in 1941. From the burlap cover and binding to the layout, each detail has been meticulously replicated, allowing the public to learn about the journeys of this young naturalist who ventured into the high mountains of Taiwan and his records of nature and culture through books and artifacts.The store also draws inspiration from the Luodong Forestry Station, the forestry railway, and Yilan products. Themed merchandise that have been launched include a 41oz teddy bear train conductor water bottle, a wood-grain stainless steel cup with the Starbucks goddess logo, a mini teddy bear in a train conductor outfit, and mini teddy bears shaped like Sanxing scallion and bamboo shoots. These merchandise transform the imagery of train conductors, wood textures, and representative agricultural products of Yilan into local memories that consumers can take home, showcasing the connection of an international brand with local forestry culture and lifestyle.The “Tadao Kano’s Mountain Adventures” micro-exhibition and related operating spaces will fall under the store’s operation and maintenance scope, with the operation team responsible for daily management, cleaning, and display maintenance in accordance with the contract. The FANCA Yilan will continue to supervise the preservation of cultural assets, overall management of the park, and promotion of forestry culture, ensuring that historical buildings can also be used sustainably under stable management after restoration.The FANCA Yilan stated that the preservation of cultural heritage does not mean sealing off old buildings, but rather allowing them to be reused and seen again while respecting history. The opening of the Starbucks Luodong Forestry Culture Park store is not the end of the restoration work, but a new starting point for the sustainable management of historical buildings. We hope that visitors will not only come here to shop and take photos, but also explore the micro natural history exhibition, observe architectural details, and gain a deeper understanding of the story of Luodong Forestry Station and the development of forestry in Taipingshan.In the future, the FANCA Yilan will continue to promote the revitalization of buildings in the park in accordance with forestry conservation policies, so as to closely integrate forestry culture, green conservation, small farmers, forest manufacturing, environmental education, and placemaking. Furthermore, connect the natural and cultural resources of Luodong Forestry Culture Park, Taipingshan, and the Yilan area, so that the century-old forestry station will not only get to preserve its history, but also continue to become a part of people’s contemporary lifestyle.
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