Bukit Timah Shopping Centre
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singapore tropicana Bukit Timah Shopping Centre Chee Soon Wah Chartered Architects 170 Upper Bukit Timah Road built in 1981 in use “When Bukit Timah Shopping Centre first opened in 1978, my family would find every excuse to go there on weekends. What we liked was how big it seemed, and the air-con. There were so many things to look at, though not necessarily to buy.” - Retired nurse Irene Yap, 68 (http://ourstory.asia1.com.sg/dream/life/ref/mall.html) 1 singapore tropicana Jurong Town Hall Architect Team 3 Jurong Town Hall Road built in 1974 in use “It was actually very well thought up strategically and practically because Singapo- reans at that time, even Singaporeans in those days, were not very confident of our economic future. The World Bank, of course, thought that we couldn’t survive if we are outside Malaysia. So, we have to show the people things were moving, jobs were being created.” - Mr HWANG Peng Yuan, Chairman of EDB (1982-1986), explaining how then Minister of Finance and “Father of Jurong” Dr Goh Keng Swee publicised factory openings in Jurong Town to helped inspire confidence in both locals and foreigners in Singapore’s economic potential. 2 singapore tropicana National Stadium Kenzo Tange 15 Stadium Road built in 1973 demolished june 2007 “Every time when we trooped out into the National Stadium, you can get this Kallang Roar...the fans cheering us, it was full house....That kind of feeling, I think I cannot describe,” - Former national team striker Quah Kim Song. 3 singapore tropicana Oasis Restaurant Pan Malaysian Group Architects 50 Stadium Road built in 1969 demolished The Oasis restaurant is one of the first sale sites launched by URA as part of the first government land sale programme (GLS) in 1967. As part of urban renewal for a nascent city state, GLS performed land acquisition and resale of land parcels to private sector developers by tender on a typically 99-year leasehold basis to achieve its planning objectives within a set time-frame. 4 singapore tropicana Old School (Formerly: Methodist Girls School, MGS) Pan Malaysian Group Architects 11 Mount Sophia built in 1928 bordered up Ascending the one hundered steps to get to their schools was a precarious journey for former MGS girls, Up the steep slope from Handy Road, Old School is nested on a hill, described as a truly magical and heavenly place with a magnificent view of Eu Villa, grand bungalows and mansions, paticularly around Adis and Wilkie Roads and the rest of the fast growing city. Away from the hustle and bustle of the city, every nook and corner of Old school contained unique memories to every single individual MGS girls. http://thelongnwindingroad.wordpress.com/2011/03/01/one-hundred-steps-to- heaven/ 5 singapore tropicana Pearl’s Centre Pan Malaysian Group Architects 100 Eu Tong Sen Street built in 1969 impending demolition All but 2 of 243 owners and tenants of Pearl Centre have accepted SLA’s S$450 million compensation package for the the possession of the centre to make way for the upcoming $18 billion Thomson line, Singapore’s sixth train line Barber shop owner, 65 year old Wang Oon Teck is one of those pushing for a an extension of the August dateline next year. “Just like this building, the barber trade will fade: customers no longer want just a simple cut, but more ‘trendy’ services like dyeing and highlights, to be more fash- ionable.” - Barber shop owner Wang Oon Teck, 6 singapore tropicana People’s Park Complex Design Partnership 1 Park Road built in 1970 in use “But we theorised and you people are getting it built!” Fumihiko Maki , who visited the site during its construction 7 singapore tropicana Queenstown Cinema and Bowling Chee Soon Wah Chartered Architects 250 Commonwealth Avenue built in 1970 demolished Though considered as a luxury to catch a movie in a cinema back in the late 70s, Queenstown Cinema and Bowling would bustle with life every night as long queues of dating teenagers and families stood in line for tickets to their favourite movies. The novelty of the bowling alley also never failed to attract curious onlook- ers to this new sport. As one of the most popular places in Singapore in the late 80s, this building seemed to have been part of the teenage years of many who used to bowl at the alleys and chow down fried chicken at KFC after catching a movie. 8 singapore tropicana Singapore Chinese Orchestra (formerly Singapore Conference Hall and Trade Union’s House) Malayan Architects Co-Partnership 7 Shenton Way built in 1965 in use The NTUC project was the first open architectural competition in Singapore. It drew a huge response from both local architects and the British architectural firms that remained. For the first time, local Singaporean architects were on the panel of assessors too. As students, we were most inspired by the MAC submission. It was radically new. It was a time of heroic gestures towards being modern. How far we have drifted from this. That building still serves as a marker and a benchmark of local architectural endeavour. The design drawings were printed on ammonia sepia paper with delicate pencil shading and sensitively drawn-in trees, cars and people. It left a deep impression on everyone not least on us students. As we watched the building materialise from our studio windows at the Singapore Polytechnic at Prince Edward Road across the football field in 1963, our last year in school, we sensed that the building heralded a new age and we were excited to be graduating into it. - Tay Kheng Soon 9 singapore tropicana Bukit Timah Turf Club Swan and Maclaren Architect 200 Turf Club Road built in 1981 in use On race days, the road outside the club was packed with traffic cars, buses and everything in between. Thousands of people, clutching fistfuls of dreams, watched, shouted, jeered, cursed and cheered themselves hoarse in various tongues, mostly Chinese dialects, as horses and their riders jockeyed for positions. The punters, of- ten working-class people and mostly male, usually went home empty-handed, with the betting slips they had clutched littering the grounds. 10 singapore tropicana Yan Kit Swimming Pool City Council 5 Yan Kit Road built in 1949 demolished nov 2011 “The pools have a child-like feel to them because they seem so tiny with the larg- est pool being less than 15 metres in length. You could do a lap in 20 seconds and run countless circles on its perimeter in a minute. But to a child in the 70s, this was paradise and a place of challenges. There was the diving platform and those big fears to overcome – to jump or not to jump. Hesitate a second on the edge of the board, and be swamped with massive self-doubt. And once in the pool, there was the surge of terror and thrashing – when that child remembered the watery space below him – before the forever is over by making it to the pool edge again.” -http://www.lawgazette.com.sg/2011-09/198.htm 11 singapore tropicana Golden Mile Complex Design Partnership 5001 Beach Rd built in 1973 in use “A prototypical module from an idealistic architectural vision, Golden Mile com- plex could have been replicated along the entire coastline to form a theoretically rigorous ‘linear city’, a self-sufficient megastructure serviced by efficient transport links. Appropriated by the immigrant Thai population, the building is now an all-encompassing little Thailand, maximising its potential as a mixed-use develop- ment.” http://stateofbuildings.sg/#!/map/name/golden-mile-complex 12 singapore tropicana http://www.archdaily.com/157679/ad-classics-pearl-bank-apartments-tan-cheng-siong/pba-chooyutshing/ Pearl Bank Apartments Tan Cheng Siong 1, 1a Pearl Bank built in 1976 in use Pearl Bank Apartments continues to resists the looming treat of en-bloc on the remaining architectural gems in Singapore. The 280-unit apartment block near Chinatown is planning to pull off its third collective sale, with an indicative price of S$750 million. If the S$750 million sale is completed this time, owners of the two-bedroom units will gain approximately S$1.81 million each, while penthouse owners willget up to S$4.8 million each.With 65 years left on its lease term, the 99- year leasehold project has a maximum gross floor area (GFA) of 613,000 sq ft and a built-up plot ratio of 7.4, which could generate up to 500 apartments of 1,200 sq ft each. “It is unlikely that developers will take into account any sentimental value when deciding how to redevelop the building.” - Mr. Ashvinkumar Kantilal, President of the Singapore Institute of Architects. 13 singapore tropicana http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Singapore_Science_Centre_2,_Jul_06.JPG Science Centre Singapore Raymond Woo 15 Science Centre Road built in 1977 in use Built in 1975, the design of the Singapore Science Centre was selected from a archi- tectural competition following the advice of the former Science Council of Singa- pore for the Government to convert the National Museum into an art and history museum and to build a new centre for science and technology education. It was one of a great many public projects constructed during this period of time where the PAP pursued a massive and ambitious public improvement programmes. 14 singapore tropicana Bedok Swimming Complex Housing and Development Board 901 New Upper Changi Road built in 1981 in use “Bedok Swimming Complex was born from the nation-building agenda in the 1980s to inculcate healthy living and sports excellence amongst Singaporeans.