Whenever I am late for work, I will be taking a cab and I have at times noticed this building. Though I remembered that the building was “extended” with another built right on top of it, I could not find the photos to support my memories.
However, whenever I passed by the building on a cab, be it rushing to a gathering with friends at SunTec or Marina Square, my interest in the building will be renewed. So as the building entered my sights one morning while the cab stopped at the traffic junction, I made up my mind to find out whatever information there maybe on it. The reason is that I personally thought it was pretty cool, and even some kind of architectural marvel since there will be difficulties piling and digging beside an existing building and then building right on top without damaging it.
So, I take note of the roads at the junction and the nearby buildings around it, and then went online to find out its name on gothere.sg. It wasn’t long before I found the building name and then I went on to look for any articles and images of the building through Google.
Surprisingly, I ain’t the only person who noticed it, and in fact I am a bit slow in talking about it since people had been talking about it since Aug 2003 on a forum. In fact, it was in the forum post I found most of the photos, and also a reply from the design architect himself. I quote:
As the design architect for the refurbishment of Tower Fifteen I have been requested to add inputs to how the design evolved as I have done with other project here.
The design was conceived when I was working in Singapore in 2006. I left Singapore early 2007 and am pleased to see the final build result from various web sites. Unfortunately have not yet returned to document the completed project to add to my portfolio.
This project was highly unusual as the actual building in itself was very unique. It comprised out of the old Euro Asia Centre from about 30 years ago and then a decision was made early 2000 to extend the building to 29 floors. It was technically not possible to have the new structures load supported by the older building, hereby three major columns where build to support the new building above (one support housing the lift shafts). While this technically worked it left a very disjointed and unsightly building.
With the sale of the building, we where approached by its new owners (Ezra) and where presented with a challenge on how to convert to building into an A-grade commercial building.
The two architectural styles of the (two) buildings made such an impact, that the approach from conception focused on unifiying these into a single language and introduce elements to enable the building to read as a singular building. While the solution may appear evident, the true challenge was working around the highly rigid URA mandates. GFA is highly priced in Singapore and hereby the form had very little room to move, hence a need to follow the old building form but yet make it read as a singular building with a current aesthetic character.
The character of the buildings where overpowered by the support pillars of the upper floors extension. As opposed to trying to minimise their impact we focused on celebrating these unusual supports and used this very language to tie the upper to the lower. Through their extension the overall building got framed.
The framing established the overall expression of form succesfully. From this step it evolved into an excerise of developing all the components in between, and yet again great variances between the old and new where found. Through the development of an appropriate facade system that allowed for flexibility it adapted to the buildings framework, yet provides the facade character of a singular building.
The overal height of the building remains, however louvered screens where added to hide the mechanical equipment and at the same frame the roof of the building to offer it a firm standing presence (avoiding the typical cut-off look).
So, even though everyone would be more impressed with the Marina Sands IR building or even the Sail at Marina Bay, I present the photos of Tower Fifteen. After all, even though it isn’t grand, it is quite a feat on its own.