Nobody can rewrite history. But sometimes, an imaginative developer like City Developments Limited (CDL) can preserve it.
The pre-WW2 camp at Beach Road offered a rare opportunity to conserve heritage buildings. And the challenge to transform the entire mixed development to an icon of this global city was just as inspiring.
From design to construction, CDL’s sustainability credo of Conserving as We Construct was tested repeatedly in the careful creation of South Beach.
Located just across from Raffles Hotel – Singapore’s Grand Dame, the Beach Road site has since the 1930s housed a former military camp, military court and recreational club.
Taking the visionary design from a team led by Sir Norman Foster from drawing to reality was a labour of love for CDL.
The mammoth task of integrating the diverse buildings into an integrated mixed development was made even more intimidating as the site was sitting on the sandy soil of Singapore’s original coastline.
Compounding this difficulty was CDL’s desire to retain all the mature heritage trees as part of its future landscape.
So new methods of excavation and uncommon piling techniques were required to seamlessly link four historical buildings with two new towers comprising 510,000 square feet of Grade A office space, 190 luxury residences, 634 hotel rooms and suites in JW Marriott and 30,000 square feet of F&B and retail spaces.
An integral part of the development was conserving four art deco-style heritage buildings: Blocks 1, 9, 14 and the Singapore Armed Forces Non-Commissioned Officer (SAF NCO) Club.
Through careful conservation, the four heritage buildings now house a mix of chic modern restaurants, bars and even an indoor swimming pool to blend in with the contemporary office tower, hotel, retail shops and residences.
A 280-metre-long microclimatic canopy was created within South Beach to champion sustainability further and adapt to the changing times.
This naturally ventilated shelter provides high atmospheric comfort for pedestrians, shoppers and diners while also harvesting rainwater for the development.
As a result, South Beach’s innovative green features have garnered two BCA Green Mark Platinum Awards for its Commercial and Residential components. It also won SGBC-BCA Building Project Leadership in Sustainability (Urban Renewal) in 2022.
At CDL, we will continue to build icons that shape skylines while winning the fight for sustainability. Any surrender is never an option.