International Plaza is a high-rise

commercial Commercial may refer to: * a dose of advertising conveyed through media (such as - for example - radio or television) ** Radio advertisement ** Television advertisement * (adjective for:) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and s ...

and

residential A residential area is a land used in which housing predominates, as opposed to industrial and commercial areas. Housing may vary significantly between, and through, residential areas. These include single-family housing, multi-family residen ...

building at 10

Anson Road Anson is a subzone located within the Downtown Core district of Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude ...

Tanjong Pagar Tanjong Pagar ( alternatively spelled ''Tanjung Pagar'') is a historic district located within the Central Business District in Singapore, straddling the Outram Planning Area and the Downtown Core under the Urban Redevelopment Authority's urb ...

, within the

Downtown Core The Downtown Core is the historical and downtown centre of the city-state of Singapore and the main commercial area in Singapore excluding reclaimed lands with many integrated resorts such as the Marina Bay Sands, one of the most expensive build ...

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

, next to

Tanjong Pagar MRT station Tanjong Pagar MRT station is an underground Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) station on the East West line located at Maxwell Road between the junctions of Peck Seah Street and Cecil Street in Downtown Core, Singapore. The station was built in the 1 ...

on the East West line. It currently houses the Honorary Consulate of

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

on the 15th floor and the Honorary Consulate of

Tuvalu Tuvalu ( or ; formerly known as the Ellice Islands) is an island country and microstate in the Polynesian subregion of Oceania in the Pacific Ocean. Its islands are situated about midway between Hawaii and Australia. They lie east-northeast ...

on the 25th floor of the building.

History

In 1966, the Urban Renewal Department of the

Housing and Development Board The Housing & Development Board (HDB) (; ms, Lembaga Perumahan dan Pembangunan; ta, வீடமைப்பு வளர்ச்சிக் கழகம்) or often referred to as the Housing Board, is a statutory board under the M ...

was formed to facilitate greater flexibility and autonomy in comprehensive

redevelopment Redevelopment is any new construction on a site that has pre-existing uses. It represents a process of land development uses to revitalize the physical, economic and social fabric of urban space. Description Variations on redevelopment include: ...

of Singapore's Central Area. The development of International Plaza was the result of the department's third Sales of Sites programme in 1969. To avoid affecting operations within the building,

construction Construction is a general term meaning the art and science to form objects, systems, or organizations,"Construction" def. 1.a. 1.b. and 1.c. ''Oxford English Dictionary'' Second Edition on CD-ROM (v. 4.0) Oxford University Press 2009 and com ...

of the International Plaza was carried out in three phases. The first phase involved the construction of a seven-storey commercial and retail

podium A podium (plural podiums or podia) is a platform used to raise something to a short distance above its surroundings. It derives from the Greek ''πόδι'' (foot). In architecture a building can rest on a large podium. Podiums can also be used ...

. This was followed by the second phase of building the office

tower A tower is a tall Nonbuilding structure, structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from guyed mast, masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting ...

. The last phase was construction of the

apartment An apartment (American English), or flat (British English, Indian English, South African English), is a self-contained housing unit (a type of residential real estate) that occupies part of a building, generally on a single story. There are ma ...

units and

penthouses A penthouse is an apartment or unit on the highest floor of an apartment building, condominium, hotel or tower. Penthouses are typically differentiated from other apartments by luxury features. The term 'penthouse' originally referred, and som ...

above the offices. Built at a cost of S$52.8 million and completed on 7 June 1976, the 50-storey International Plaza was one of the pioneers Singapore in the 1970s of integrating multiple operations into a single

mixed-use development Mixed-use is a kind of urban development, urban design, urban planning and/or a zoning type that blends multiple uses, such as residential, commercial, cultural, institutional, or entertainment, into one space, where those functions are to some ...

. In 1985 owners carried out a minor upgrade, involving an interior

retrofit Retrofitting is the addition of new technology or features to older systems. Retrofits can happen for a number of reasons, for example with big capital expenditures like naval vessels, military equipment or manufacturing plants, businesses or go ...

ting and the addition of an external glass wall to achieve the desired overall thermal transfer value rating. International Plaza's refurbishment cost S$15 million. The building had an elaborate

LED A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor Electronics, device that Light#Light sources, emits light when Electric current, current flows through it. Electrons in the semiconductor recombine with electron holes, releasing energy i ...

facade installed, as part of the

Singapore Government The Government of Singapore is defined by the Constitution of Singapore to mean the executive branch of the state, which is made up of the president and the Cabinet. Although the president acts in their personal discretion in the exercise o ...

's plan to light up buildings in the

central business district A central business district (CBD) is the commercial and business centre of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides with the "city ...

. With a height of 190 metres (623 ft), the International Plaza was one of the three tallest buildings in Singapore when it was completed in 1976; the other two were

OCBC Centre OCBC Centre is a , 52-storey skyscraper in Singapore. Serving as the current headquarters of OCBC Bank, the building was completed in 1976 and was the tallest building in the country, and South East Asia, at that time. There are two extensions, ...

(201 metres; 659 feet) and

DBS Building OUE Downtown or 6 Shenton Way, formerly DBS Building Towers is a high-rise skyscraper complex at 6 Shenton Way in the central business district of Singapore. Tower 1, at and 50 storeys, was completed in 1975 and is one of Singapore's oldest sky ...

(186 metres; 610 feet). International Plaza was the tallest commercial building with residential apartments in Singapore. International Plaza was superseded by

The Sail @ Marina Bay The Sail @ Marina Bay is a waterfront lifestyle condominium located in the Marina Bay, Singapore, Marina Bay area in Singapore. It was completed in 2008. The first tenants have moved into Central Park Tower in July 2008. Residents moved into Marina ...

in 2008.

Amenities and architecture

The

architectural firm In the United States, an architectural firm or architecture firm is a business that employs one or more licensed architects and practices the profession of architecture; while in South Africa, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Denmark and other countri ...

Ang Kheng Leng and Associates (1955–97), later Ang Kheng Leng and Partners (1997–2005), designed the International Plaza. Integrating apartments,

sports Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can, th ...

facilities, offices and a retail mall in a single building, International Plaza epitomises the concept of living and working in the

financial Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of fina ...

hub of the city. The building's design aspires to set a concept of work-life balance for its occupants, with its multiple functions and vertically stacked amenities. International Plaza achieves its objective as a self-sufficient, downtown apartment block, making it one of the most highly successful projects of this nature to date. Located on a 6,976-square metre (75,090 square feet) site at the junction of Choon Guan Street and Anson Road, the 50-storey commercial and residential

skyscraper A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Modern sources currently define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition. Skyscrapers are very tall high-ris ...

comprises a seven-storey triangular podium that houses a

shopping centre A shopping center (American English) or shopping centre (Commonwealth English), also called a shopping complex, shopping arcade, shopping plaza or galleria, is a group of shops built together, sometimes under one roof. The first known collec ...

and multi-storey

carpark A parking lot (American English) or car park (British English), also known as a car lot, is a cleared area intended for parking vehicles. The term usually refers to an area dedicated only for parking, with a durable or semi-durable surface ...

, and a 43-storey,

octagon In geometry, an octagon (from the Greek ὀκτάγωνον ''oktágōnon'', "eight angles") is an eight-sided polygon or 8-gon. A '' regular octagon'' has Schläfli symbol and can also be constructed as a quasiregular truncated square, t, whi ...

al-shaped tower block for offices, apartments and penthouses. International Plaza is a large mixed development with a total gross floor area of 137,930 square metres (1,484,700 square feet), built around two large internal

courtyard A courtyard or court is a circumscribed area, often surrounded by a building or complex, that is open to the sky. Courtyards are common elements in both Western and Eastern building patterns and have been used by both ancient and contemporary ...

s. The entire complex is fully

air-conditioned Air conditioning, often abbreviated as A/C or AC, is the process of removing heat from an enclosed space to achieve a more comfortable interior environment (sometimes referred to as 'comfort cooling') and in some cases also strictly controlling ...

, and serviced by 20 high-speed lifts and four

escalator An escalator is a moving staircase which carries people between floors of a building or structure. It consists of a motor-driven chain of individually linked steps on a track which cycle on a pair of tracks which keep the step tread horizo ...

s. The shopping mall with 270 shops is located on the ground to third storey, and the carpark, from the fourth to eighth storey. The car-parking area on the lower levels had its own lift system which, during

peak hour A rush hour (American English, British English) or peak hour (Australian English) is a part of the day during which traffic congestion on roads and crowding on public transport is at its highest. Normally, this happens twice every weekday: on ...

s, resulted in much confusion and

traffic congestion Traffic congestion is a condition in transport that is characterized by slower speeds, longer trip times, and increased vehicular queueing. Traffic congestion on urban road networks has increased substantially since the 1950s. When traffic de ...

until the whole system was completely upgraded in 1985 as part of an interior retrofitting. The 388-unit offices are spread over the ninth to 35th storey on the tower block. The complex offers a

swimming pool A swimming pool, swimming bath, wading pool, paddling pool, or simply pool, is a structure designed to hold water to enable Human swimming, swimming or other leisure activities. Pools can be built into the ground (in-ground pools) or built ...

health club A health club (also known as a fitness club, fitness center, health spa, and commonly referred to as a gym) is a place that houses exercise equipment for the purpose of physical exercise. In recent years, the number of fitness and health se ...

and other

recreation Recreation is an activity of leisure, leisure being discretionary time. The "need to do something for recreation" is an essential element of human biology and psychology. Recreational activities are often done for enjoyment, amusement, or pleasur ...

al facilities on the 36th storey. The residential block, which is located from the 37th to 50th storey, offers a variety of apartments, from single-room, two-

bedroom A bedroom or bedchamber is a room situated within a residential or accommodation unit characterised by its usage for sleeping and sexual activity. A typical western bedroom contains as bedroom furniture one or two beds (ranging from a crib for ...

, three-bedroom apartments to four-bedroom penthouses on the top floor. The building has a

roof garden A roof garden is a garden on the roof of a building. Besides the decorative benefit, roof plantings may provide food, temperature control, hydrological benefits, architectural enhancement, habitats or corridors for wildlife, recreational oppo ...

with scenic views of the city for its residents.

References

* * {{Singapore malls Skyscraper office buildings in Singapore Shopping malls in Singapore Residential buildings completed in 1976 Downtown Core (Singapore) Tanjong Pagar Residential skyscrapers in Singapore Retail buildings in Singapore 20th-century architecture in Singapore

History

Amenities and architecture

See also

References