Singapore Skyline, 9 August 1990

Once upon a time, Kodak made an amazing colour negative film that claimed to have the finest grain and acuity of ANY colour negative film in the world.?

Unfortunately, it was also amazingly slow with an ISO speed of... 25. This film was the legendary Kodak Ektar 25.

More unfortunate was this 14-year old who chose to use Ektar 25 to photograph fireworks at Singapore's 25th Birthday celebrations on the Padang in 1990 from the former Westin Stamford (today's Swissotel The Stamford), resulting in murky and highly underexposed images that were mostly unusable.?

Fortunately, the 14-year old boy made some long exposure images of Marina Bay as well, and for the first time ever, the boy, who is now a lot older, has scanned several frames from that roll.

32 years on, this is the very first time I have had the opportunity to look at the image you are seeing now, and man, has the Singapore skyline transformed!?

In 1990, the tallest building in Singapore was OUB Centre, completed in 1986 and designed by Kenzo Tange with SAA Architects. The skyline of this time actually already contained another Kenzo Tange building - Telecoms' Pickering Operations Complex - the building just to the right of OCBC Centre in this image. Also completed in 1986, this meant that Tange would have worked on both buildings at the same time. He also designed the Singapore Indoor Stadium that opened at the end of 1989.?

The brightest building in this photo has to be the United Overseas Bank Building though, located right at Boat Quay on Bonham Street. Designed by Architects Team 3 (the same architects who designed the Jurong Town Hall), the UOB Building was distinctively octagonal in shape and 30 storeys in height. Officially opened in October 1974, it would undergo major refurbishment with the addition of a new supertall tower in 1992 also designed by Kenzo Tange - giving rise to UOB Plaza 1 and 2.?

Also visible in this image are three buildings by pioneer architects Palmer and Turner. They are the original Bank of China Building (1954), Shell Tower (today known as the Singapore Land Tower) (1982) and the Chartered Bank Building today known just as 9 battery Road (1984). Of note is the cost of the Chartered Bank Building, which at $350 million and 44 storeys tall was more than double the cost of Shell Tower which cost $150 million to building and is only 2 storeys lower in height. Comparatively, the Bank of China Building cost only $3 million to build in 1954 and was the tallest building along the Singapore River when it was first completed.?

Other buildings visible near the mouth of the Singapore River are the old Straits Trading building (1972) and the Hong Kong Bank building (1982), both which have been redeveloped for newer versions of themselves.?

Also prominently present are the former General Post Office (today’s Fullerton’s Hotel), Anderson Bridge and the Merlion at its original location at the mouth of the Singapore River before it was moved some ten years later with the building of Esplanade Theatres on the Bay as well as the Esplanade Bridge.?

Last but certainly not least at all, we can see Malayan Bank Chambers between the General Post Office and the Bank of China building, with that amazing facade so ahead of its time when it was recladded by Kumpulan Akitek in 1965. The building would later be demolished in 1998 for the building of today’s Maybank Tower.

I could literally go on and go about each and every building visible in this precious photo, but I will let you explore it on your own instead. Tell me, what do you see in the photo that isn’t around today or has been irreversibly changed?