We moved Goethe Institute

We moved Goethe Institute

Simon Monteiro Simon Monteiro

Simon Monteiro

30 YEARS OF HELPING FAMILY OFFICES & PRIVATE BANKERS INVEST IN THE SINGAPORE SHOPHOUSE ( 1994 TO 2024 )

发布日期: 2014年12月16日
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In 2014 I found this great building for Goethe Institute but its a long story behind it , and now I share my first case study to all.

GUANXI - In Chinese it means connections. In my business connections is everything. Everyday of our lives in spent connecting.

This year was a great year when I found a great building for Goethe Institute.

Our First Case Study Report for Historical Land Pte Ltd.

The Goethe Institute of Singapore @ 136/138 NEIL ROAD

Once upon a time….

A case study of our ONE STOP SOLUTION

A ONE STOP SOLUTION PROVIDED BY HISTORICAL LAND PTE LTD.

In 2014 I found my greatest pleasure in the Lease of 136/138 Neil Road. For me its was a great experience to do a ONE STOP SOLUTION. From a Private Bank, we assist their client from MILAN ITALY . We were ask to find a suitable investment with historical roots architecturally . We studied a few buildings and found 136/138 Neil Road as it’s a corner unit and its rich architectural merit would be great .

With our GUANXI of great connections we created a team of great people to work as one, First Historical Land Pte Ltd engage a well known Historian Dr Julian Davison who now in 2014 is our director of our museum at 53 Blair Road, to write the story of the conservation building . It was in 1920’s this building was built and is one of the first few buidings design by Swan & Maclaren.

The Structural Engineer was engaged by Historical Land Pte Ltd to make sure the asset is structurally sound for the client. Then we recommended the Architects , the main architects from Tellus Architect was with me since my days with Goldhill Developments Pte Ltd in 1997.

Then we followed on numerous meetings and then the owner wanted a long term tenants for his investment. We took an early stage to start marketing for a good tenant.

Goethe Institute was finding a great building for their new premises and their old cultural centre was at Orchard, we saw them looking at Tras Street. And we presented Goethe Institute to this unit , it took months as the German system of Conservation were so much more stringent that Singapore. Many tests have to be me made to ascertain that all will be great . All was negotiated and we have a new tenant for the owner. Goethe Institute.

It all stared with a story . Dr Julian’s love for writing great Architectural Provenance gave way to a beautiful introduction of this great building known as 136/138 Neil Road.

Let me share his beautiful story….

Written By Dr Julian Davison . Author of THE SINGAPORE SHOPHOUSE

THE STORY OF THE BUILDING. WRITTEN BY DR JULIAN DAVISON

The owner of the 1925 development was a Mr Wong Loon Chee and the architects were Swan & Maclaren: the British firm was the premier architectural practice of that era (Bidwell was a partner at one time). The building is designed in the contemporary ‘stripped Classical’ style and comprises four storeys, with part of the upper floor being given over to a roof terrace. In 1926, when the building was completed, the latter must have afforded an uninterrupted vista across the roofs of Tanjong Pagar to the sea and the ships at anchor in the Singapore Roads.

The Neil Road elevation has cantilevered bay windows overlooking the street with reinforced concrete balconies where the building turns the corner into Bukit Pasoh Road. The latter are very typical of the period.

The parapet wall of the roof terrace is pierced by precast concrete airbricks — the 1920s update on the green-glaze, Chinese airbricks of old — with a coping of traditional Chinese-style green-glaze roof tiles, which gives the building something of a contemporary Shanghai feel. The cantilevered balconies are treated in a similar way.

ABOUT SWAN & MACLAREN

The company began as Swan and Lermit in 1887, a civil engineering firm formed by two surveyor engineers. In 1892, it became Swan and Maclaren, after Lermit withdrew and another surveyor engineer, James Waddell Boyd Maclaren, joined as partner.

Rise to prominence

The Victoria Memorial Hall (right) was designed by RAJ Bidwell of Swan and Maclaren, who duplicated the adjacent original Town Hall that subsequently became the Victoria Theatre (left). Bidwell also designed the clock tower joining the two buildings.

In 1897, Regent Alfred John Bidwell (1869–1918) joined the firm, arriving in Singapore from England after a short working stint at the Public Works Department in Kuala Lumpur of the Federated Malay States. He was the first professionally trained architect in Singapore since George Drumgoole Coleman had practised in the town in the 1820s and 1830s. Bidwell found an opportunity in Singapore to exercise his knowledge of the full range and variety of Western architectural vocabulary.

Because of Bidwell’s talent and reputation for designing handsome government buildings, Swan and Maclaren became the dominant architectural firm in colonial Singapore. Bidwell dominated its work between 1897 and 1911. The firm proceeded to win the most prestigious commissions in Singapore, and many of its early buildings are still extant today. Some of these buildings have been gazetted as national monuments, and these include Raffles Hotel (1899), Teutonia Club (1900, now Goodwood Park Hotel) and Victoria Memorial Hall (1905, now Victoria Theatre and Concert Hall).

The Raffles Hotel was one of the first of the numerous projects by Bidwell under Swan and Maclaren, which was to build a substantial number of buildings in a large variety of architectural styles. The firm was commissioned to rebuild the Teutonia Club in 1900 in its new location on Scotts Road, after it moved from its location near Raffles Hotel on North Bridge Road. Bidwell applied the south German architectural style in his design of the clubhouse. In Singapore’s downtown area, Bidwell also designed the three-storey Stamford House (formerly known as the Oranje Building), completed in 1904.

By 1904, Swan and Maclaren was the largest architectural firm in Singapore. In 1905, Swan and Maclaren worked on the extensions and rebuilding of the Victoria Memorial Hall. In the same year, the Chesed-El Synagogue on Oxley Rise was built. In 1907, the Singapore Cricket Club was extended and refurbished, and the Telephone House on Robinson Road was constructed. In that year, the firm also designed and built one of the largest shops in early Singapore, the John Little department store in Raffles Place, located on the opposite side of the square from Robinson and Company. Between 1906 and 1912, Swan and Maclaren rebuilt the Saint Joseph’s Church on Victoria Street, dedicated to our Lady of Fatimah, in the Gothic style. In 1911, Bidwell left Swan and Maclaren to establish his own practice. By then, he was the most important architect in Singapore.

After RAJ Bidwell

In 1913, Swan and Maclaren built a large villa for the Chinese businessman Eu Tong Sen on Mount Sophia. The Eu Villa was built at a grand cost of $1 million. In the same year, the firm designed the Jinrikisha Station on Neil Road.

In the years between World Wars I and II, the firm continued to lead the local market with projects such as the Sultan Mosque (1924–28), Ocean Building (1923), Hongkong Bank Chambers (now HSBC Building) (1925), Prinsep Street Presbyterian Church (1930) and the Singapore Turf Club (1934). Swan and Maclaren also designed the Cenotaph, a granite memorial at the Esplanade Park that commemorates the soldiers who died in World War I. Its reverse side was inscribed with the names of soldiers who died in World War II.

After World War II, Swan and Maclaren remained important continuing with projects such as Singapore Polytechnic‘s original campus at Prince Edward Road. They did, however lose some of its dominance due to increased competition from both local and foreign companies.

Since 1999

In May 1999, Swan and Maclaren Architects was awarded the architectural tender for the new National Library building on Victoria Street to replace the main library on Stamford Road that was demolished. It was shortlisted out of five for the final selection in National Library Board‘s architectural design competition, from the 30 firms that made submissions.[1][4][5][6] In September 2000, the firm’s team leader, Malaysian architect Ken Yeang, ended his partnership with Swan and Maclaren Architects, which had originally been contracted to see the project through to completion. Subsequently, NLB released the firm from its contract, and called for new tenders for the construction of the new National Library building.[7][8] The National Library building was eventually opened on 22 July 2005, after three years of construction.[9]

List of projects

National monuments

Other projects[edit]

Other projects (continued)

OUR FIRST CASE STUDY

TO PROVIDE A COMPREHENSIVE SERVICE – ONE STOP SOLUTION

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