Raffles City

Announced in 1969 as the Raffles International Centre, the project was approved in 1979 and renamed Raffles City; its site was then reduced to the former Raffles Institution grounds, across the street from Raffles Hotel. The Development Bank of Singapore, now DBS, conceived, financed and managed it. The name came from the idea of a complex almost as big as a city.

Work began on 14 August 1980; after more than a year of excavation, construction proper started in October 1981. The South Korean firm Ssangyong carried out the works and poured the concrete of its foundations continuously for forty-eight hours.

The complex opened its doors to the public on 3 October 1986, with the Westin Stamford and the smaller Westin Plaza. With its aluminium and glass towers, it stood out beside Raffles Hotel and St Andrew’s Cathedral, and The Straits Times derided its design as “obtrusive and disproportionate”.

The two hotels have since changed names: Swissôtel The Stamford is the former Westin Stamford, and the Fairmont Singapore the former Westin Plaza.

Pei designed Raffles City as a “city within a city”. On a whole city block, bounded by North Bridge Road, Stamford Road, Beach Road and Bras Basah Road, a podium of shops and conventions carries four towers: the 42-storey office tower, the twin towers of the hotel now called Fairmont and, tallest of the four, the Swissôtel tower, 73 storeys and 226 m, the world’s tallest hotel when completed in 1986.

The four corners of the complex, facing the four junctions, are softened by rounded corners, and the Swissôtel tower seems to change from cylinder to rectangle as one walks around it.

The facades are clad in aluminium. The choice, over whitewash or tiles, which were cheaper, rested on its lightness: it loads the foundations less. Aluminium is also cheaper to maintain and gives the buildings a light feel, important in so dense a complex; Pei had a major influence on the decision.

The two hotels and the office tower rest not on piles but on large reinforced concrete slabs, whose size varies with the load of each part.

Managed by CapitaLand, Raffles City brings together a shopping centre, an office tower, a convention centre and two hotels, the Swissôtel The Stamford and the Fairmont Singapore. It links Orchard Road, a shopping artery, with the Raffles Place business district.

The shopping centre, with its shops and restaurants, occupies three storeys above ground and two basement levels.

The shopping centre is open daily from 10am to 10pm; each shop sets its own hours. It connects directly to City Hall metro station (East West and North South lines) and Esplanade station (Circle Line).