Samsung C&T Corp. has started construction of a multi-use tower that is slated to become the tallest building in Singapore, at 290 meters, when completed in 2016.
The South Korea-based contractor won the design-build contract in March for GuocoLand Ltd.’s Tanjong Pagar Center. By late July, secant piling work was complete and preparations for first-floor construction had begun. The project is using top-down construction methods to speed the work.
The center is located in the city’s commercial business district, above the Tanjong Pagar MRT station. When completed, the complex will feature 158,000 sq m of space and three basement levels.
The center comprises six levels of retail space and an adjacent luxury business hotel linked to the main tower as well as a “City Room” that is integrated with the Tanjong Pagar City Park. The 68-story tower will have 38 stories—or 79,000 sq m—of offices, topped at 183 m with a 30-story luxury residential tower “with very tall floor-to-floor height,” according to Ahmad Abdelrazaq, senior executive vice president and head of Samsung C&T’s high-rise and complex building division.
The developers hope the project becomes a benchmark for environmental sustainability in Singapore. The U.S. Green Building Council awarded LEED Platinum precertification for the core and shell. The Singapore Building and Construction Authority has given high marks for sustainability to the project's retail components and residential floors.
The Tanjong Pagar Center is designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP. The structural engineer is Arup Singapore Pte. Ltd.
