Raffles Place MRT station
Raffles Place MRT station is an underground Mass Rapid Transit interchange station on the East West Line and North South Line in Downtown Core, Singapore. It is located directly underneath Raffles Place, Singapore's financial district, south of the Singapore River. Due to its location, it is one of the busiest MRT stations on the MRT network, it is close to several points of attraction such as the Raffles Place Park, Merlion Park, the Downtown Core and the Fullerton Hotel. Raffles Place station is one of the five MRT interchange stations in Singapore to feature a cross-platform interchange, it is within walking distances to Downtown MRT station and Telok Ayer MRT station on the Downtown Line. On 9 October 1983, local ventures had won the MRT job for the construction of the tunnel from City Hall to Raffles Place. On the larger scale, on 4 May 1984, the contractor, Taisei-Shimizu-Marubeni had awarded the contract for the station, Contract 108. To make way for the construction of the station, the Chartered Bank Building was torn down.
During the construction, massive rocks were blasted out of the way for the station, which shook several buildings near the station. This station used to be the largest and deepest MRT station in Singapore, but the record was broken by Dhoby Ghaut in 2003 and by Bras Basah in 2010, by Promenade in 2013 and by Bencoolen in 2017, 43 metres below ground. In 1998, some foreigners who could not find accommodation in Singapore were caught staying overnight in the station, were regarded as loiterers, it is one of the four MRT stations to appear in "Uniquely Singapore Edition" of the board game Monopoly. The station is the only MRT station to participate in three terrorist exercises, which are Exercise Northstar IV on January 11, 2004, Exercise Northstar V on 9 January 2006 when it was one of four stations which participated in the exercise on January 8, 2006, as well as Exercise Northstar VII in 7 July 2009, together with Sentosa, VivoCity, Tampines, Choa Chu Kang and Jurong East; the faregates at this station were replaced in 2014.
The oldest station entrances A and B were renovated by 28 September 2017 with glass cladding. On 7 October 2017, a small fire was spotted trackside in the tunnel between Marina Bay and this station, but it died out by itself, its cause is unknown. Official website
Macquarie Group
Macquarie Group Limited is an Australian multinational independent investment bank and financial services company. Headquartered and listed in Australia, Macquarie employs more than 14,000 staff in 25 countries, is the world's largest infrastructure asset manager and Australia's top ranked mergers and acquisitions adviser, with more than $A495 billion in assets under management; the company's operating groups include Macquarie Capital. Macquarie holds a number of licences enabling it to conduct activities in the jurisdictions in which it operates and is regulated by a significant number of regulators globally. In Australia, Macquarie Bank Limited holds a banking licence and as an Authorised Deposit-taking Institution, is supervised by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority. Other key Australian regulators include the Australian Securities & Investments Commission and AUSTRAC. Globally, key regulators include the UK FCA and PRA, US CFTC, FINRA, NFA, FERC, SEC and Federal Reserve Board, IIROC, MAS, Hong Kong SFC, HKMA, SEBI, Japan FSA, Korean FSS and New Zealand FMA.
Macquarie's philanthropic arm, the Macquarie Group Foundation, has contributed more than $A330 million globally since 1985 with its community investment strategy “to support social innovation, to strengthen the impact of non-profit organisations by funding capacity building and collaboration.”The firm's collection of artworks, the Macquarie Group Collection, established in 1987 to support emerging artists and displayed in more than 30 Macquarie offices worldwide, is one of world's largest corporate collections of Australian art comprising more than 750 individual works. Macquarie was founded on 10 December 1969 as Hill Samuel Australia Limited, a subsidiary of the UK's Hill Samuel & Co. Limited. Australian businessman Stan Owens compiled a proposal for Hill Samuel & Co. to establish an Australian subsidiary. After presenting his report in London, Mr Owens was offered the role of implementing it, he became Executive Chairman of Hill Samuel Australia and founded the company from offices at Gold Fields House in Sydney's Circular Quay.
The company's first three employees were Blair Hesketh and Geoff Hobson. Chris Castleman and Bill Clarke joined. David Clarke and Mark Johnson were introduced to HSA and became joint Managing Directors in 1971. Despite being given a four-year allowance by the British parent to turn a profit, HSA was profitable by the end of its first twelve months of trading. In 1971 HSA secured Australia's biggest mandate at the time, a $US60 million financing for corrugated iron manufacturer John Lysaght Australia. HSA expanded its presence in the Australian market, opening a Melbourne office in 1972, a Brisbane office in 1975. In other business initiatives during the decade, HSA helped pioneer the foreign currency hedge market in Australia, commenced gold bullion trading, extended its coverage to all listed commodities and was one of the first merchant banks to be granted floor member status at the Sydney Futures Exchange; the 1980s were marked by significant financial market deregulation in Australia, including the floating of the Australian dollar and the removal of restrictions on foreign banks.
To take advantage of the opportunities offered by deregulation, HSA submitted a proposal for the formation of a new Australian owned and controlled bank to be called Macquarie Bank Limited. Authority for HSA to become Macquarie Bank Limited was received from the Federal Treasurer Paul Keating on 28 February 1985, making it only the second private trading bank to be established in Australia in modern times; the bank continued to grow its activities in the 1980s. It became Australia's leading bullion trader, initiated 24-hour foreign exchange trading, commenced stockbroking and corporate leasing activities, opened offices in London and Munich, expanded into funds management by establishing Australia's first cash management account and formed a new structured finance business which would grow to become one of the largest in the world, it implemented the risk management framework, credited for the organisation's long history of unbroken profitability. The framework ensured Macquarie was not materially exposed to the October 1987 global share market crash.
In other initiatives, Macquarie established its philanthropic arm, the Macquarie Group Foundation, which has since contributed more than $A330 million to community organisations around the world, established what has become one of Australia's largest corporate art collections, the Macquarie Group Collection. On 29 July 1996, Macquarie Bank Limited listed on the Australian Securities Exchange. By 30 October 1996 Macquarie had entered the ASX All Ordinaries Index, with a market capitalisation of $A1.3 billion and would grow to more than $A35 billion in 2018 to become one of Australia's largest listed companies. Macquarie continued its overseas expansion during the early 1990s, opening offices in New York, Hong Kong and Beijing, while extending its Australian operations to Perth and the Gold Coast. Acquisitions during the decade included Boston Australia Limited, Security Pacific Australia and the investment banking arm of Bankers Trust Australia. In 1994, Macquarie began its infrastructure investment business with the underwriting and placement of publicly listed equity for the Hills Motorway in Sydney.
It has continued to grow these activities to become the world's leading infrastructure manager. During the decade, Macquarie launched its private banking and residential mortgages businesses and established a number of real estate and investment trusts. Macquarie continued to expand its Asia operations in the early 2000s with the opening of offices in Seoul and Tok
Bank of China Building (Singapore)
The Bank of China Building is a development consisting of two skyscrapers located in the central business district of Singapore. It is located on 4 Battery Road, adjacent to 6 Battery Road, Maybank Tower, 100 metres from the Fullerton Hotel; the Tower serves as the headquarters for the Bank of China. The old block of the Bank of China Building was built in 1954 with a total of 18 floors, it was designed by T Architects & Engineers Ltd of Hong Kong. The pair of lions guarding the entrance is a work by Rudolfo Nolli; the block was the tallest building in the central business district of Singapore, Raffles Place from 1954 till 1974, when it was overtaken by UOB Plaza Two. The additional new block was completed in 2000. With 36 floors and a height of 168 metres it is built adjacent to the old block and shares a common podium. List of tallest buildings in Singapore List of banks in Singapore Bank of China
AXA Tower
AXA Tower known as 8 Shenton Way and The Treasury and Temasek Tower, is the 16th-tallest skyscraper in the city of Singapore, with at 234.7 m. The tower is the tallest cylindrical building in the world. Built in 1986 as Treasury Building, it has 52 stories and is one of the prominent buildings in the business district; the tower houses 16 double deck elevators supplied by Otis. Singapore's present Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong, once had his office in the building; the building was renamed to Temasek Tower when the Ministry of Finance relocated to The Treasury on High Street. Advertising agency BBDO Worldwide hosts its Asia Pacific Headquarters in there. In April 2007, CapitaLand sold Temasek Tower to MGP Raffle Pte Ltd. Temasek Tower is now known as the AXA Tower; the building houses the Embassy of Belgium on the 14th floor. The structure consists of steel beams cantilevered from a cylindrical concrete core; this allows full 360° views at the perimeter, unobstructed by perimeter columns. List of tallest buildings in Singapore List of buildings 8 Shenton Way at MGPA
Downtown MRT station
Downtown MRT station is an underground Mass Rapid Transit station on the Downtown Line, located in Downtown Core, Singapore. Situated underneath Central Boulevard, it serves the Marina Bay Financial Centre and the future commercial developments in the Marina Bay area, it is within walking distance to Raffles Place MRT station on the North East West lines. During the Circle Line Stage 1 planning, the Circle Line Extension was planned to terminate at Chinatown, was used by both Circle Line and Eastern Region Line all the way until 2007. Now, the section between Bayfront and Chinatown is used by the current Downtown Line Stage 1; the station was renamed from Landmark to Downtown on 11 January 2011. Illustrations on the walls of the station titled, "Leaves" by Jason Lim shows a connection of dense cell network of bamboo leaves and the business and financial services in the vicinity. A: The Lawn @ Marina Bay B: Marina Bay Link Mall C: Marina Bay Financial Centre D: One Raffles Quay E: Central Boulevard F: Marina Bay Suites Official website
Mixed-use development
Mixed-use development or simply Live-work space is a type of urban development strategy for living spaces that blends residential, cultural, institutional, or entertainment uses, where those functions are physically and functionally integrated, that provides pedestrian connections. Mixed-use development can take the form of a single building, a city block, or entire neighbourhoods; the term may be used more to refer to a mixed-use real estate development project—a building, complex of buildings, or district of a town or city, developed for mixed-use by a private developer, governmental agency, or a combination thereof. Traditionally, human settlements have developed in mixed-use patterns. However, with industrialisation as well as the invention of the skyscraper, governmental zoning regulations were introduced to separate different functions, such as manufacturing, from residential areas. In the United States, the heyday of separate-use zoning was after World War II, but since the 1990s, mixed-use zoning has once again become desirable as the benefits are recognized.
In most of Europe, government policy has encourage the continuation of the city center's role as a main location for business, retail and entertainment activity, unlike in the United States where zoning discouraged such mixed use for many decades. As a result, much of Europe's central cities are mixed use "by default" and the term "mixed-use" is much more relevant regarding new areas of the city, when an effort is made to mix residential and commercial activities – such as in Amsterdam's Eastern Docklands – rather than separate them. One of the earliest cities to adopt a policy on Mixed-use development is Ontario; the local government first played a role in 1986 with a zoning bylaw that allowed for commercial and residential units to be mixed. At the time, Toronto was in the beginning stages planning a focus on developing mixed-use development due to a growing popularity of more social housing; the law has since been updated as as 2013, refining much of its focus outside the downtown area, amalgamated into the main city since 1998.
With the regulations in place, the city has oversaw the development of high-rise condominiums throughout the city with the supply of amenities and transit stops nearby. Toronto case of developing Mixed-uses has expand to encompass other North American cities in Canada and The United States to bring in similar changes. In the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency collaborates with local governments by providing researchers developing new data that estimates how a city can be impacted by Mixed-use development. With the EPA putting models in the spreadsheet, it makes it much easier for municipalities, developers to estimate the traffic, with Mixed-use spaces; the linking models used as a resource tool measures the geography and land use characteristics in a city. The Environmental Protection Agency has conducted an analysis on six major metropolitan areas using land usage, household surveys, GIS databases. States such as California, New Mexico, Virginia has adopted this standard as statewide policy when assessing how urban developments can impact traffic.
Preconditions for the success of Mixed-use developments is employment and consumer spending. The three preconditions ensures that a development can attract quality tenants and financial success. Other factors determining the success of the Mixed-use development is the proximity of production time, the costs from the surrounding market. Mixed-use zones has been implemented in Portland, Oregon since the early 1990's as the local government was trying to figure out how to lower auto oriented development, prominent in the city at the time. In the state of Oregon alone, that housing must provide a clear objective towards design review; the city of Portland bureau of Planning and Sustainability has released a report in 2014 discussing the development trends in the city. The report eventuates the development of mixed-use spaces by focusing on the city center and its corridors. Portland's light rail system, MAX provides the encouragement of mixing up residential and work spaces into one zone. With this one zoning planning system, the use of land at increased densities provides a return in public investments throughout the city.
Main street corridors provide flexible building heights and high density uses to provide opportunities for gathering places. Mixed-use development allows the creation of plazas and outdoor corridors between buildings and sidewalks. Street facing facades have a maximum setback to how much space is allocated for pedestrians to gather in. Landscaping another feature in outdoor spaces allow trees and plants to grow on buildings vertically rather than being faced out in a front row. Public Infrastructure Mixed-use in centers that have increased in population density has allowed people to access places through public transit and has helped encourage walking and cycling to places of work and errands. Transportation has played a role in mitigating climate change by reducing congestion on roads and building up freight movement for goods and services. With street-level design in place in cities like Boston and Denver Mixed-uses allowed the designs of pedestrian walkways and eye distances to shops and workplaces.
This in turn has reduced parking lots in garages. Historic Preservation Older cities such as Chicago and San Francisco landmark preservation policies to allow more flexibility on older buildings being reused as third spaces. Benefits of mixed-use development include: greater housing variety and density, more affordable housing, life-cycle housing (start
Hongkong Land
Hongkong Land is a property investment and development groups with premium commercial and residential property interests across Asia. It owns and manages 800,000 sq. m. of prime office and luxury retail property in key Asian cities, principally in Hong Kong and Singapore. Its Hong Kong Central portfolio represents some 450,000 sq. m. of prime property. In Singapore it has a further 165,000 sq. m. of prestigious office space held through joint ventures, while MCL Land, its subsidiary, is a well-established residential developer. Hongkong Land has a 50% interest in a leading office complex in Central Jakarta, a number of residential and mixed-use projects under development in cities across Greater China and Southeast Asia, including a luxury retail centre at Wangfujing in Beijing. Hongkong Land is one of Asia's longest established property groups. Hongkong Land Holdings Ltd is incorporated in Bermuda, it has a standard listing on the London Stock Exchange as its primary listing, secondary listings in Bermuda and Singapore.
The Group's assets and investments are managed from Hong Kong by Hongkong Land Limited. Hongkong Land is 50% owned by Jardine Matheson Holdings. In Hong Kong, the company has continued to upgrade its commercial buildings in Central. In 2003, the redevelopment of Swire House into the new Chater House was completed. Major renovations have since been carried out in the Prince's Building; the Landmark has been redeveloped, with the luxury Landmark Mandarin Oriental Hotel and York House added. In early 2012, a new brand "LANDMARK" was launched covering the company's four most famous shopping destinations The Landmark, Alexandra House, Chater House and Prince’s Building, which are linked by pedestrian bridges, part of the Central Elevated Walkway, it was accompanied by a new logo "L", representing luxury retail. The company has developed three luxury residential buildings on Hong Kong Island in recent years, namely Serenade, The Sail at Victoria and Ivy on Belcher’s. Since 2003, Hongkong Land has worked with the Hong Kong Government on CENTRAL Cityscape - an initiative to enhance and upgrade the physical environment of Central.
New pavements, street furniture, modern signage, landscaping and more greenery are all part of Cityscape’s efforts to raise Central’s attractiveness. In October 2006, Hongkong Land hosted the CENTRAL Rat Race for the first time in the heart of Central, which has since become an annual event; this charity relay event helps raise funds for MINDSET, a registered charity supporting mental-health related organisations and projects in Hong Kong and mainland China. The inaugural race raised over HK$2 million and as at 31 December 2015, some HK$25 million has been raised. Hongkong Land has expanded its business outside Hong Kong in recent years, has significant interests across Asia in joint venture with local developers, including the Keppel Group in Singapore, the CIFI Group in Shanghai and the Longfor and China Merchants groups in Chongqing. In its commercial portfolio, in Singapore, it has attributable interest of some 1.8 million square feet of commercial space. Following One Raffles Link, the company developed One Raffles Quay, its second commercial complex in Singapore, in the Marina Bay area.
It has a one-third interest in the Marina Bay Financial Centre, completed in 2012. The company owns a 50% stake in Jakarta Land, expanding its complex of commercial buildings in the central business district of Jakarta. Hongkong Land owns prime office and retail space in Bangkok and Hanoi, with sites under development in Beijing – the WF CENTRAL shopping centre – and in Phnom Penh. In Macau, Hongkong Land has developed One Central Macau in joint venture with Shun Tak Holdings; this is a major mixed-use development on the waterfront comprising luxury residences, a premium retail development, the Mandarin Oriental Macau hotel and residences managed by the hotel. On the residential side, the company developed two residential projects in Singapore, Marina Bay Residences and Marina Bay Suites; the company has a 100% interest in MCL Land, a Singapore residential developer active in Malaysia. Hongkong Land is developing residences in Indonesia and the Philippines. Hongkong Land has developed luxury residential properties and mixed-use projects in mainland China.
In Beijing, there are residential projects such as Maple Place. In Chongqing, there are Yorkville South, Bamboo Grove and three other projects. In Chengdu, there is a mixed-use residential and commercial development. In Shanghai, Hongkong Land is now developing Parkville, located in Pudong, for residential and commercial use. Hongkong Land was formed on 2 March 1889 and was named The Hongkong Land Investment and Agency Company Limited, it was founded by two prominent businessmen in Hong Kong — Sir Paul Chater and James Johnstone Keswick. Besides property, Chater was known for his interests in brokerage and bullion while Keswick was Tai-pan of Jardine and Company Limited. Chater had been lobbying for some time in government circles for a new reclamation project in the Victoria District in Central Hong Kong and the construction of a new Praya along the harbour front. Six days after the formation of Hongkong Land, he got his way; the reclaimed land was to yield an area of 65 acres of building land some 250 feet wide along a new waterfront road that came to be known as Chater Road.
This "Central Reclamation" has since become a core element of Hong Kong's Central District, forming as it does the land between today's Des Voeux Road Central and Connaught Road Central, including Statue Square and Chater Road itself. The four-storey New Oriental Buildi
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