UOB Plaza
Encyclopedia
United Overseas Bank Plaza (UOB Plaza) (Chinese
: 大华银行大厦) is a complex with twin tower
late-modernist
skyscraper
s in the city of Singapore
. UOB Plaza One is one of the three tallest in the city, sharing the title with the OUB Centre and Republic Plaza. UOB Plaza Two is the shorter and older building with construction completed in 1973 and later renovated in 1995 with a similar facade as UOB Plaza One. Both buildings are connected by a 45 m (147.6 ft) podium
supported by four column
s. The podium houses the banking hall of the United Overseas Bank
's main branch. The building was opened by then Senior Minister
Lee Kuan Yew
in 1995 which is 60 years after United Overseas Bank's founding.
and major financial corporations such as UBS
. On the 60th floor, there is a restaurant
, Si Chuan Dou Hua.
Its architecture is inspired by the U.S. Bank Tower in Los Angeles
.
The basement of the building houses a mosque
known as Masjid Moulana Mohd Ali, which is run by Majlis Ugama Islam Singapura
(MUIS). This mosque is the first in the Raffles Place
district and is unique due to the mosque being located underground. This peculiarity has stirred controversy because to some Muslim
s, it is not good because it is located "in the bowels" of the earth
.
) which changed its name to its current name in 1965 and the three storey building was demolished to construct the 30-story building.
volumes, which is a distinctive stylistic expression of Kenzo Tange
's works in the 1990s. The cubic volumes on the octagonal base, they rotate on a 45 degree plane of reference
and diminish in volume
towards the top of UOB Plaza One. A six storey podium
links the two buildings together and skillfully accommodates the reconstructed UOB Building (now UOB Plaza 2). This place is a large airy atrium
linking Raffles Place
to Singapore River
without entering the building. The banking hall has full height glass
walls to see through the Singapore River from the financial district. The change in light
ing brings out the geometric
qualities of the building's architecture, highlighting the buildings with shafts of light and shadow. The external curtain wall system of the building represents a significant and innovative contribution of the evolution of building facade
s over time. The "performance wall" envelope of the towers is a composite of white and grey granite
and insulated grey glass units. The atrium is also known as a "city room" and above it has a large office space and a large skylight, which gives the place natural lighting. A double storey sky lobby could be found on the 37th and 38th floors, which provide panoramic views of the city. It is also used for workers to transfer lifts from the lower floors to the higher floors. However, the sky lobby has been closed to the public due to security reasons after the September 11, 2001 attacks
. There are two sculpture
s on the ground floor; [Homage To Newton by Salvador Dalí
in the city room, and the another designed by Fernando Botero
.
Chinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
: 大华银行大厦) is a complex with twin tower
Twin Tower
Twin Tower is a 1970s' design of residential block of Hong Kong public housing estate. The plan looks like two hollow squares joining one corner of each square. Two towers are of different heights although their shapes are the same....
late-modernist
Modern architecture
Modern architecture is generally characterized by simplification of form and creation of ornament from the structure and theme of the building. It is a term applied to an overarching movement, with its exact definition and scope varying widely...
skyscraper
Skyscraper
A skyscraper is a tall, continuously habitable building of many stories, often designed for office and commercial use. There is no official definition or height above which a building may be classified as a skyscraper...
s in the city of Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
. UOB Plaza One is one of the three tallest in the city, sharing the title with the OUB Centre and Republic Plaza. UOB Plaza Two is the shorter and older building with construction completed in 1973 and later renovated in 1995 with a similar facade as UOB Plaza One. Both buildings are connected by a 45 m (147.6 ft) podium
Podium
A podium is a platform that is used to raise something to a short distance above its surroundings. It derives from the Greek πόδι In architecture a building can rest on a large podium. Podia can also be used to raise people, for instance the conductor of an orchestra stands on a podium as do many...
supported by four column
Column
A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a vertical structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. For the purpose of wind or earthquake engineering, columns may be designed to resist lateral forces...
s. The podium houses the banking hall of the United Overseas Bank
United Overseas Bank
United Overseas Bank Limited , abbreviated as UOB is a bank incorporated in Singapore. It was founded 6 August 1935 by Kuching-born Datuk Wee Kheng Chiang, father of the present United Overseas Bank Group Chairman, Mr...
's main branch. The building was opened by then Senior Minister
Senior Minister
Senior Minister is a political office in the political system of Singapore taken by a prime minister or senior cabinet minister when he or she retires from that office, but still has something to offer the government based on his or her long experience...
Lee Kuan Yew
Lee Kuan Yew
Lee Kuan Yew, GCMG, CH is a Singaporean statesman. He was the first Prime Minister of the Republic of Singapore, governing for three decades...
in 1995 which is 60 years after United Overseas Bank's founding.
UOB Plaza One
UOB Plaza One is a 280 m (918.6 ft) building with 67 floors, and was completed in 1992. It is the headquarters of the United Overseas BankUnited Overseas Bank
United Overseas Bank Limited , abbreviated as UOB is a bank incorporated in Singapore. It was founded 6 August 1935 by Kuching-born Datuk Wee Kheng Chiang, father of the present United Overseas Bank Group Chairman, Mr...
and major financial corporations such as UBS
UBS AG
UBS AG is a Swiss global financial services company headquartered in Basel and Zürich, Switzerland, which provides investment banking, asset management, and wealth management services for private, corporate, and institutional clients worldwide, as well as retail clients in Switzerland...
. On the 60th floor, there is a restaurant
Restaurant
A restaurant is an establishment which prepares and serves food and drink to customers in return for money. Meals are generally served and eaten on premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services...
, Si Chuan Dou Hua.
Its architecture is inspired by the U.S. Bank Tower in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
.
The basement of the building houses a mosque
Mosque
A mosque is a place of worship for followers of Islam. The word is likely to have entered the English language through French , from Portuguese , from Spanish , and from Berber , ultimately originating in — . The Arabic word masjid literally means a place of prostration...
known as Masjid Moulana Mohd Ali, which is run by Majlis Ugama Islam Singapura
Majlis Ugama Islam Singapura
The Majlis Ugama Islam Singapura , also known as the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore is a statutory board in Singapore...
(MUIS). This mosque is the first in the Raffles Place
Raffles Place
Raffles Place is a geographical location in Singapore, south of the mouth of the Singapore River. Located in the Downtown Core and the Central Area, it features some of the tallest buildings and landmarks of the country.-History:...
district and is unique due to the mosque being located underground. This peculiarity has stirred controversy because to some Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
s, it is not good because it is located "in the bowels" of the earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
.
UOB Plaza Two
UOB Plaza Two is a 162 m (531.5 ft) building with 38 floors and was completed in 1973 with the building reconstructed again in 1995. The building was formerly the Bonham Building which housed the United Chinese Bank (now the United Overseas BankUnited Overseas Bank
United Overseas Bank Limited , abbreviated as UOB is a bank incorporated in Singapore. It was founded 6 August 1935 by Kuching-born Datuk Wee Kheng Chiang, father of the present United Overseas Bank Group Chairman, Mr...
) which changed its name to its current name in 1965 and the three storey building was demolished to construct the 30-story building.
Architecture
The towers have an octagonal base and consists of rotated cubicCube
In geometry, a cube is a three-dimensional solid object bounded by six square faces, facets or sides, with three meeting at each vertex. The cube can also be called a regular hexahedron and is one of the five Platonic solids. It is a special kind of square prism, of rectangular parallelepiped and...
volumes, which is a distinctive stylistic expression of Kenzo Tange
Kenzo Tange
was a Japanese architect, and winner of the 1987 Pritzker Prize for architecture. He was one of the most significant architects of the 20th century, combining traditional Japanese styles with modernism, and designed major buildings on five continents. Tange was also an influential protagonist of...
's works in the 1990s. The cubic volumes on the octagonal base, they rotate on a 45 degree plane of reference
Plane of reference
A term used in celestial mechanics, the plane of reference is the plane by means of which orbital elements are defined. The two main orbital elements that are measured with respect to the plane of reference are the inclination and the longitude of the ascending node.Depending on the type of body...
and diminish in volume
Volume
Volume is the quantity of three-dimensional space enclosed by some closed boundary, for example, the space that a substance or shape occupies or contains....
towards the top of UOB Plaza One. A six storey podium
Podium
A podium is a platform that is used to raise something to a short distance above its surroundings. It derives from the Greek πόδι In architecture a building can rest on a large podium. Podia can also be used to raise people, for instance the conductor of an orchestra stands on a podium as do many...
links the two buildings together and skillfully accommodates the reconstructed UOB Building (now UOB Plaza 2). This place is a large airy atrium
Atrium (architecture)
In modern architecture, an atrium is a large open space, often several stories high and having a glazed roof and/or large windows, often situated within a larger multistory building and often located immediately beyond the main entrance doors...
linking Raffles Place
Raffles Place
Raffles Place is a geographical location in Singapore, south of the mouth of the Singapore River. Located in the Downtown Core and the Central Area, it features some of the tallest buildings and landmarks of the country.-History:...
to Singapore River
Singapore River
The Singapore River is a river in Singapore with great historical importance. The Singapore River flows from the Central Area, which lies in the Central Region in the southern part of Singapore before emptying into the ocean...
without entering the building. The banking hall has full height glass
Glass
Glass is an amorphous solid material. Glasses are typically brittle and optically transparent.The most familiar type of glass, used for centuries in windows and drinking vessels, is soda-lime glass, composed of about 75% silica plus Na2O, CaO, and several minor additives...
walls to see through the Singapore River from the financial district. The change in light
Light
Light or visible light is electromagnetic radiation that is visible to the human eye, and is responsible for the sense of sight. Visible light has wavelength in a range from about 380 nanometres to about 740 nm, with a frequency range of about 405 THz to 790 THz...
ing brings out the geometric
Geometry
Geometry arose as the field of knowledge dealing with spatial relationships. Geometry was one of the two fields of pre-modern mathematics, the other being the study of numbers ....
qualities of the building's architecture, highlighting the buildings with shafts of light and shadow. The external curtain wall system of the building represents a significant and innovative contribution of the evolution of building facade
Facade
A facade or façade is generally one exterior side of a building, usually, but not always, the front. The word comes from the French language, literally meaning "frontage" or "face"....
s over time. The "performance wall" envelope of the towers is a composite of white and grey granite
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
and insulated grey glass units. The atrium is also known as a "city room" and above it has a large office space and a large skylight, which gives the place natural lighting. A double storey sky lobby could be found on the 37th and 38th floors, which provide panoramic views of the city. It is also used for workers to transfer lifts from the lower floors to the higher floors. However, the sky lobby has been closed to the public due to security reasons after the September 11, 2001 attacks
September 11, 2001 attacks
The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks (also referred to as September 11, September 11th or 9/119/11 is pronounced "nine eleven". The slash is not part of the pronunciation...
. There are two sculpture
Sculpture
Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...
s on the ground floor; [Homage To Newton by Salvador Dalí
Salvador Dalí
Salvador Domènec Felip Jacint Dalí i Domènech, Marquis de Púbol , commonly known as Salvador Dalí , was a prominent Spanish Catalan surrealist painter born in Figueres,Spain....
in the city room, and the another designed by Fernando Botero
Fernando Botero
Fernando Botero Angulo is a Colombian figurative artist. His works feature a figurative style, called by some "Boterismo", which gives them an unmistakable identity...
.
See also
- Tallest buildings in Singapore
- Robot BuildingRobot BuildingThe Robot Building, located in the Sathorn business district of Bangkok, Thailand, houses United Overseas Bank's Bangkok headquarters. It was designed for the Bank of Asia by Sumet Jumsai to reflect the computerization of banking; its architecture is a reaction against neoclassical and high-tech...
(UOB Bangkok headquarters)
Further reading
- '
External links
- United Overseas Bank Plaza One at the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban HabitatCouncil on Tall Buildings and Urban HabitatThe Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat is an international body in the field of tall buildings and sustainable urban design...
(CTBUH)