Singaporean waterfront district
HarbourFront
is a waterfront district situated in southern
Singapore
. Whilst HarbourFront's boundaries are ambiguous, its location is roughly represented on the
URA
's Master Plan as a subzone called
Maritime Square
, located within the Bukit Merah Planning Area.
[1]
Main thoroughfares in HarbourFront include Keppel Way and Telok Blangah Road. Notable buildings in the vicinity include
HarbourFront Centre
,
Singapore Cruise Centre
,
St James Power Station
,
VivoCity
and the Jardine Steps Tower which hosts the HarbourFront stop of the
Singapore Cable Car
. Maritime Square is currently being redeveloped into a new business and lifestyle hub.
Etymology
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The area was originally known as Seah Im but was also referred to as Jardine Steps. After the
Port of Singapore
expanded, it was developed into Maritime Square and later renamed as HarbourFront.
[2]
The present-day appellation, HarbourFront, was coined in the 2000s to give the area a more upmarket feel.
History
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HarbourFront was once close to the southernmost point of the main island of Singapore, until
land reclamation
in
Tanjong Pagar
and
Tuas
. Its location in the sheltered waters of
Keppel Harbour
helped the area to thrive as a commercial area adjacent to
Keppel Shipyards
, particularly with the building of the former World Trade Centre in 1978. Singapore's first major Exhibitions and Conventions venue, the World Trade Centre Exhibition Complex, was subsequently built beside the World Trade Centre, and also served as a transport node with ferries to Sentosa and other regional destinations such as
Batam
. The
Singapore Cruise Centre
opened in 1991 in HarbourFront as the country's first international cruise terminal.
Massive redevelopment in the area after the closure of the shipyard subsequently led to the name HarbourFront being coined in the early 2000s to refer to the immediate vicinity of the World Trade Centre, which was in the midst of a major refurbishment project. Relaunched as
HarbourFront Centre
, the former World Trade Centre also has its neighbouring Exhibition Complex demolished to make way for
VivoCity
, the upgrading of the Cable Car Towers (old Jardine Steps Station on top the old PSA Tower) and the construction of two new office blocks adjacent to it. Transportation into the area was vastly improved with the opening of the
HarbourFront MRT station
and extension of the
HarbourFront Bus Interchange
. Also, the new
monorail
link to Sentosa, the
Sentosa Express
has been completed and opened on 15 January 2007. The HarbourFront station of the
Circle line
had opened on 8 October 2011.
A new six-storey office building is also in the works as a new addition to the HarbourFront Office Park. The new site is known as the HarbourFront Merrill Lynch, which is a six-storey building and will be entirely occupied by American bank
Merrill Lynch
with a total area of 200,000 sq ft (19,000 m
2
). Another office development is being planned on the site of the current
SPI Building
. Furthermore, a
residential
development is possible in the future.
[3]
The Singapore Cruise Centre would be expanded to accommodate over 6 million passengers by 2010.
References
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External links
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