Profile

Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation Centre

Singapore
Completed 1976

52-story bank headquarters and investment office building with public sculpture plaza and 600-car garage
 

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On the site of its former main offices the client requested a new headquarters to house an imposing ground floor banking hall and provide some half-million square feet of office space — largely for the bank but also for tenant leasing. The solution, an innovative 194m-high tower (the tallest in Asia upon completion in 1976) occupies a focal position in modern Singapore, having served as a vertical anchor for the developing cityscape.

Unlike most central-core towers, OCBC has twin cores at either end housing all of the tower's elevators, mechanical and support systems. Steel trusses and prestressed concrete girders span between the two cores, like rungs on a ladder, transferring gravity loads to the foundations and permitting tiers of column-free office floors to be "floated" in between. Each tier is articulated by a 5.5m cantilevered concrete sunscreen faced in glass tile to match the granite-clad cores.

By virtue of the bi-core structural system, the base of the building was opened up to create a 12m-high column-free banking hall that extends out to the street through its transparent glass walls. A garden plaza further mitigates architectural mass as a 21m-long bronze — Henry Moore's largest walk-through sculpture — animates public space and contrasts playfully with the bold, yet serene, tower form.

Major Components

35,600 m² office space on 38 typical floors; 1,950 m² ground gloor banking hall; 2,500 m² executive suites/penthouse (levels 50-52); 1,900 m² business club/executive dining (levels 35-37); 1,200 m² conference center; 1,000 m ² level-5 dining; 500 m² bank vaults; 1,200 m² outdoor terraces (levels 5, 35, 50); 550 m² sculpture plaza; 31m x 13m Henry Moore bronze; 815,200 m² garage for 650 cars on 8 levels (including 2 basement & roof)

I. M. Pei & Partners services

Architectural Design; Interior Design of public spaces and banking hall

Structural

Ove Arup & Partners, Singapore, and 
Mueser, Rutledge, Wentworth &  Johnston, New York, NY

Mechanical / Electrical

Preece, Cardew, & Rider, Singapore, and Cosentini Associates LLP, New York, NY

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