Turf City grandstands and Singapore Badminton Hall among 5 sites to be conserved, Singapore News
Two grandstands at Turf City and the Singapore Badminton Hall along Guillemard Road have been proposed for conservation by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA).
They are among the "significant buildings" at five sites being put forth for conservation as part of the authority's Draft Master Plan 2025, said Minister for National Development Desmond Lee on Wednesday (May 14).
The three other sites are the former Royal Malayan Navy administrative block in Woodlands North, Jurong Hill Tower and a cluster of six blocks in the Dakota Crescent estate.
In a video posted to Facebook on Wednesday, Lee said these buildings and sites help to tell the story of Singapore's progress in the past 60 years.
"Each one means something to someone. So, one important way of anchoring our sense of place and identity as Singaporeans is to conserve buildings and sites that reflect our common history and experiences," he said.
"Beyond conserving the physical structures, we can continue to recall memories...through digital documentation, physical markers and walking trails." All 5 sites hold historical significance
The South and North Grandstands of the former Turf City were built in 1933 and 1981.
Turf City was Singapore's second racecourse from 1933 to 1999, and became a recreational and commercial hub after the Singapore Turf Club relocated to Kranji in 1999.
Singapore Badminton Hall was designed by pioneer architect Ng Keng Siang and completed in June 1952.
It was used as a vote-counting venue in the 1962 referendum to merge Singapore, Brunei, Sarawak, Sabah and the Federation of Malay States to form Malaysia.
Jurong Hill Tower, which was built in 1969 by JTC Corporation as a lookout point, aimed to provide residents and workers with recreational spaces and access to nature, at a time when the nation was undergoing rapid urbanisation and industrialisation.
Completed in 1953, the former Royal Malayan Navy (RMN) administrative block holds 70 years of naval history, spanning Singapore's colonial era to post-independence, with ties to the Commonwealth as well as both Singapore and Malaysia.
The RMN base reflected the urgent need for Malaya to build up its own defences in the post-World War Two era.
Dakota Crescent is one of Singapore's oldest public housing estates. It was built by the Singapore Improvement Trust (SIT) in 1958 to address overcrowding in the city centre and provide affordable homes to improve living standards of residents.
In 2017, then National Development Minister Lawrence Wong announced that while Dakota Crescent would be redeveloped for public housing, six blocks, now slated for conservation, would be retained for civic and community uses. URA Draft Master Plan a 'key SG60 programme'
URA has conserved over 7,200 buildings and structures in more than 100 areas since Singapore's urban conservation programme was launched 36 years ago.
"The sites and buildings reflect significant aspects of our nation's development and collectively, the story of Singapore's transformation as an independent nation and underscores our strong, continued commitment to conservation," it said in a media release on Wednesday.
The URA's Master Plan guides Singapore's development for the next 10 to 15 years, and is reviewed once every five years.
According to the authority, the Draft Master Plan 2025 is a key SG60 programme. It translates land use strategies developed alongside Singaporeans and stakeholders into detailed 10 to 15-year plans.
URA also said that it will present its conservation proposals at the upcoming Draft Master Plan 2025 exhibition in June, adding that further plans for Singapore's built heritage will be announced at the same time.
"Beyond retaining the physical form of our built heritage, URA and partner agencies will continue to work together with stakeholders on other ways to recall significant heritage that contributes to our collective history and culture," said the authority.
[[nid:699610]]
bhavya.rawat@asiaone.com
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Straits Times
36 minutes ago
- Straits Times
The Washington Post plans an influx of outside opinion writers
The Washington Post plans an influx of outside opinion writers in a new programme, known internally as Ripple. PHOTO: ERIC LEE/NYTIMES WASHINGTON - The Washington Post has published some of the world's most influential voices for more than a century, including columnists such as George Will and newsmakers such as the Dalai Lama and President Donald Trump. A new initiative aims to sharply expand that lineup, opening the Post to many published opinion articles from other newspapers across America, writers on Substack and eventually nonprofessional writers, according to four people familiar with the plan. Executives hope that the programme, known internally as Ripple, will appeal to readers who want more breadth than the Post's current opinion section and more quality than social platforms such as Reddit and X. The project will host and promote the outside opinion columns on the Post's website and app but outside its paywall, according to the people, who would speak only anonymously to discuss a confidential project. It will operate outside the paper's opinion section. The Post aims to strike some of the initial partnership deals this summer, two of the people said, and the company recently hired an editor to oversee writing for Ripple. A final phase, allowing nonprofessionals to submit columns with help from an AI writing coach called Ember, could begin testing this fall. Human editors would review submissions before publication. A spokesperson for the Post declined to comment. Mr Jeff Bezos, the founder and owner of the Post, has been trying to turn around the news organisation's struggling business. He has told confidants that he wants to broaden the publication's reach beyond its traditional audience of coastal elites. For years, Mr Bezos has also urged leaders at the Post to embrace aggregation, the practice of summarising and linking to journalism published by other outlets, to attract additional readers. Ripple would be a big step in that direction. Executives involved with the project believe that it could reach a potential audience of 38 million US adults, based on internal research, and that some of them would join a 'talent network' to submit their own writing, two of the people said. The company is also planning to explore subscription bundles with partner publishers, one of the people said. The Washington Post's traditional opinion section has undergone a significant shift in recent months. Mr Bezos decided shortly before the November election that the Post would no longer endorse a presidential candidate. That decision stopped the publication of the section's endorsement of Vice-President Kamala Harris. In February, Mr Bezos ordered the Post's opinion section to embrace 'personal liberties and free markets', prompting the section's editor, Mr David Shipley, to resign. Both decisions have drawn scrutiny from readers and inside the company. Ripple is the result of a research and development process that began more than a year ago. The Post's opinion section experimented in 2024 with local content from Kansas City, Missouri, and began brainstorming sessions to expand the idea that spring. Executives approved the plan for Ripple in January, and the Post started the project in April. Mr Will Lewis, the Post's CEO, has been looking for new ways to reduce costs at the company while finding new sources of revenue. In 2024, the Post created a road map to guide its efforts, with focus areas including artificial intelligence, new products and personalisation. Executives have already considered a list of potential partners that includes The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Salt Lake Tribune, popular Substack writer Matt Yglesias and The Dispatch, a right-of-centre politics site, two of the people said. Ms Lauren Gustus, CEO of The Salt Lake Tribune, said the nonprofit publication had declined to participate in the programme, preferring to focus on 'building relationships and trust here in Utah'. Mr Andrew Morse, the publisher of the Journal-Constitution, said the Post had not contacted him about the project, adding that the plan was not in line with his company's strategy. 'We are laser-focused on growing direct relationships with customers,' he said. 'We think scale is yesterday's war.' Ember, the AI writing coach being developed by the Post, could automate several functions normally provided by human editors, the people said. Early mock-ups of the tool feature a 'story strength' tracker that tells writers how their piece is shaping up, with a sidebar that lays out basic parts of story structure: 'early thesis', 'supporting points' and 'memorable ending'. A live AI assistant would provide developmental questions, with writing prompts inviting authors to add 'solid supporting points', one of the people said. The Post's plan to publish content by contributors is a familiar tactic in digital media. Forbes and HuffPost became online destinations for opinion writing submitted by users, leading to a boom in their digital audiences. But that approach has fallen out of favor in recent years as news organisations have placed a greater emphasis on building deeper engagement with users to create paid subscription businesses. Ripple is being developed by Mr Lippe Oosterhof, a strategic adviser at the Post who previously worked for Reuters and Yahoo. According to his LinkedIn profile, Mr Oosterhof is also a strategic adviser to a tool that uses artificial intelligence to assist professional journalists and corporate communications executives. One publication initially under consideration as a potential partner for Ripple was The Contrarian, an online publication co-founded by Ms Jennifer Rubin, one of the people said. Ms Rubin resigned from the Post after Mr Bezos stopped the endorsement of Ms Harris, saying the company's leaders had abandoned values central to the Post's mission. The Post has since removed The Contrarian from consideration. When told that she had been under consideration at all, Ms Rubin burst out in laughter. 'Did they read my public resignation letter?' she said. NYTIMES Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Straits Times
an hour ago
- Straits Times
While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, June 4, 2025
Mr Lee Jae-myung, presidential candidate for the Democratic Party, and his wife Kim Hye-gyeong at the party's election night event in Seoul, South Korea, on June 4. PHOTO: BLOOMBERG While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, June 4, 2025 Liberal Lee Jae-myung wins South Korea presidency South Korea's liberal party candidate, Mr Lee Jae-myung, was elected president in a June 3 snap election, six months to the day after he evaded military cordons to vote against a shock martial law decree imposed by his ousted predecessor. Mr Lee's victory stands to usher in a political sea change in Asia's fourth-largest economy, after the backlash against the martial law brought down Yoon Suk Yeol, the conservative outsider who narrowly beat Mr Lee in the 2022 election. Nearly 80 per cent of South Korea's 44.39 million eligible voters cast their ballots, the highest turnout for a presidential election in the country since 1997, with Mr Lee terming the polls 'judgment day' against Yoon's martial law and the People Power Party's failure to distance itself from that decision. With more than 99 per cent of the votes counted, the Democratic Party's Lee stood at 49.3 per cent to PPP candidate Kim Moon-soo's 41.3 per cent, according to National Election Commission data. A subdued Mr Kim conceded the race and congratulated Mr Lee in brief remarks to reporters. READ MORE HERE Trump signs order hiking steel, aluminium tariffs to 50% The United States will double its tariffs on imported steel and aluminium starting June 4, according to the White House, as it published an order signed by President Donald Trump. The move marks a latest salvo in Mr Trump's trade wars, taking levies on both metals from 25 per cent to 50 per cent. But tariffs on metal imports from the UK will remain at the 25 per cent rate, while both sides work out duties and quotas in line with the terms of their earlier trade pact. READ MORE HERE Elon Musk calls Trump Bill 'a disgusting abomination' Elon Musk on June 3 amplified his criticism of the sweeping tax and spending Bill that President Donald Trump has been pushing fellow Republicans in Congress to embrace, calling it a 'disgusting abomination' that will increase the deficit. 'I'm sorry, but I just can't stand it anymore,' billionaire Musk wrote in an X post. 'This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending Bill is a disgusting abomination. 'Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.' READ MORE HERE Ukraine says it hit Russia's Crimea bridge with explosives Ukraine's SBU security service said on June 3 that it had hit the road and rail bridge linking Russia and the occupied Crimean peninsula below the water level with explosives. In a statement, the SBU said it had used 1,100 kilograms of explosives that were detonated early in the morning and damaged underwater pillars of the bridge, a key supply route for Russian forces in Ukraine in the past. The SBU shared video footage that showed an explosion next to one of the many support pillars of the bridge. READ MORE HERE Cartier tells customers some data stolen in cyberattack Cartier, the luxury jewellery company owned by Richemont, had its website hacked and some client data stolen, it told customers, according to an email seen by Reuters on June 3. The attack is the latest case of a company being targeted by cyber criminals, with several retailers including Marks & Spencer and Victoria's Secret disclosing similar incidents. 'Limited client information', such as names, e-mail addresses and countries, had been obtained, Cartier said in the email. READ MORE HERE Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Business Times
2 hours ago
- Business Times
South Korea's new President Lee takes power after sweeping election win
[SEOUL] South Korea's center-left Lee Jae Myung was declared president on Wednesday after winning a snap election, taking the helm of a nation deeply divided after his predecessor's disastrous attempt to declare martial law. Lee won a thumping victory over conservative Kim Moon Soo, of disgraced ex-president Yoon Suk Yeol's former party, with his term beginning immediately after the National Election Commission certified the vote tally early on Wednesday. In a regular presidential election, South Korea allows for a months-long transition period - but as Lee's victory came in a snap election after Yoon's impeachment, his term began right away. 'The National Election Commission hereby declares Lee Jae Myung of the Democratic Party as the elected president,' National Election Commission chairperson Roh Tae Ak said early on Wednesday. Kim had conceded hours earlier, as final votes were still being counted. Official results showed he had no chance of winning. Lee assumes office with a bulging in-tray, from sluggish growth and a global trade war to mounting concerns over military ties between nuclear-armed Pyongyang and Moscow. BT in your inbox Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox. Sign Up Sign Up He also faces the challenge of leading a nation still reeling from the turmoil sparked by Yoon's martial law declaration in December and the rise of the far right in its aftermath - a development experts say has deeply shaken the country's collective sense of democracy. In a speech to supporters early on Wednesday, Lee urged South Koreans to move 'forward with hope and make a fresh start from this moment on'. 'Though we may have clashed for a while, even those who did not support us are still fellow citizens of the Republic of Korea,' he said. He also promised to 'pursue dialogue, communication, and cooperation' with North Korea, with whom the South remains technically at war, 'to find a path toward peaceful coexistence and shared prosperity'. Lee is expected to start his first day with a traditional phone briefing from the military's top commander, formally confirming the transfer of operational control of the country. He is then likely to visit the National Cemetery, a longstanding tradition observed by his predecessors, including Yoon. A modest inauguration ceremony will likely follow at the National Assembly - the same site where Yoon deployed armed troops on the night he attempted to declare martial law. Blue House calling? It will be a muted affair with just a few hundred guests expected to attend, in contrast to the large outdoor events held after regularly scheduled elections, which often attract tens of thousands. The new leader will then head to the presidential office to begin naming key cabinet members. Disgraced ex-president Yoon moved the seat of power from the traditional Blue House to a hastily-converted government building in Yongsan, which Lee has previously said he would not use. The focus will be on who is tapped to serve as presidential chief of staff, prime minister and director of the National Intelligence Service. The day is expected to end with a flurry of congratulatory phone calls from world leaders, with US President Donald Trump likely to be the first on the line. For many voters, like Noh Min Young, 20, who spent months in the street protesting Yoon's martial law declaration, the election was a relief and would allow the country to get back on track. 'I'm just glad now. There's no risk of the result being overturned, and the margin is enough not to lose momentum when it comes to clearing up the insurrection or implementing policies,' she told AFP. But experts warned that Lee's success in this election - after he lost to Yoon in 2022 - was due as much to his rivals' failings as his own strengths, with Kim hampered by political infighting and a fractured right wing vote, split by a third party candidate. Lee is also likely to herald a major shift in South Korea's foreign policy, Gi Wook Shin, a sociology professor at Stanford University, told AFP. 'Lee is expected to prioritise the alliance with the United States while simultaneously seeking engagement with both China and North Korea,' he said. That marks a departure from the policies of predecessors including Yoon, 'who largely focused on North Korea and the United States, respectively.' AFP
