HarbourFront
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
HarbourFront (Chinese: 港湾) is a district situated in the Southern part of the city-state of Singapore. Harbourfront is also the gateway to Sentosa. It used to be called the Maritime Square area before being renamed.
Keppel Way and Telok Blangah Road provide the main thoroughfare to the area. Notable buildings in the vicinity include HarbourFront Centre, Singapore Cruise Centre, and VivoCity. HarbourFront is currently being redeveloped into a new business and lifestyle hub.
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[edit] History
HarbourFront was close to what was once the southern-most edge of the main island of Singapore until land reclamation in Tanjong Pagar and Tuas extended their shorelines further south. Still, its locality within the sheltered waters of Keppel Harbour helped the area to thrive as a commercial area adjacent to the Keppel Shipyards, particularly with the building of the 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, which also served as a transport node with ferries to Sentosa island and regional destinations such as Batam in Indonesia, as well as being served by the World Trade Centre Bus Terminal.
The Singapore Cruise Centre opened in 1991 as the country's first international cruise terminal, attracting approximately 5 million cruise and ferry passengers annually. It comprises 3 terminals: the International Passenger Terminal (IPT) for international sea-borne traveling, the Regional Ferry Terminal (RFT) for travel to and from neighbouring islands of Indonesia and Malaysia, and the Domestic Ferry Terminal (DFT) for domestic ferries to the Southern Islands of Singapore, and harbour cruises.
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 the 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 and the building of two new office blocks adjacent to it. Transportation into the area was vastly improved with the opening of the HarbourFront MRT Station and the existing bus terminal was renamed as the HarbourFront Bus Interchange.
[edit] Etymology
The name HarbourFront was coined in 2000, as the area's geographical position in Singapore was literally at the Harbour's front. The new name of the area was due to redevelopment to give a more upmarket feel as a future entertainment and lifestyle hub was planned.
Before that, the area used to be know as Maritime Square due to the maritime activities within the area. It was also commonly known as the "World Trade Centre" area, due to the building of the same name and its adjacent exhibition halls.
Even earlier, before work started on the World Trade Centre in 1978, the area was simply known as Seah Im.
[edit] Future plans
Many redevelopments are taking place in the area. Currently being constructed is a new monorail link to Sentosa island, the Sentosa Express. When completed in January 2007, this monorail would link Vivocity with Sentosa. The Harbourfront Station of the Circle Line is also being constructed.
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 Mapletree Lighthouse which is a six storey building and will be entirely occupied by American bank Merill Lynch, it will be six storeys and have a total area of 200,000ft². Another office development is being planned on the site of the current SPI Building, and a residential development in future. [1] The Singapore Cruise Centre would be expanded to accommodate over 6 million passengers by 2010.
