OCBC Centre

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华侨银行大厦 or 华厦中心
OCBC Centre
Location Chulia Street, Downtown Core, Singapore
Construction period 1975 - 1976
Primary usage Office
Opening date 1976
Structural height 201m, 659 ft (tower)
Floor count 52 (tower) and 1 basement
Floor area 74,963
Owner OCBC Bank
Management OCBC Bank
Developer OCBC Bank
Architect I. M. Pei with
BEP Akitek
Main contractor Morrison-Knusden and Low Keng Huat Joint Venture

OCBC Centre is the current headquarters of OCBC Bank in Singapore. It has 52 floors and a height of 201 metres. The main building was completed in 1976 and was the tallest building in the country at that time. The building was on the site of the there are two extensions, OCBC Centre South and OCBC Centre East. There is an Executive Club on one of the higher floors of the building. OCBC Centre East has food and beverage outlets such as, Burger King and Starbucks.

Contents

[edit] History

OCBC Centre was the result of the second Sale of Sites of the Urban Renewal Department of the Housing and Development Board in 1968. The building was designed by I. M. Pei & Partners (now Pei Cobb Freed & Partners) together with now defunct BEP Akitek (Pte) Singapore and started construction in 1975. Its construction period was only two years due to a "three-tier system". The building was completed on 26 November 1976 and was Southeast Asia's tallest building at the time. A bronze sculpture designed by Tan Teng Kee sat at the building until 1983 when it was moved to the now defunct Bras Basah Park. A reclining figure sculpture by Henry Morre has been replaced and a new plaza and reflecting pool was built outside the front entrance of the building. The building has underwent several modernisations and OCBC Centre East and South was constructed at a later date.

[edit] Architecture

It is supposed to be a symbol of strength and permanence, and its structure consists of two semi-circular reinforced concrete cores as well as three lateral girders which helped made construction faster. The building is divided into three sections due to the steel trusses being constructed off-site and were put into position. Each section consists of floors that are cantilevered 6 metres from each column, with load transfer girdrs spanning at each end taking up boxed sections of the pre-stressed concrete. Lattice steel models strengthened by steel and concrete compression was installed on the 20 and 35 floors of the building. The building has been nicknamed the "calculator" due to its flat shape and windows which look like button pads.

[edit] See also

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[edit] References

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