Singapore woos 'starchitects' for casino project

19 November 2005

As reported by: SignOnSanDiego.com
Singapore is wooing top architects such as I.M. Pei and Daniel Libeskind to design an iconic casino building on a par with Sydney's Opera House and Bilbao's Guggenheim Museum.

The city-state, better known for its shopping malls and rigorous urban planning, now wants a breathtaking skyline. It has invited gaming companies to team up with leading architects, or "starchitects," when they submit proposals for two casino resorts that are expected to cost up to US$5 billion.

Across Asia, eye-catching designer buildings are as much a statement of economic achievement as about creating internationally recognizable marketing symbols, from Kuala Lumpur's soaring Petronas Towers to Beijing's National Stadium, shaped like a bird's nest and planned for the 2008 Olympics.

Singapore's most distinctive building so far is its waterfront performing arts center, the Esplanade, whose spiky domes have evoked comparisons to the prickly shell of the tropical durian fruit or to bugs' eyes.

"It's about creating a brand or a logo - a visual shorthand for the city that can generate excitement and be used in communications," said Rosalynn Tay, deputy managing director of ad agency Leo Burnett Singapore.

I.M. Pei, who designed Hong Kong's Bank of China building, and Daniel Libeskind, designer of the "Freedom Tower" at New York's Ground Zero, have teamed up with gaming companies that may bid for a casino in Singapore's downtown waterfront, the first of two such projects in the country.

Even visionary Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, who in 1995 slammed Singapore as a city "stripped of the last vestiges of authenticity and dignity" after it razed parts of Chinatown to make way for new housing and offices, has been invited to speak at a government-organized forum on design.


Article By: SignOnSanDiego.com

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