Meyer Flats was an apartment building on Meyer Road in Katong, Singapore. Completed in 1928, it served as a companion block to the Crescent Flats, which was the first apartment building built in Singapore. Designed by Regent Alfred John Bidwell for Manasseh Meyer, both were demolished to make way for a condominium project.
The three-storey European-style apartment building housed 12 units. It featured a large hip roof with extended eaves. The building was "devoid of extraneous embellishments, with the details of the facade pared down almost to the point of parsimony." According to architectural historian Julian Davison, the "most striking aspect of the latter building is what is absent, namely balconies and verandahs, a surprising omission given the building's seaside location." The building featured tiled air vents placed under windowsills, with windows being spread out in a "grid-like" fashion. It featured "identical" entrances accompanied by stairwells at both ends. The front door was accompanied by a canopy roof made with reinforced concrete. A window which was octagonal and read "Meyer Flats" was placed above the roof. [1]
A window, described by Davison as a "quasi-Venetian affair", could be found at the upper stairwell. [1] Each of the 12 units in the building featured two bedrooms with attached bathrooms, a living area, a "small" dressing room, two servants' rooms and a kitchen. [2] According to Davison, the building stood "in sharp contrast" to the Crescent Flats, which was "purpose-built to make the most of the sea breezes by way of natural ventilation." He argued that it "can be seen as representative of a gradual shift towards a more European style of residential architecture that took place in Singapore between the wars", and that it represented a "Europeanisation of the building character that corresponded with a more Western-oriented outlook and lifestyle on the part of Singapore’s expatriate community." [1]
The building, designed by Regent Alfred John Bidwell of the prominent architectural firm Swan & Maclaren for businessman and community leader Manasseh Meyer, was completed in 1928. It stood next to the Crescent Flats, the first apartment block to have been built in Singapore, which was also designed by Bidwell for Meyer. [1] After the end of the Japanese Occupation of Singapore, the block was one of several civilian buildings that were occupied by the Royal Air Force. [3] The Royal Air Force vacated the building, then owned by Kitty Meyer, in 1949. It was then renovated and reopened in December 1951. Most of the units were to be let out to new tenants as many of the previous tenants either could not be traced or were already living elsewhere. [4]
In 1989, the Hong Leong Group bought over the land on which the Meyer Flats and Crescent Flats stood for $56 million. The group, which planned to develop high-rise apartments on the site, launched a competition for its development. It approached some architects, asking if they could redevelop the site while preserving the flats, while approaching other architects, asking them to "work on the premise that the two blocks of flats will be demolished." By then, the controlled rent at the building was $700. [2] In October 1991, it was announced that both buildings were to be vacated by the following year, after which they were to be demolished to make way for a condominium project. This decision was criticised by prominent local architect Lee Kip Lin, then-Singapore Institute of Architects president Tay Kheng Soon and then-Singapore Heritage Society president William S. W. Lim, who believed that they should have been gazetted for conservation instead. [5] The company declined the Urban Redevelopment Authority's offers of development incentives in exchange for the gazetting of the buildings for conservation. [6]
A tower block, high-rise, apartment tower, residential tower, apartment block, block of flats, or office tower is a tall building, as opposed to a low-rise building and is defined differently in terms of height depending on the jurisdiction. It is used as a residential, office building, or other functions including hotel, retail, or with multiple purposes combined. Residential high-rise buildings are also known in some varieties of English, such as British English, as tower blocks and may be referred to as MDUs, standing for multi-dwelling units. A very tall high-rise building is referred to as a skyscraper.
The Ballymun Flats referred to a number of flats—including the seven Ballymun tower blocks—in Ballymun, Dublin, Ireland. Built rapidly in the 1960s, there were 36 blocks in total, consisting of 7 fifteen-storey, 19 eight-storey, and 10 four-storey blocks. The complex was built in a Corbusian style known as towers in the park, which was popular in European and American cities in the mid-20th century.
Masjid Sultan, also referred to as Sultan Mosque, is a widely known religious landmark in Singapore. This mosque, which can be found in the Kampong Glam district at the intersection of North Bridge Road and Muscat Street, is highly significant in terms of both history and culture.
The Goodwood Park Hotel is a heritage hotel in Singapore, situated in a 6-hectare landscaped garden on Scotts Road. It was first built as the club house for the Teutonic Club serving the expatriate German community in Singapore, and later converted into a hotel.
Stamford House is a historic building located at the corner of the junction of Stamford Road and Hill Street, in the Downtown Core of Singapore. Originally known as Oranje Building, it formerly housed a shopping mall. The building had since redeveloped along with adjoined Capitol Building and both were reopened as a hotel The Capitol Kempinski Hotel Singapore in October 2018.
The Pinnacle@Duxton is a 50-storey residential development in Singapore's city center, next to the business district. All seven connected towers are collectively the world's tallest public residential buildings, and featuring the two longest sky gardens ever built on skyscrapers, at 500m each.
The Monroe Avenue Commercial Buildings, also known as the Monroe Block, is a historic district located along a block-and-a-half stretch at 16-118 Monroe Avenue in Detroit, Michigan, just off Woodward Avenue at the northern end of Campus Martius. The district was designated a Michigan State Historic Site in 1974 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. The thirteen original buildings were built between 1852 and 1911 and ranged from two to five stories in height. The National Theatre, built in 1911, was the oldest surviving theatre in Detroit, a part of the city's original theatre district of the late 19th century, and the sole surviving structure from the original Monroe Avenue Commercial Buildings historic period.
The Southgate Estate was a modernist public housing project located in Runcorn New Town and completed in 1977. The estate was designed by James Stirling, and comprised 1,500 residential units intended to house 6,000 people. The estate was demolished between 1990 and 1992 and replaced with another housing development, known as Hallwood Park, based around more traditional design principles.
T.Y. Lee was an architect in Malaysia who played a significant role in the country's architectural development from the 1930s through the 1980s. He was the founder of T.Y. Lee and Sons Architect. T.Y. Lee was the architect of record for the Central Market, the finest Art Deco building in Kuala Lumpur that dates to 1936. Lee's work then shifted in a modern direction, and he created an apartment block that was among the city's most prestigious addresses. T.Y Lee didn't make one but two prestigious apartment blocks in the 1960s. These two were called Blue Boy mansion (1962) and Marble Jade mansion (1963) respectively. His swan song came in the 1980s when he consulted on Mimaland, Malaysia's first theme park, a hospitality venture that brought a Disney-style theme park to Southeast Asia.
Dakota Crescent is one of Singapore’s oldest housing estates built by Singapore Improvement Trust (SIT), the government development authority, in 1958.
Amber Mansions was a shopping centre and residential building located at the curve between Orchard Road and Penang Road in what is currently known as Dhoby Ghaut, Singapore. Constructed in the 1920s, the shopping centre was one of the first shopping centres in Singapore.
Butterfly House, also known as 23 Amber Road, was a unique house, with a convex, semicircular plan, the 'wings' of which gave rise to the 'butterfly' nickhame for the house. It is not, in fact, laid out on a true butterfly plan in the more usual Arts and Crafts sense of the name. It was the only historic residence in Singapore to be built using this plan form, and was unique in Southeast Asia. Most of the building, including its iconic curved wings were demolished in 2008 by developers in order to make way for a high-rise residential tower on the site, leaving only a small portion of the street-facing front of the house as a token facade to the generic residential tower behind, losing the part of the structure that gave the house its moniker.
Olson Building, also known as Block 11A or 29 Mount Sophia, is a historic building that was on the campus of the Methodist Girls' School on Mount Sophia in Singapore. It has since been repurposed as a condominium clubhouse.
Trinity Theological College Chapel is a building and former chapel in Mount Sophia, Singapore. Completed in 1969, it served as the chapel for the Trinity Theological College, which moved elsewhere in 2001. The building was later conserved and integrated into a condominium.
Alkaff Arcade, also known as The Arcade, was a historic building on Collyer Quay in Singapore. Completed in 1909 for the Alkaff family, it was the first indoor shopping centre on the island. Known for its Moorish-style architecture, it was "hailed as Singapore’s best-known waterfront landmark". The building was demolished in 1978 to make way for an office tower.
Ngee Ann Building was a building on Orchard Road in Singapore housing both shops and apartments. Built by the Ngee Ann Kongsi and opened in 1957, the rent collected from the building enabled the organisation to establish the Ngee Ann College. It was demolished in 1985 to make way for Ngee Ann City.
Meyer Road is a primary access street in Katong, Singapore. Named in 1921 after Sir Manasseh Meyer, it stretches from Tanjong Rhu Road to Tanjong Katong Road at a length of 1.4km. It is connected to many prominent past and present landmarks such as Katong Park and formerly the Crescent Flats and Meyer Flats as well as Katong Park Hotel. It is nicknamed "the Little India of East Coast" due to the large number of Indian residents living there.
Crescent Flats, also known as The Crescent, was an apartment building on Meyer Road in Katong, Singapore. Completed in 1912, it is believed to have been the first apartment building built in Singapore. Designed by Regent Alfred John Bidwell for Manasseh Meyer, both the building and the neighbouring Meyer Flats, built as a companion block, were demolished to make way for a condominium project.
30 Meyer Road is a bungalow on Meyer Road, Singapore. Designed by colonial architect Eric Vernon Miller, it was purchased by entrepreneur Jack Sim, who restored the building.
61 Meyer Road was a bungalow on Meyer Road, Singapore. It was built by Sir Manasseh Meyer, who died shortly after its completion. It then served as the residence of businessman Parkcane C. Hwang.