Aerial view showing new A.I.A. building overlooking on the one side Singapore's inner harbour and on the other the rooftops of old Chinatown's commercial section around Telok Ayer Street.
All office ceilings are suspended in a special system of hanging light troffers with continuous infil panels of fluorescent lighting and Traver- tone plaster acoustic tiles.
All marbles and granite works were supplied and fixed by Raoul Bigazzi.
The marble, which in some eleva- tions reaches to the roof, is arabes- cato. The lower part of the facade is in red Swedish granite. used in Singapore for the first time.
The ground floor interior is in Belgian blue and arabescato.
Among the outstanding features of the building are the arabescato marble fins, comprised of single slabs of 18 ft. x 6 ft. 6 in. x 3 in. thickness, weighing each over 2% tons. These are the largest marble slabs
imported to the
40
ever
Far
East. Their erection alone at 20 ft. from the ground, projecting from the facade at a 35 deg. angle, (which makes them appear partly suspended in mid-air), was in itself one of the most tricky problems of Raoul Bigazzi's long experience.
The total cost of the building was $4.717.793.00.
The architects were Messrs John Graham & Company of Seattle and New York, in consultation with Messrs. Swan & Maclaren, architects and engineers of Singapore.
The main contractors were Paul Y. Construction Co., of Hongkong and Singapore, who worked in col- laboration with and supervised the following nominated sub-contractors for specialist work:-
Aluminium sun breakers: Williams & Williams Ltd., Chester. England. (Guthrie & Co. Ltd.)
Aluminium penthouse: Diethelm &
Co. Ltd., Singapore. Air-conditioning: Condair Engineer-
ing Ltd., Singapore.
Lifts: Otis Elevator Co., Singapore. Sanitary & water installations:
Watts & Baker Ltd., Singapore. Electrical wiring & installations. telephone conduit, fire & alarm systems: China Engineers Ltd., Singapore.
&
Marble and granite suppliers: Raoul
Bigazzi, Hongkong. Builder's hardware: Muller
Phipps (M) Ltd., Singapore. Floor & wall tiling: Sino-British
(M) Ltd., Singapore.
"Cutler" mail chute: "Hecla."
Singapore.
Aluminium paper chute: Diethelm
& Co. Ltd., Singapore. Sissons paints: William Jacks &
Co. (M) Ltd., Singapore.
THE HONG KONG & FAR EAST BUILDER
VOLUME 14. NUMBER 5