Page 6 - Darren Soh's Interview with Kanto_Neat

Pearl Bank Apartments (1976)

Coming from a relatively young nation where examples of post-war built heritage are fast being
eaten up by new developments, what more do you think the government, private sector, and the
community can do to ensure the survival of important built structures?

This is a very timely question because the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) of Singapore has
just, on October 9, 2020, announced that it is proposing for Golden Mile Complex to be gazetted for
conservation. At the same time, it has also officially stated that it recognizes the current owners’
financial concerns and is thus offering a whole slate of incentives for any would-be developer to
collectively buy over the building for redevelopment, provided the main structure is conserved.

For a long time, my colleagues in the architecture community and I have said that for developers to even
consider conserving an old building they buy over, the government must give substantial incentives to make
it attractive to retain any existing structures. Otherwise, demolition and rebuilding will ALWAYS be more
financially sound. For the government and the URA to offer these incentives toward the conservation of
the Golden Mile Complex is unprecedented, and I cannot wait to see how the situation will now unfold.