Peninsula Plaza
With its ribbed facade and expressive column arches, this 30-storey office-cum-retail complex stands out amongst the many colonial-era buildings in Singapore’s historic Civic District. It has been described as a “modern, strangely pseudo-Gothic” departure from the geometric International Style that dominated Singapore’s architecture during the 1970s when the building was developed.¹ The highly ornamental facade notably received the Singapore Institute of Architects’ inaugural “Micro Architectural Design” award in 1986, which was started to recognise “good detailing or the micro elements of a building”.²
Peninsula Plaza’s architectural design was very much shaped by the neighbouring St. Andrew’s Cathedral, which it overlooks from its site at the junction of North Bridge Road and Coleman Street. The church completed in 1861 is one of Singapore’s few surviving examples of English Neo-Gothic architecture and was gazetted a national monument in June 1973. Peninsula Plaza’s principal architect, Edward Wong, the younger brother of Alfred Wong, had to contend with various state restrictions that sought to ensure the new building would maintain a relationship of scale with the cathedral.
Wong designed a series of volumes to break down the mass of the tower block. Rising from the ground is a rectilinear five-storey retail podium, including a basement, that houses shop units arranged round a large central atrium. A 21-storey square office block sits back from the podium on one side, and between them is an intermediate three-storey office block. This “wedding cake” design ensured the tower fulfilled setback requirements as well as an 18-m height limit on the podium so as to maintain the view of the sea from nearby Fort Canning.³
The podium is distinguished by a series of three-dimensional arches constructed out of fibreglass and clad in mosaic tiles. While decorative, they also serve as a structural layout that results in an almost column-free interior.⁴ A series of precast concrete ribs envelope the building, and soar towards the sky to help lighten its massing while shading inhabitants from the sun. Although the building was designed just before the establishment of national requirements for building energy efficiency, Wong claimed that the sun-shading fins and special window glazing helped it achieve this.⁵
The design of Peninsula Plaza has been likened to the former World Trade Center in New York City completed in 1973 by Japanese-American architect Minoru Yamasaki. It is interesting to note that Yamasaki was originally commissioned in 1965 to design what was to become a luxury hotel on the site. His proposal also had a podium held up by arches although the design was significantly less expressive.⁶ It was ultimately not built because of an oversupply in hotel rooms set in during the early 1970s. The land owners, Consolidated Hotels, who had demolished the former Meyer Mansions that stood on the site, eventually switched to developing an office-cum-retail complex instead. They received approval in 1975 to construct its new plans.⁷
Besides its distinctive facade, Peninsula Plaza is also notable as one of the first buildings in Singapore to install lifts for cars. The building was originally not designed with a carpark as the government had promised to provide such facilities on the adjoining site.⁸ When this development took longer than expected, it was decided to convert the fifth floor office space into a carpark. As there was no space on the site for ramps, the architects proposed installing car lifts at the side of the building along Coleman Lane instead.
When Peninsula Plaza’s retail podium officially opened on 3 November 1979, the S$110-million development was touted to inject “new life blood” into “Big Town” or “Tua Por”, an area of Singapore that has historically been bustling with administration, trade and social activities.⁹ It boasted anchor tenants such as the upmarket fashion retailer Klasse and popular European shoe retailer Bata. The development also had an underground link to the Peninsula Hotel across the street, which Consolidated Hotels had acquired in 1973 just before developing Peninsula Plaza.
Over the years, however, the building grew into a hub for the Burmese diaspora in Singapore. As Myanmar opened up and became a source of foreign labour, several businesses chose to move into Peninsula Plaza. By 1995, the third storey of retail podium housed various businesses catering to the community and was dubbed Singapore’s “Little Myanmar”.¹⁰ Today, Peninsula Plaza remains a bustling hangout for the Burmese community, especially on the weekends, and they often spill out to the surrounding public spaces.
Locations: 150 Cecil St, Singapore 069543
Architects: James Ferrie & Partners (Architect-in-charge: Theresa Chee)
Year: 1975
Status: Not Conserved
Edwards, Norman, and Peter Keys. ‘Peninsula Plaza’. In Singapore: A Guide to Buildings, Streets, Places. Times Editions Pte Ltd, 1988.
The Business Times (Singapore). ‘Awards Based on Micro Architectural Factors’. 10 December 1986.
Building Materials & Equipment Southeast Asia. ‘Peninsula Plaza: More Sophistication for Singapore’s Second Generation Office Buildings’. February 1976.
Wong, Yunn Chii. ‘Peninsula Plaza’. In Singapore 1:1 - City. Urban Redevelopment Authority, 2005.
Ngoo, Irene. ‘Peninsula Plaza: We Are Not Energy Guzzlers’. The Straits Times (Singapore), 3 April 1983.
The Straits Times (Singapore). ‘Consolidated Hotels Limited’. 15 September 1969.
The Straits Times (Singapore). ‘Consolidated Hotels Complex’. 1 March 1975.
Ho, Richard. ‘Getting a Lift to a Carpark!’ New Nation (Singapore), 18 December 1979.
The Straits Times (Singapore). ‘Peninsula Plaza Now Open for Business!’ 3 November 1979.
Veloo, Ravi. ‘Peninsula Plaza Bridges Culture Gap for Those Far from Home’. Life! The Straits Times (Singapore), 21 September 1995.
Last modified on 18 September 2025. Written by Justin Zhuang.
