Change Alley Aerial Plaza by Jeremy San
Completion: 1973
Architect: K.K. Tan & Associates
Change Alley Aerial Plaza was one of Singapore’s guilty pleasures. This Sale of Sites project joined a strip of eclectic waterfront tourist spots, from Merlion Park to the topless revues at Neptune, a nightclub in the neighbouring Overseas Union House. Occupying a prime spot on the skyscraper-sprouting skyline, the bridge-tower was hyped as Singapore’s first “midair shopping complex” (the bridge) and noted for its revolving restaurant (the tower).
Situated 12 floors aboveground, Red Lantern served views of the harbour and Chinese cuisine to weddings banquets and tour groups. The self-consciously futuristic design aesthetic had closely followed a concept by the Urban Renewal Department (URD), the forerunner of Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA). Upon crossing the eight-lane Collyer Quay from Change Alley, the bridge pivots to the right and spirals down around the tower via a series of kinked, ramped, and looped sections, before landing in front of Clifford Pier.
The world within the bridge was a delicious contrast: self-important executives and sober secretaries from sleek offices brushed shoulders with sweating and haggling seamen, stallholders, and hostesses. After Change Alley closed in 1989, followed by Clifford Pier in 2006, the familiar faces of grime and glitz too left. The tower has been conserved, the bridge refurbished, and the name “Change Alley Aerial Plaza” lost, as the site was merged into Overseas Union Enterprise’s 50 Collyer Quay project, part of URA’s new loop of attractions at Marina Bay.
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Approximate Size: 1 m x 1.502 m. Framed.
This is the original print that was exhibited at “Moderns in Our Midst: A Photographic Tribute to Singapore’s Modern Architectural Heritage” in 2015.
UV Printing on 3 mm white DIBOND with 10 mm square aluminium channel on 4 sides. Print does not feature the artist's signature. No other framing options available. No certificate of authenticity provided.
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A portion proceeds from Jeremy San's work will go to Singapore Heritage Society and Jeremy San's estate.
About Jeremy San
The late Jeremy San Tzer Ning was an accomplished architectural photographer based in Singapore, who documented local as well as regional architectural works in Malaysia, Hong Kong and China. Schooled in RMIT, Melbourne, Australia as an interior designer, his graduation thesis was an ambitious photo-documentation project of modern heritage buildings, which also spawned his photography career.
Upon graduation, Jeremy practised as an interior designer in the architecture office KNTA, and also collaborated with experimental design studios HAM Architects, LingHao Architects and AT Lab on various competition and proposals. His design training and practice experience gave him an empathetic eye as a photographer capturing architecture – whether historic, newly completed, or even under construction – as well as urban landscapes. He has been engaged by leading design firms including Alsop, Foster + Partners, Atelier Liu Yu Yang, K2LD, Formwerkz, KUU, Farm Works, UOL, DPA and ipli. His works are widely published, including in journals such as ish, Cubes, and SA. He was also commissioned by Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) to work on the Singapore 1:1 exhibitions (2005, 2007), and has collaborated with Studio Lapis on conservation documentation projects such as Victoria Theatre and Concert Hall. In 2012, he was awarded the Discernment Prize for the ICON de Martell Cordon Bleu photography awards.