Location

Singapore

Client

Hongkong Land (Singapore) Pte. Ltd

Contract Value

S$200 million

Construction Period

1998 Q1 - 2000 Q1

Created by world-renowned New York architects Kohn Pedersen Fox, One Raffles Link is Hongkong Land's first commercial development in Singapore. The seven-storey office building is purpose built for leading financial services tenants, and has probably the largest bespoke office floor plate in Asia (typically 48,000 sq. ft. and virtually column-free). It is linked to the nearby City Hall MRT Station by an air-conditioned subterranean mall, CityLink Mall, housing around 60,000 sq. ft. of retail space.

We were brought on board on day one under a Guaranteed Maximum Price (GMP) contract, to work with Hongkong Land and its professional team to provide design input, carry out value engineering reviews and value management, in order to develop jointly the optimal design for Hongkong Land's needs. To fast track the construction process, we were awarded several advanced works packages whilst, design development was under way, including service diversions, site establishment work and the foundation and diaphragm walling.

Due to the tight construction period, we proposed a 'top down' basement construction which allowed the basement and superstructure works to run concurrently, resulting in a reduction of two months on the construction period. A steel-framed superstructure was selected to give the clear spans called for by Hongkong Land. Castellated steel floor beams were used to provide openings for the building services, enabling future tenants to obtain high floor to ceiling height, and clear column free areas on the office floors. We assembled a strong technical and operation team to enable the timely and effective co-ordination of the complex finishes and engineering installations to the highest quality standards.

The CityLink Mall passes under several major roads and storm water canals in a variety of ground conditions, including soft marine clay. The successful completion of this part of the project relied heavily on Gammon's extensive ground engineering expertise and ability to maintain close coordination with numerous government departments.