Representing the OCBC Centre by I.M. Pei

The skyline of Singapore is dotted with several distinctive towers, but none capture the imagination of this photographer quite like the OCBC Centre at 65 Chulia Street. The 52-story Brutalist tower completed in 1976 is unique in its form, its relationship with the environment, and its historical context. Though I did not know when I first saw it, it is designed by one of the most famous architects of the 20th Century; I.M. Pei. As it stands, the $100 million OCBC Centre serves as a thesis on his bold vision for the future of Singapore, and the future of architecture as a whole.

The building was commissioned by OCBC president Tan Sri Tan Chin Tuan, who knew Pei through family connections. When Tan Chin Tuan hired the architectural firm, I.M. Pei & Partners gained the honor of being the first foreign architects to be invited in Singapore. This can therefore serve as the inaugural piece in an enduring legacy of foreign firms designing trophy projects in the city-state.

The original OCBC Bank along Chulia Street, image courtesy Mothership

Pre-Pei’d

The OCBC Bank has had a location on Chulia Street since the founding of the institution in 1932. Before Pei, the bank operated in a six-story building known as the China Building. The old site was designed by architects Keys & Dowdeswell in a decorative Peking style. The style used Chinese signifier to imply decadence and traditional aristocracy. By the 1970s, the bank was looking to modernize its brand post-independence. The 30s era structure bore little influence on the forward-looking creativity of I.M. Pei. The building was demolished in 1970 to make way for its successor.

OCBC Building in early construction, image courtesy Mothership

The OCBC Centre is just 43 years old, and it was built just 44 years after the completion of the original China Building. An architectural comparison demonstrates both the technological advancements made within Singapore, and how different periods demanded through architecture different expressions of success and institutional longevity.

Golden Mile Complex, a contemporary for OCBC Centre

Following the Lead of the Golden Mile Complex

In three significant ways, OCBC Centre has following the footsteps of the Golden Mile Complex. Firstly, it followed the Complex by being the second ever development to come from the HDB Urban Renewal Department’s Sales of Sites in 1968. The Golden Mile Complex land was sold in 1967. Secondly, they were both designed in the brutalist style flanked by two cores. Lastly and curiously, they were both completed over half a decade after being sold.

The first point raised is the most important in terms of historic context. The city into which both buildings entered was dealing with identical issues. William S.W. Lim, one of the architects behind the Golden Mile Complex, described the immediate post-colonial Singapore period, writing, “it had an unemployment rate of 10% and its per capita GDP was S$1,600,” (pg. 14). He goes onto to focus on a lack in infrastructure, transit, and public space.

The historic significance of Brutalism in Singapore is demonstrated by Pei’s use in unison with Design Partnerships for the Golden Mile, and with the Pearlbank Apartments, Former CPF Building, Former UIC Building, and the People’s Park Complex, which were also building the early to mid 70s. The movement has a seminal role in the post-colonial vision for Singapore’s future by establishing strength and security.

OCBC Brutalism

The building’s aesthetic is a direct reaction both to Singapore’s need for modernization and, interestingly, the firm’s concern about inexperience with contracts. At the time, all of Singapore’s skyscrapers were either built a year or two prior, or in the process of construction, so, “Pei determined to build a straightforward expression of structure, simplifying the complex so that the wary contractor was not challenged by Singapore’s [tallest] skyscraper, but three fifteen-story buildings stacked on top of each other,” (pg. 153).The building’s two rounded concrete core, linked with steel lattice, clamp together the three sections into a singular of strength and unity. It became Southeast Asia’s tallest tower once complete at a height of 649 feet. Efforts to simplify the project paid dividends when it was completed remarkably fast, in less than two years. The new owners boasted about having the city’s fastest elevators, traveling at 366 meters per minute, (source).

Why It’s Granite and not Concrete

When OCBC President Tan Chin Tuan talked with Pei, “he explained the need for a powerful bank to express OCBC’s ‘Solid as a Rock’ corporate motto,” (pg. 153). Brutalism came as a natural response to this corporate slogan, and for the wider need to demonstrate the strength of the small economy. The original intention for the facade was to be composed of raw concrete, however, “when [architectural concrete] was found too porous to prevent discoloration from an indigenous fungus, [Pei] realized OCBC’s rock-solid imagery by facing the cores in granite,” (pg. 154). As it stands today, the granite-clad tower remains remarkably clean in the tropical weather thanks to this site-specific solution.

Mini-Pei’s

The building has two extension buildings built in its near vicinity. OCBC Centre South, located at 18 Church Avenue, was completed in 1985, with granite cladding similar to the original tower. The seven-story office building is home to the OCBC Securities division. It’s unclear if Pei was involved with the project.

Built in 1996, OCBC Centre East building stands 17 stories tall, and was also designed by Pei. The extension contained over 182,000 square feet of office space.

The Reclining Figure

In further evidence of how the OCBC Centre functions as the entry-point for the West, Pei used it as reason to commission an enormous sculpture from a famous American artist. “The breezy companion of this powerful building is a walk-through bronze that Pei, after three trips to Henry Moore’s studio, finally convinced the sculptor to enlarge from a 13-inch maquette made in 1938 into a 25-foot-long reclining nude,” (pg. 154). The sculpture, Reclining Figure 1938, is significant as one of Moore’s last and his largest sculpture ever (wiki). The piece was installed in 1984, replacing Endless Flow, a sculpture completed in 1980 by the Singaporean artist Tan Teng Kee.

Conclusion

While it is no leader in vision and style, Pei’s OCBC Centre plays an important role within Singapore’s history and relationship with the world post-independence. It reaffirms the role brutalism played in developing the vision of Singaporean identity post-colonialism. The need for granite over concrete likewise demonstrates how Singapore’s unique climate would influence the architectural styles that could succeed on the tropical island. In the wider narrative of the development of the city, Pei’s OCBC centre is like a new species being introduced to the environment. In it, the world learned of Singapore, and Singapore learned that its own innovations weren’t far behind everyone else.

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