Getting State buildings ready for S2006

The conserved 77-year-old City Hall building, in September, will be used as a key registration site for some 16,000 foreign delegates for Singapore 2006 (S2006) and the Annual Meetings of the Boards of Governors of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank Group in September.

The property agent, United PREMAS Limited, the Singapore Land Authority's appointed managing agent for City Hall building took over from the old Supreme Court before National Day Parade 2005 last year. The external facade cleaning of Supreme Court and City Hall had been carried out since then. Some of the sprucing up included using water jet and scrubbing of stains with detergents. A boom crane was used to reach the high floors with internal touch-up painting of two carparks and other internal areas in City Hall last month. A re-coat of paint has been applied to the buildings' canopy shelters, metal grille gates, external walls on all levels and along the perimeter, as well as the external wall facing opposite Adelphi and the new Supreme Court walls facing City Hall side entrance.

SLA Director of Land Business & Management Mr Clarence Ti said: "With Singapore as the host, SLA 's mission is to showcase State properties which are iconic landmarks at prominent locations, in well-maintained and aesthetically-pleasing conditions to leave lasting first impressions of the island-state. We want our visitors to appreciate not only the external splendour of our state properties but also the internal architecture and their beauty."

Other State properties will also be used for S2006-related events and activities. SLA has also issued Temporary Occupation Licence (TOL) for State owned properties to government agencies as well as private sector contractors for work related to Singapore 2006. This includes the former Kallang Auto Car Centre, which will be used as the rehearsal grounds for the setting up and tearing down of the over 1,000 temporary offices for the Annual Meetings at Suntec Singapore. The former City Hall and the former Tanglin Camp at Dempsey Road are one of the many performance sites of Singapore Biennale organized by National Arts Council, one of the other highlights of S2006 (see Annex A for details).

The Building Management and Land Management Teams frequently ensure that all vacant State land and buildings are taken care of with basic, reasonable maintenance until and while they are leased for interim uses. The normal sprucing-up checklist to a State property typically includes repainting, cleaning, grass-cutting, housekeeping, vector control and repair works to damage areas.

With Singapore 2006 (S2006) less than a month to go, some State properties have had their usual maintenance schedules reviewed and rescheduled through bringing forward and intensifying the frequency of works, in good time. SLA regularly reviews the maintenance needs of our state properties. Where there are significant events, the Authority conscientiously review the maintenance needs and may adjust the maintenance schedules of those in prominent locations. The period of maintenance and upkeep to the big day will include final-moment touch-ups in end August 06. Frequency will increase in Sept and throughout the period. There will also be regular site inspections and patrol checks during S2006 period. All building facades are expected to be spruced up by 4 September. For vacant properties, maintenance works had been completed last month. For agent-managed and tenanted properties, SLA had already informed the respective personnel to carry out the maintenance works from as early as February this year.

SLA , working together with the Land Transport Authority, has also facilitated dialogue sessions and corresponded with licensees with regards to standards on hoardings, noise pollution and aesthetics. Patrol checks will be conducted regularly on the hoardings and maintenance of sites in August and subsequently weekly inspections in September.

SLA is a member of the Area Management Workgroup under the Singapore 2006 Organising Committee and has been working very closely alongside many other government agencies to ensure the success of this all-important international event.