UOL to redevelop 30-yr-old Somerset building

Units in new project to combine office facilities with service apartment

31 Mar 05

By KALPANA RASHIWALA

THE rejuvenation of ageing properties in the Orchard Road belt continues apace. This time, United Overseas Land is tearing down its 30-year-old UOL Building at Somerset Road and redeveloping it into a project offering units that combine an office and a service apartment.

http://business-times.asia1.com.sg/mnt/media/image/launched/2005-03-31/kruol31-000408.jpg
Pioneer: The project will be the first to offer "live-and-work" concept in Orchard area

It will be like the small-office, home-office (SoHo) concept except that the units also come with services like housekeeping and laundry.

This will make it the first project offering the 'live-and-work' concept in the Orchard Road area.

UOL will hold the 128 units for lease when the 16-storey freehold project next to Somerset MRT Station is completed by October 2007.

This will be the group's flagship building for its executive suite/service apartment business.

Currently, the group has only one service apartment property, Plaza Pacific Serviced Apartments above Plaza Parkroyal Hotel in Beach Road.

It hopes to rebrand this business and is also looking to start a chain of SoHo-style service apartments in Singapore and the region.

BT understands that UOL may also include such units - a small number, though - for its project on the Kim Tian Plaza site in Tiong Bahru. However, they are likely to be for sale.

As for the UOL Building redevelopment, UOL will incur about $27 million in construction costs.

Kajima Overseas has been appointed the main contractor.

CPG Consultants is the architect and an Italian designer, Marco Corti of Colombo Associates, will do the interior.

UOL is expected to target expatriates who are here for consultancy work or to start up businesses and who want to live and work in the same place.

This way, they do not need to rent separate offices and apartments.

The new development will have the same plot ratio (ratio of potential gross floor area to land area) as the existing UOL Building, which comprises mainly offices.

However, it still makes sense for UOL to redevelop the project into SoHo-styled service apartments, say market watchers.

This is because the UOL Building is no longer competitive in the office market as it has small floor plates (making usage inefficient) and most of the units have low ceilings.

And redeveloping the property into a pure office project may not do the trick either, as the centre of gravity in the Singapore office market is shifting to the New Downtown area.

The project's 128 units will comprise a mix of studio, one and two-bedroom units, ranging from 42 square metres to 120 sq m.

UOL Building's tenants, including Expressions International, the Management Development Institute of Singapore (MDIS) and Checker's Cafe, are moving out by today, ahead of the building's demolition slated for next month.

Expressions is headed for MacDonald House. Checker's Cafe, located on the ground floor, is moving to Yess Leisure, opposite Temasek Tower in Shenton Way.

MDIS is relocating to its UniCampus at Stirling Road in Queenstown.

The existing building is also 16 storeys high, comprising a seven-storey podium and a nine-storey tower block.

^
Oh wow.......something else to look forward to......:D

looks very funny, but beats the decent if boring current building.

I guess demolition must start soon if its to be ready by 2007 :cool:

I have only one photo of the UOL building, and not a very good one, but interestingly it's from about the same angle as the rendering ^ ^

http://ssc.singapenguin.net/04/somerset01.jpg

Excellent. Hope this is but the first in a long series of renovations.

http://www.streetdirectory.com.sg/images/simg.php?r=11048348072304&bo=1

http://www.streetdirectory.com.sg/images/simg.php?r=11048348072303&bo=1
This is the 16 floor UOL Building. All tenants had moved out.
Would be torn down.

Maybe should merge this thread with this one ?
http://skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=196882

UOL building to be torn down

1 Apr 05

By Joyce Teo

UOL Building in Somerset Road will be demolished this month to make way for a project offering high-end serviced apartments that will come with office facilities.

The 16-storey building's remaining tenants moved out yesterday.

The Straits Times understands that the new 128-unit 16-storey luxury-end project is expected to be ready in 2007.

With this project, which is near Somerset MRT station, United Overseas Land is incorporating the increasingly popular small office, home office (SoHo) concept into serviced apartments.

Targeted at businessmen travelling to Singapore to start up a business or work on a project, the serviced apartments will be leased as a temporary home-cum-office.

UOL currently has one serviced apartment project - Plaza Pacific Serviced Apartments - which sits atop an office building, The Plaza, on Beach Road.

Said The Ascott Group's chief executive officer, Mr Cameron Ong: 'More variations of serviced apartments, at more price points, will help widen the overall serviced residence customer segment, and spur industry growth.'

Wah, so fast ^^
I was on Orchard yesterday night and I noticed that all the building's lights were off.

better get more shots of it before its demolished!

It dosent look too loudy leh. Btw, I am a tad dissapointed its replaced by a similarly short tower. :D

yah all this while I have never bothered to look at the UOL Building, hopefully its successor will be able to turn more heads! ^^

loudy...:D I meant lousy. ;) There are far worse looking ones just across the road?

The rendering is a bit small, but it looks kinda funky :-)

hmm..hope to be able to find more renderings or the architect for this

Meanwhile that area around Somerset can do with a spruce-up!

loudy...:D I meant lousy. ;) There are far worse looking ones just across the road?

Buildings around there are rather old and not-so-nice. There's Phoenix hotel, of which the only good thing is, I guess, the logo. On the other side is I think a building of the Singapore Power company (can be seen on the left of my pic). It's brutalist style, I'm not too fond of it. On the Orchard Road side is the Specialist's shopping centre and some other old-looking ones.

Yeah....think its near the OG building or something....or was it Tong building as well? They are like a bunch of out of place relics of yesteryears.

22nd April

Probably some of the last photos you'll see of UOL still looking like UOL ;-)

http://ssc.singapenguin.net/05/050422_uol_building01.jpg

http://ssc.singapenguin.net/05/050422_uol_building02.jpg

http://ssc.singapenguin.net/05/050422_uol_building03.jpg

http://ssc.singapenguin.net/05/050422_uol_building04.jpg

http://ssc.singapenguin.net/05/050422_uol_building05.jpg

25 May 2005

looks like its ready for demolition

http://img274.echo.cx/img274/4626/uol25059zn.jpg (http://www.imageshack.us)

30 July 2005

http://tinypic.com/9urgy8.jpg

Anything left of it?

about 2 storeys left if I'm not wrong

signboard

http://img260.imageshack.us/img260/8520/uolsign2ma.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

17 February 2006

http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/949/uol17029hy.jpg

21 October 2006

http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j67/RCSSC/uol2110.jpg

Wow....that would be good.....any rendering for the project?? :?

mmmm....there used to be one on the first page but its not working...well...the design seems 'funky', it looks like a matress that has been folded into a U-shape :D

mmmm....there used to be one on the first page but its not working...well...the design seems 'funky', it looks like a matress that has been folded into a U-shape :D

Hmm....sounds really funky.....:lol:

Here's an update from 28th January 2007

http://ssc.singapenguin.net/07/070128_uol_building01.jpg

http://ssc.singapenguin.net/07/070128_uol_building02.jpg
Wow this was on page 6 already ! I suppose no one has interest in this building since it cannot be bought and resold for a profit ;-)
Anyway this update comes for free :-p

very long time no update... :D

this building definitely has an interesting shape that I saw from the rendering and it can be seen forming in the pics..the facade will also be important :)

I wonder why they tear it down and rebuild instead of refurbishing the interiors. Replacing a modern looking 16-storey building with a new 16-storey building don't make much sense. Construction sand is scarce now so its such a waste.

1 ***** 2007

http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j67/RCSSC/uol0104.jpg

OT a bit... I hope the stupid asterisk thingy would stop soon. It's extremely irritating. :rant:

Some people on this board have absolutely no sense of humor ^ ^

OT a bit... I hope the stupid asterisk thingy would stop soon. It's extremely irritating. :rant:
I think the filtering effect has been reduced. Previously "Street" was blocked-out but now it is OK.

Some people on this board have absolutely no sense of humor ^ ^
It could be an April Fool's joke?

Copyrighted Words (April Fools!)

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Today at the SSC offices, we received a letter from an attorney who represents a few various clients. It has been requested that we censor certain words that these clients hold as trademark. Including, but not limited to certain city and country names.

Due to the fact that it is a weekend, The SSC legal team is out of the office and unable to advise us. In the meantime we've taken steps to censor the words on the list.
We apologize for the inconvenience.



(April Fools!)
__________________
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It could be an April Fool's joke?

Copyrighted Words (April Fools!)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Today at the SSC offices, we received a letter from an attorney who represents a few various clients. It has been requested that we censor certain words that these clients hold as trademark. Including, but not limited to certain city and country names.

Due to the fact that it is a weekend, The SSC legal team is out of the office and unable to advise us. In the meantime we've taken steps to censor the words on the list.
We apologize for the inconvenience.



(April Fools!)
__________________
Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.
- Douglas Adams


Couldn't blame them, they might be hit by * virus (or new asterisk virus) over the weekend and have just managed to clean the virus by Sywomantec software (a new female version of Symantec software) :lol: :lol: :lol:

12 May 2007

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h204/hyapic01/DSCF1355.jpg

Wow, looking good..

Wonder why only 16 floors for such prime Orchard Road land. Otherwise it does looks good.

I thought it looked orange with many stripes of some thingies? :?

Wonder why only 16 floors for such prime Orchard Road land. Otherwise it does looks good.

http://www.ura.gov.sg/ppd/gazettedmp2003/index-frontmp2003.htm

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h204/hyapic01/MWSnap065.jpg

Probably the proximity to Istana creates a height envelope...most Orchard Road buildings arent very tall, I noticed the same for the Tanglin end, maybe because of the GCBs, Botanic Gardens & embassies

What's GCB?

Good class bungalows.1400m and above.

10 June 2007

http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j67/RCSSC/uol1006.jpg

Arh .. So its the UOL Building . I remember seeing a building being demolished that time next to Somerset station , but i couldnt figure out what building it was. I remembered that the last remains of the building was the elevator shaft if im not wrong . The portion is rather huge.

I think the new redevelopment looks cool :D

25th January 2008

They are now working on the entrance lobby. Floors seem to be mostly finished.
http://ssc.singapenguin.net/08/080125_uol_building02.jpg

http://ssc.singapenguin.net/08/080125_uol_building03.jpg

Together with the remnants of Hotel Phoenix:
http://ssc.singapenguin.net/08/080125_uol_building_and_hotel_phoenix01.jpg