OCBC Centre
Singapore, Singapore

HEIGHT: 201m/659 feet
FLOORS: 52 floors
COMPLETION: 1976
ARCHITECT: Pei Cobb Freed & Partners


On the site of its former main offices the client requested a new headquarters to house an imposing ground floor banking hall and provide some half-million square feet of office space — largely for the bank but also for tenant leasing. The solution, an innovative 200m-high tower (the tallest in Asia upon completion in 1976) occupies a focal position in modern Singapore, having served as a vertical anchor for the developing cityscape.

Unlike most central-core towers, OCBC has twin cores at either end housing all of the tower's elevators, mechanical and support systems. Steel trusses and prestressed concrete girders span between the two cores, like rungs on a ladder, transferring gravity loads to the foundations and permitting tiers of column-free office floors to be "floated" in between. Each tier is articulated by a 5.5m cantilevered concrete sunscreen faced in glass tile to match the granite-clad cores.

By virtue of the bi-core structural system, the base of the building was opened up to create a 12m-high column-free banking hall that extends out to the street through its transparent glass walls. A garden plaza further mitigates architectural mass as a 21m-long bronze — Henry Moore's largest walk-through sculpture — animates public space and contrasts playfully with the bold, yet serene, tower form.

http://www.pcfandp.com/a/p/7021/7021-1.jpg

http://files.photojerk.com/RafflesCity/ocbc2.jpg

http://mywebpage.netscape.com/rotpics02/ocbc.jpg

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/photopost/data/503/103ocbc3.jpg

http://www.pcfandp.com/a/p/7021/7021-4.jpg

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/photopost/data/503/103ocbc2.jpg

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/photopost/data/2/103dscn0696.jpg

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/photopost/data/503/103ocbc.jpg

interesting scraper. 7/10

7.5/10

Looks better in the skyline. Plus, those pics look like they were on a miserable day.

6/10 I think the calculator idea looks horrible.

Weird but nice , 7,5

I kinda like this one..but i think it looks also quite ugly.
6.5/10

8/10

More than any other building, this IM Pei design symbolises the emergence of Singapore as South East Asia's most modern state more than any other building. Simple yet powerful.

A postcard from 1982
http://www.straitscafe.com/postcards/singapore1/boat_quay_1990s.jpg

A picture showing its construction..probably around 1975.

http://shopping.corbis.com/shared/images/67/10308255/BB002985.jpg

6/10 i never liked this one..

looks nice, 10!

7.0

this building makes me smile. a good sign. although I dont like concrete at all, this design makes good effort from the boring looks of concrete. the windows are very interesting. a building with a certain charisma. and funny too. yes, a 7.0

Quite ugly building, 6/10

8/10 for this view
http://skyscrapers.com/files/transfer/5/2000/09/108199.jpg

Wow, looks like that old UOB Building has been around forever! When was it built? It even predates the OCBC building.

Anyway, 7/10 for OCBC.

kinda of weird, but i like it. 7/10

5.0

Originally posted by DamienK

Wow, looks like that old UOB Building has been around forever! When was it built? It even predates the OCBC building.

Anyway, 7/10 for OCBC.

It seems no one knows, even skyscrapers.com does not have any onfo about it.
http://www.skyscrapers.com/re/en/wm/bu/106521/

OCBC Centre had an intersting history about it, there where some dissagrements between the owner and Pei about the design as he(owner) felt so nostalgic about the old emerad-green roof of the old OCBC Building, a chinese-styled building.

See that green roofed building(whaite walls) on the top half of the picture, slightly left from the centre? That's the old OCBC, on the same spot as the present one.
http://www.straitscafe.com/postcards/singapore1/clifford_pier_1970s_aerial.jpg

Lovely, I really like it a lot !!

Unique, 9/10

looks cold, kinda like a radiator.
Nevertheless,
8.5/10

i love it!9.5/10

9/10
gorgeous in it's own way. will still be gorgeous 100 years on. simple minimalist lines and perfect proportions.

at least interesting shape. 4/10

8.0 Clear design, nice & smooth

7,5

somehow i like this one here

I never did like this building... ANd it was right in front of my hotel room in my last visit!!

4/10....:(

7/10


It looks ok

Giant calculator LOL
Lift cores at each end and Building in the middle one of a kind
8.5/10
Great Grey Cement dominance on sides and clean sharp lines of the office windows.

Quite nice
8/10

7/10

9/10. It's different!!!!!!

5/10

i dun like the way it looks. but considering that this is one is a bit ancient, i say it must be cool at that time. adds variety to the skyline. 6.5/10

Apart from the calculator idea, this building also resembles Pei's name in Chinese.

really? how egotistical.. how do you write hi sname?

Erm.... first I have to figure out how to write that here or at least find the word and scan it into my comp first.

spell it for me.. maybe i can guess..

IM Pei's full name is Pei Ieoh Ming ,which in hanyupingyin in Bei Yi Ming.

贝聿铭

ahh ok.. not exactly like the building but... similarities arethere

Perhaps you mean this?

貝

That's his surname in Traditional.Yup ,some resemblence.

7/10

Looks nice, I like it!!!
9.5/10 :)

Looks like gigantic calculator :sly: Very original design, but not very nice. 7.5/10

The building's design reflect's OCBC's slogan "solid as a rock" ,designed having a 'strong' look ,like a vertical fortress.

The three protuding parts represent the three banks that merged to form OCBC.

It's an interesting design - you either love it or hate it. I tend to like it one day and then not like it the next. I think it's the most distinctive building in Singapore.

7.5/10

It's weird. I sometimes, or most of the times like weird designs...8/10! :D

This design, i don't like.. 6/10

2 more pics

http://mywebpage.netscape.com/rotpics02/ocbc2.jpg

http://mywebpage.netscape.com/rotpics02/ocbc3.jpg

Glad to see your keeping your self busy in singapore

yup been taking loads of pics recently and today was superhot! I wonder how u survive in Dubai:P

7/10 - Not bad.

nice scraper, 8.0

Fascinating design. Simple, yet intriguing.

I'd give this one an 8.

http://files.photojerk.com/RafflesCity/ocbc.jpg

6.5/10.

7.5/10

http://img11.exs.cx/img11/2741/ocbc5ng.jpg

i don't like the design, looking like unfinished.. 6/10

9/10

Haven't seen anything like it

it's ok...maybe the best brutalism skyscraper i've seen:D

7.5/10

I hate this one, 4/10

Uglier than the shiite I took this morning. I give it a 4/10. :puke:

Interesting design. 8

Ahhh! I hate it!

fantabulous 7/10

3 or less

Terrible design :puke:

7.5/10

8/10

Cold, drab and grey. Must be horrible working inside this concrete calculator. 6/10 :(

5/10

http://picas.nhb.gov.sg/data/tn_pcd/19980007450-8263-3201-0181/img0111.jpg
Under construction, circa 1975.

Wow i like this scraper 9/10

8 :cool:

4/10

7/10

6/10 not appealing! ;)

6/10

6.5/10

8/10

Uh oh.

The tower's unique with it's massive scale and bold shape. But the curved sides remind me of a marshmallow for some reason. As for the cladding, it seems to have gotten a little greenish. It looks like it would need a power wash...or recladding.

5.5/10.

6/10

7 / 10

clean design. innovative at the time of construction.

Standing tall:

http://picas.nhb.gov.sg/data/tn_pcd/19980007530-8263-3201-0183/img0085.jpg


The skyline then:
http://picas.nhb.gov.sg/data/tn_pcd/19980007530-8263-3201-0183/img0064.jpg

Construction:
http://picas.nhb.gov.sg/data/tn_pcd/19980007450-8263-3201-0181/img0111.jpg

7.5/10

its appealing.

5 / 10

Clean but not very attractive.

the small and Ugly version of Torre Repsol 7/10

8.5/10

5/10

6/10

Now I finally noticed Torre Repsol. It looks like a cross between OCBC and Chelsea Tower. :lol:

6/10

http://202.172.178.226/DJVUServer/getImage.jsp?file=/picas_data/tn_pcd/19980007451-8263-3201-0182/img0031.jpg

http://202.172.178.226/DJVUServer/getImage.jsp?file=/picas_data/tn_pcd/19980007450-8263-3201-0181/img0080.jpg

Interesting design... 8/10

8/10

8.5 ugly yet iconic.

Kinda weird, 7

3/10

Has that umf and oh.

7. Though a very interesting structure.

7/10:)

weird building

6.5

5.5/10

5/10

6/10

Very '70s. Nice building 8/10

8/10

8. Good building. Regards.

8/10

4/10 Looks so old esspecially in the Singapore Skyline

9/10

an iconic one for Singapore but it looks old.
7/10

9/10

7/10

7.5/10

7/10

7/10

7/10

8/10

8/10

8/10

Ugly. 4/10

7/10

6/10

Iconic, yet its brutalist vibe sends shivers down my spine

4.5/10

8/10

10/10

Love it! Looks ahead of its time!

9/10 Nice Building :okay:

9/10