Orchard Road, Singapore has been quiet and stable in terms of development since the completion of Ngee Ann City in the early 1990s. No large-scale development has been launched on Orchard Road since then. Now, Orchard Road is back to being active and thriving after Orchard Turn Development announced its ION Orchard development followed by Far East Organization’s announcement of Orchard Central.
Orchard Turn Development is a joint venture between CapitaLand and Sun Hung Kai Properties of Hong Kong.
ION Orchard is Orchard Turn Development’s flagship development on a last piece of land along Orchard Road above the Orchard MRT. The land is on a 99-year lease. The construction cost of this development is S$700 million.
ION Orchard also means “Me in Orchard”, giving visitors a sense of belonging and the vibrancy of shopping on Orchard Road, especially ION Orchard. It is established by Orchard Turn Development to be the “center of gravity” that draws visitors to their venue.
There are 2 components i.e. ION Orchard and Orchard Residence. ION Orchard will be a shopping mall, while Orchard Residence will be a high-rise condominium. Both are being built together at the same time.
Orchard Residence is 218m tall, making it the tallest building on Orchard Road. It has 175 units including 4 penthouses. The condo starts on the 9th floor and ends on the 54th floor.
Upon completion, it will have a gross floor area of 441,700 square feet and retail space of 663,000 square feet. According to these figures, it is larger than the city of Ngee Ann.
It is designed based on a futuristic concept. It has some unique features and new ideas that will definitely attract visitors from all over the world.
It will have a media façade in its 117m frontage. It has a multisensory canvas mediawall. It will employ media architecture to cover its entrance façade. This screen will display the related brands. It will be a platform where global live events and multimedia events can be broadcast.
ION2 will be the largest protected public square in the world. It spans 33,000 square feet. Some 200,000 pedestrians are in its immediate vicinity.
ION Art will be an exhibition gallery located on the fourth floor of the mall. It will be an exhibition of exclusive artistic and cultural events.
ION Sky, an observation deck will be located on the 55th and 56th floors (218 m), with a panoramic view of Orchard Road and the surrounding areas.
It will have 660,000 rentable areas with a capacity for 400 points of sale. Now it already has 6 flagship stores, that is, Cartier, Christian Dior, Dolce & Galbana, Giorgio Armani, Louis Vuitton and Prada.
Unlike ION Orchard, Orchard Central is another gigantic development along Orchard Road, it is a pure commercial building. It is based on the futuristic concept of “out of the box” store space. Upon completion, it will be Singapore’s first “vertical mall” with 11 floors above ground plus 2 basements.
Located next to the Somerset MRT station, it has some state of the art features.
It has a food shelter at the highest point. Visitors can find specialty restaurants serving international cuisine. Customers will have the option of dining indoors or outdoors.
It has a 160 m long Orchard Road frontage. The conventional chimney is eliminated. Visitors and shoppers can enter the stores from the pedestrian walkway.
There will be no anchor tenants like department stores, supermarkets or movie theaters. However, it offers creative store formats such as underground stores, ramp stores, duplex units, and suspended stores.
It has 3 outdoor balconies overlooking Orchard Road. They will be scheduled for outdoor seating and for F&B outlets.
The exceptional 7 m high free space on level 1, level 4 and level 7 are designed as common areas for gatherings and social activities.
Orchard Central’s most striking feature will be its 11-story-tall “faceted membrane” wall that will double as a massive media wall. It is designed to be a symbolized feature at the junction of Orchard Road and Killiney Road. It will create auditory and visual vitality on Orchard Road. Eventually, it will become a distinctive landmark where people will talk and meet.
Similar to ION Orchard, Orchard Central will have 400 stores and food outlets. It will attract luxury brand tenants to establish its flagship concept stores.
Orchard Central is scheduled to be operational in the fourth quarter of 2008, while ION Orchard is scheduled for early 2009.
When both ION Orchard and Orchard Central are operational, one can see Orchard Road getting a shot of new life, rejuvenated, energized and definitely ranked as the top shopping haven that other cities in the world have yet to catch up with.