The
MacDonald House is a historic building in
Singapore, and is located at Orchard Road
in the Museum Planning Area, within the Central
Area, Singapore's central business district.
Initially built for a bank, it continues to
function as a banking hall (albeit for a different
bank) today, although it is more well known
to be the site of a bombing attack in 1965.
The
MacDonald House of Singapore located a short distance
from the Istana, is the last remaining office building
in facing brick in the central area. The building
was built in 1949, and designed by Reginal Eyre
of the architectural firm Palmer and Turner. One
of the first high-rise buildings in Orchard Road,
the MacDonald House housed mainly British, American
and Australian companies.
Before the building was vacated in the early 2000s,
the building housed HSBC on the first few floors
of the building.
MacDonald
House of Singapore was the scene of a terrorist
bomb attack on 10 March 1965. Two Indonesian saboteurs
placed a bomb on the mezzanine floor, killing three
and wounding 33. This was one of a number of terrorist
attacks in Singapore during the Indonesian Confrontation
in support of President Sukarno's opposition to
the merger of Singapore, Malaya, Sabah and Sarawak
to form the Federation of Malaysia.
By
tender on 5 April 2002, with a net lettable area
of about 78,600 square feet over ten storeys After
years of remaining vacant, the building was put
up for sale. While the sale was on-going, the building
was gazetted as a national monument on 10 February
2003, with the exterior façade coming under
protection. The successful bidder, Tinifia Investment,
paid S$36 million for the freehold building in 2003,
and closed the building for extensive interior renovations
costing another S$12 million, including the upgrading
of the ceilings, floors, lobby and lifts, and the
introduction of carparking facilities with the addition
of a mechanical parking system for 30 cars.
The
re-opening of the building was in April 2005 with
full occupancy. Khattar Wong and Partners occupies
the fifth to eighth floors while a beautyspa operator,
Expressions International, takes up the top two
floors.
The flagship Orchard Road Branch of Citibank Singapore
opened on 23 June 2005, occupying 37,000 square
feet of space spread over the building's lower four
floors which house the largest wealth management
centre in Asia.
The
back façade of the building.Palmer and Turner
came to Johor Bahru in 1939 and then to Singapore
in 1940 from Shanghai via Hong Kong. The firm was
established by Colonel P.O.G. Wakeham in Singapore
shortly after World War II. It was probably the
longest established and one of the best known architectural
firms in Southeast Asia, having been formed in Shanghai
circa 1882.
This
House is one of Palmer and Turner's first buildings
in Singapore, and was built for the Hong Kong and
Shanghai Banking Corporation. It was the first large
office building of the post-war period. The Mac
Donald House was built in a Neo-Georgian style.
It is a reinforced concrete framed structure
and clad in light red brickwork of fine detail,
the last major building of its kind in downtown
Singapore.
It
was the first building to be fully air-conditioned
in Malaya. In addition to the ground banking hall,
seven floors of staff flats occupied the building.
An open well runs through the building, allowing
natural light into the inner offices. There are
six skylights in the ceiling
of the banking hall which thus needs no artificial
lighting during the day.
