Double Celebrations in One Day

Spotting a swanky address – 138 Market Street – Raffles Place’s latest and greenest premium Grade A office building, CapitaGreen, celebrated its topping-out in grand fashion. The ceremony was graced by Guest-of-Honour, Minister for National Development, Khaw Boon Wan; representatives from the joint venture, CapitaLand, CapitaCommercial Trust, and Mitsubishi Estate Asia; main contractor, Takenaka Corporation; and design architect, Toyo Ito. Together, they planted nine different plant species to showcase the types of plants that will green the building.

“We are delighted that CapitaGreen is on track to achieving completion by end 2014,” said Lim Ming Yan, President and Group Chief Executive Officer, CapitaLand.

“By adopting innovative technologies and design-and-built methodology, we shortened the construction timeline to 36 months from the industry average of 40 months.”

The striking 245-metre tall building, with 700,000 square feet of net lettable area is centrally located within Singapore’s Central Business District and in close proximity to the extended downtown Marina Bay.

“When completed, CapitaGreen will be an attractive location for businesses,” said Wen Khai Meng, Chief Executive Officer, CapitaLand Singapore.

“Tenants will get to enjoy the conveniences of the nearby Raffles Place and Telok Ayer MRT stations and ease of accessibility to major expressways.”

Efficient Construction Methods

Construction of this impressive office tower is spread over multiple milestones. The top-down construction method employed allowed the building’s basement and superstructure to be built concurrently. The time-saving method eliminated the need for temporary steel struts for constructing the basement since the floor slabs were designed to support the basement walls thereby saving resources as well.

To overcome the tight site and proximity to the East-West and Downtown MRT tunnels, extra-large 3.5-metre diameter bored piles were used for the first time in Singapore. This made critical foundation work more efficient and mitigated any risk of impact to the MRT tunnels.

CapitaGreen also became the first building in Singapore under development to use supercrete, a special grade 100 ultra-high strength concrete which significantly reduced the amount of concrete needed, saving energy and manpower as a result. This “supercrete” was utilised for 29 columns per floor across six floors of the building. The use of an ingenious hybrid of steel and precast construction technology, coupled with extensive training of workers, reduced the typical floor cycle time from nine to six days per floor and made the work site neater, cleaner, and safer.

Innovative Eco Design

CapitaGreen is designed like a plant growing towards the sky. Green living plants will cover 55 per cent of the perimeter of its façade, giving the landmark its iconic appearance. Also innovative is its double-skin façade – an outer layer of frameless glass and an inner envelop of double-glazed, floor-to-ceiling glass with planter boxes of greenery – that reduces solar heat gain by up to 26 per cent.

At a height of 245 metres, the air temperature is lower. There, a petal-like structure serves as wind scoops to draw in the cooler, cleaner air from above and channels it through a cool void that penetrates all 34 storeys of the building to deliver fresh air to tenants.

For this innovation and its other green features, CapitaGreen was awarded the Green Mark Platinum Award, the highest accolade for green building certification in Singapore under the Building and Construction Authority’s Green Mark Scheme.

Enhancing the aesthetics of its surroundings is another tenet of CapitaGreen’s design philosophy. Greeting visitors and tenants is an expansive lobby that boasts a triple-height ceiling and handcrafted Kakiotoshi (earth plaster) walls. Sculptures by world-renowned artists are tastefully integrated throughout the development to enhance their surroundings and aid way-finding.

Exceptionally high ceilings (3.2 metre raised floor to ceiling height) in the offices provide tenants flexible work spaces. At Levels 5, 14, and 26, sky terraces bring the outdoors indoors and offer tenants a quiet respite from the bustling city below.

On Level 38, a swimming pool and gym facilities invite users to unwind and work out their stress. A rooftop restaurant in the midst of the Sky Forest allows diners to savour the view from 40 floors up as they enjoy their meal.

“The total lease commitments at CapitaGreen now aggregate 165,000 square feet or 23% of the building’s net lettable area. With its scheduled year-end completion, CapitaGreen should attract continued leasing interest given the lack of new office supply in 2015 through to the first half of 2016,” said Lynette Leong, Chief Executive Officer, CapitaCommercial Trust Management Limited.

CCT 10th Anniversary celebration

The celebratory mood continued into the evening when CCT celebrated the 10th anniversary of its listing on the SGX. Management and staff hosted over 300 tenants, partners and board members past and present to a 5-course culinary extravaganza featuring celebrity chefs, Emmanuel Stroobant, Sam Leong, Wong Chin Yee, Malcolm Lee and Thierry Delourneaux.

CCT started off with 234 tenants in 7 properties in 2004. Today, its enlarged portfolio of 10 properties serves as the choice business address for more than 600 tenants. As a gesture of appreciation, awards were presented to the longest-staying tenant, the tenant occupying the largest floor space and the tenant with the greenest office interior. With a strong foundation and its track record of consistently higher earnings, CCT can look forward to many more years of excellence.

Indeed, CapitaGreen is a crowning achievement of CCT’s 10 years as an SGX-listed company. Started with just seven properties and 234 tenants in 2004, CCT’s portfolio has expanded to include 10 properties and more than 600 tenants. With a strong foundation and its track record of consistently higher earnings, CCT can look forward to many more years of excellence.