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Leafy pay-off for an old office building

In the concrete jungle of the Central Business District lies a green oasis at 158 Cecil Street — an old office building transformed with seven-storey green walls, green columns and hanging planters.

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In the concrete jungle of the Central Business District lies a green oasis at 158 Cecil Street — an old office building transformed with seven-storey green walls, green columns and hanging planters.

Consisting of 13,000 pots and 14 species of plants, the walls take up an area of about half a football field and have attracted more than a few admirers in the form of birds, butterflies and — happily for its owners — multi-national company tenants.

Managed by Alpha Investment Partners and transformed by architect Kelvin Kan, principal of AgFacadesign, the building was “stark and cold” before its addition and alteration makeover.

Its steely mesh-wired facade had some mistaking it for an unfinished project, said Mr Kan.

The architect said he could have painted it or added some cladding (the brief was simply to improve the building’s facade and innards) but these methods would not have “softened” its hard edges.

Not only do the plants provide psychological relief to stressed-out workers, they also serve as a thermal barrier, he said. The leaves’ irregular surfaces help to absorb noise from traffic outside. Day growth lights provide the plants with light to photosynthesise, and automatic irrigation drip tubes feed water to them.

The project, completed in February 2011, has won numerous awards including the World Best Vertical Garden Design and Construction Quality gold awards by the World Green Roof Congress 2012. What’s more, it has attracted “high-calibre tenants seeking well-located and sustainable properties”, such as Facebook, Zurich Insurance and the Bank of India, said Alpha Investment Partners Managing Director Christina Tan.

Occupancy, she shared, has shot up from about 4 per cent at the start of 2011, to 80 per cent currently.

Mrs Tan said that 158 Cecil Street shows it is possible to align economic benefits with social responsibility. “What were originally bare concrete secondary roof terraces have been transformed into recreational spaces for occupiers to enjoy.”

Building owners keen on skyrise greenery can receive help from the Government. The Skyrise Greenery Incentive Scheme offers cash incentives of up to half the cost of installation of green walls and green roofs on existing buildings.

The LUSH programme of incentives, meanwhile, has supported the development of some 40ha — that’s 130 primary school fields’ worth — of highrise and urban greenery such as roof gardens. Under this scheme also, all new developments in Marina Bay, Kallang Riverside and Jurong Gateway must provide greenery over an area equal to the land plot.

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