SINGAPORE — For over a decade, the Red Dot Traffic building has been an iconic landmark on Maxwell Road, with its firecracker-red walls standing out amid a cluster of white buildings along the same stretch.

But the eye-catching hue will soon be a thing of the past, as the Law Ministry (Minlaw) on Friday (Feb 3) unveiled plans to repaint the walls in the neutral, off-white colour that the building sported during the 1970s when it was the Traffic Police Headquarters, as part of a S$25 million project to convert the building into an extension of the adjacent Maxwell Chambers.

Last month, MinLaw announced that Maxwell Chambers would be taking over building from May 1, to take on a soaring caseload and strengthen Singapore’s standing as a hub for international dispute resolution.

A tender for construction services will be called this month, and renovation will take place from May to 
early 2019.

“This building is now tied up with Maxwell Chambers … we haven’t quite finalised every detail but we’re likely to adopt a colour that’s compatible with Maxwell and (it will be) elegant and dignified,” said architect Mok Wei Wei.

The new space will add 120,000 square feet of floor space to Maxwell Chambers and triple its existing size. It will house around 50 new offices across four floors for international dispute resolution institutions, arbitration chambers, law firms and ancillary legal services.

Built in 1928, the building was first used by the police as barracks and office space for the newly minted Traffic Police (TP). In the 1940s, driving tests were introduced and conducted behind the building. The TP moved out in 1999, and the building was converted into a museum in 2005.

The upcoming facelift will see the building’s timber louvre windows and cast-iron rainwater downpipes restored or repaired, and the five courtyards running along the 161m-long building being landscaped and opened for public use.

Corridors will be air-conditioned and lights will be installed to illuminate the facade of the building at night.

A new bridge will connect the two buildings at the third level, while an annex block will be added to one of the courtyards to create more 
office space.

On Friday, Minlaw launched a programme to share the building’s heritage with the public.

Students from the Singapore University of Technology and Design have been roped in to work on this, and members of the public can send their old photographs and experiences at the building to heritage [at] maxwell-chambers.com from now till May 31.

A selection of these contributions will be exhibited at the new building.

“We want to collect memories and stories of the place before they’re lost and preserve it for the younger generation of Singaporeans,” said Minlaw deputy secretary Han Kok Juan. “It will help distinguish Maxwell Chambers from other dispute resolution facilities in the world.”