UOB Plaza

           

Along the ride, you will come across the most important and tallest buildings in Singapore, the United Overseas Bank (UOB) Plaza.

In 1935, it was named as United Chinese Bank (UCB) to emphasize its links to the Chinese population in Singapore. Since singapore’s independence in 1965, Singapore government had begun a major push to modernize the state, making the Central Business District (CBD) as one of the region's major financial centers. Hence United Chinese Bank (UCB) was renamed United Overseas Bank (UOB) to enter the regional market. The UCB building on Bonham Street was demolished and later replaced by a twin-tower UOB plaza – comprising UOB Plaza 1 (280 metres) with 67 floors and UOB Plaza 2 (162 metres) with 38 floors – located at Raffles Place and is today a prominent landmark along the Singapore River.

The building was constructed based on designer Kenzo Tange in 1990s. The banking hall has full height glass walls to see through the Singapore River from the financial district. The towers have been given an octagonal base and consist of rotated cubic volumes that rotate on a 45-degree plane of reference and diminish in volume towards the top of UOB Plaza One. Chinese culture believes that the shape of octagon, ‘Ba Gua’, is to shun off evils. In addition, the logo was derived from the traditional Chinese 'five-barred gate' system of counting in fives.

The external curtain wall system of the building represents a significant and innovative contribution of the evolution of building facades over the course of its nearly 70-years history, UOB had grown with Singapore, and it represents the prosperity and progression of Singapore's economy.