Ocean Financial Centre
Ocean Financial Centre occupies one of the most prominent sites in downtown Singapore, marking the gateway between Raffles Place, the city’s historic business center, and Marina Bay, the fast-growing area to the east. Consisting of a 43-story tower and an open podium that links to the surrounding city blocks, Ocean Financial Centre is a dynamic new business hub for downtown Singapore.
As part of the skyline along Collyer Quay, one of the city’s historic commercial thoroughfares, the tower’s design celebrates Singapore’s maritime heritage. Rising above the neighboring buildings, the architecture is reminiscent of a ship’s sail, recalling the time when clippers crowded Singapore Harbor, making it one of the world’s great commercial centers.
The tower’s elegant curtain wall has alternating bands of glass and metal panels, creating a horizontal pattern that enhances the building’s gently curving form. Each metal panel is equipped with LED lights, which at night lines the façades with glowing points of light. At the top of the tower is a 25-meter-tall (82-foot) sky garden. This great open space increases the sense of transparency at the tower’s top, lightening it as it reaches into the sky.
At street level, the building connects directly to the Raffles Place MRT Station, one of the city’s busiest, and provides convenient pedestrian access to the surrounding blocks. A monumental canopy, 42 meters (138 feet) high, covering the entire public plaza, serves to mark the entrance to the building from Raffles Place. This “urban umbrella,” placed directly on axis with Robinson Road, serves as an eye-catching place marker. The tall steel structure is clad in stained glass panels, casting a spectacular collage of colored light on the ground.
Ocean Financial Centre has the distinction of being the first commercial office development in Asia to achieve a LEED Platinum rating. The project’s sustainable features include an exterior cladding of energy-efficient glass with a high-performance coating and photovoltaic panels that generate energy to light the building’s common areas.
