History
Groundbreaking on the site took place on 14 August 1980 and officially opened to the public on 3 October 1986. The complex was designed by I. M. Pei in one of his earliest works in the city state. Built on the former site of Raffles Institution, the first school in Singapore, and located beside the historic Raffles Hotel, its aluminium-finish and simple geometric designs gave a stark, modernist contrast to Victorian architecture and classical architecture which used to characterise architecture in that district. The design includes the one-time world's tallest hotel and currently the world's sixth tallest hotel, the 73-storey Swissôtel The Stamford, as well as a 26 storey high-end twin-tower hotel, the Fairmont Singapore. The three blocks are complemented by the rectangular 42-storey Raffles City Tower, an office block.
Read more about this topic: Raffles City
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“... all big changes in human history have been arrived at slowly and through many compromises.”
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“Let us not underrate the value of a fact; it will one day flower in a truth. It is astonishing how few facts of importance are added in a century to the natural history of any animal. The natural history of man himself is still being gradually written.”
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