Building Investment (January-February 2021)

(Source: CONTEXT Landscape Architecture via landzine.com)
(Source: CONTEXT Landscape Architecture via landzine.com)
(Source: CONTEXT Landscape Architecture via landzine.com)
with a new ‘great lawn’ – the Empress Lawn – fronting the Victoria
Theatre and Concert Hall.
At its core, the masterplan sought to enhance the civic
decorum of the public and ceremonial spaces, enhance the
pedestrian and visitor experience, improve connections, and
restore the status of the parklands as a much loved events and
gathering space in the City in a Garden.
The project has delivered improvements to the waterfront
promenades and parklands, new events spaces, streetscape
improvements, a new playground, two sets of water steps,
special lighting, new signage, street furnishings, and extensive
landscaping for the precinct. The parklands have also been
retrofitted with enhanced connections, new lifts and improved
access to the adjacent Esplanade Theatres’ car park and MRT,
improving permeability and wayfinding in the public domain.
The heritage fountains and memorials have also been restored,
tangibly engaging the public with their multicultural past.
The new planting design of the parklands strengthens the
character and identity of this heritage setting, with a focus on
sweeping lawns, large shade trees and a lush new understorey of
colourful shrubs and groundcovers to unify the various lawns and
garden rooms.
Complementing the tree avenue are waterfront steps,
inspired by the Chand Baori stepwell in Rajasthan. Modular
precast concrete pieces were fitted like a jigsaw puzzle onto piles
to form the complex step design extending and suspending over
the river, reducing construction time and materials.
To consolidate the ‘great lawn’ in front of the Victoria Theatre
and Concert Hall, roads and pathways were realigned and over
eight 60 tonne heritage-listed Rain Trees (Samanae saman) were
seamlessly transplanted from the street edge of Empress Place
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