The Pinnacle@Duxton

Those of you working in the Tanjong Pagar area would by now see these seven white 50-storey towers joining the already busy skyline of the Central Business District.





Image: HDB

Usually in this series of Architecture Feature, we always look for well designed buildings to talk about. Pinnacle@Duxton is not the prettiest face in town but we featured it here because of it's history, it's hype and it's uniqueness.

Located along Cantonment Road, it is built over what was then known as the Duxton Plain Public Housing - the site of the first two 10-storey HDB blocks in Singapore. Hence, this project carries a lot of historical significance - it marks the beginning of Singapore's wildly successful public housing policy and by year's end marks the 'pinnacle' of HDB's achievements.

From a humble pair of apartments built in 1964 to seven magnificent towers in 2009, this showpiece project is a great example of the 'Singapore Success Story' (No doubt there will be a documentary and two full page articles in our local rags illustrating said point once the Pinnacle is officially open, but I digress).


Seven 50-storey towers dominating the skyline. [Image: Surbana]

Designed by local firm ARC Studio Architecture, the 1848 unit project when completed will be Singapore's tallest public housing project. The seven blocks will be linked by skybridges on the 26th and 50th floor, complete with a jogging track and sky garden at the very top. For publicly funded housing, this is truly one of a kind. And it is, HDB said that this is a one-off project, so don't expect anything of this sort in the near future.

There is a ton of talk when this was launched five years ago in 2004, there is still. We found some Pinnacle@Duxton porn for you, pages and pages worth of discussion and photos dedicated just to this project. We've got some here for you, but to get your fix, hit the links below right after this article. These eager residents cannot wait to move in! And the views are amazing!


Panoramic views of the Singapore skyline. Who needs the Singapore Flyer? [Image: The Pinnacle@Duxton forum]


Workers putting the finishing touches on the towers. Notice the bridge linking the towers. [Image: The Pinnacle@Duxton forum]

They're also sitting on a pot of gold too. The units at The Pinnacle@Duxton were sold in late 2004, so the most expensive unit then was a paltry S$451,500. By comparison, a 19th floor 5-room unit at The Peak@Toa Payoh (the recent DBSS) costs S$645,900. The resale value of the Pinnacle in five years time will surely break some sort of record.

The Pinnacle@Duxton will be ready by the end of 2009, I'm sure when it opens people (myself included) will throng to the skybridges and take a jog around the sky gardens. It might even become a tourist attraction. I hope they built that bridge sturdy enough to fit all those people. It's slowly taking shape as the days go by, but for now we can only admire it from afar (and look at Pinnacleporn pictures online).

More images via The Pinnacle@Duxton Forum (image intensive), SkyscraperCity and Vmaxxum.com.
Information via Wikipedia.