Swan and MacLaren Architects
is the oldest architectural firm
in Singapore
. Formerly known as Swan and MacLaren, it was
the most prominent architectural firm in Singapore when Singapore
was a
British colony in the early
20th century.
History
Early history
The company began as Swan and Lermit in 1887, a
civil engineering firm formed by two
surveyor engineers. In 1892, it became Swan and Maclaren,
after Lermit withdrew and another surveyor engineer,
James Waddell Boyd Maclaren,
joined as partner.
Rise to prominence
In 1897,
Regent Alfred John
Bidwell (1869-1918) joined the firm, arriving in Singapore from
England
after a short working stint at the Public Works
Department in Kuala
Lumpur
of the Federated Malay States
. He was the first professionally trained
architect in Singapore since
George Drumgoole Coleman had
practised in the town in the 1820s and 1830s. Bidwell found an
opportunity in Singapore to exercise his knowledge of the full
range and variety of Western architectural vocabulary.
Because of Bidwell's talent and reputation for designing handsome
government buildings, Swan and Maclaren became the dominant
architectural firm in colonial Singapore. Bidwell dominated its
work between 1897 and 1911. The firm proceeded to win the most
prestigious commissions in Singapore, and many of its early
buildings are still extant today.
Some of these buildings have been gazetted
as national
monuments, and these include Raffles Hotel
(1899), Teutonia Club (now Goodwood Park
Hotel
) (1900) and Victoria Memorial Hall (now Victoria Theatre
and Concert Hall
) (1905).
The Raffles Hotel was one of the first of the numerous projects by
Bidwell under Swan and Maclaren, which was to build a substantial
number of buildings in a large variety of
architectural styles. The firm was
commissioned to rebuild the Teutonia Club in 1900 in its new
location on
Scotts Road, after it moved
from its location near Raffles Hotel on
North Bridge Road.
Bidwell applied the
south German
architectural style in his design of the clubhouse.
In
Singapore's downtown area, Bidwell
also designed the three-storey Stamford House
(formerly known as the Oranje Building), completed
in 1904.
By 1904, Swan and Maclaren was the largest architectural firm in
Singapore. In 1905, Swan and Maclaren worked on the extensions and
rebuilding of the Victoria Memorial Hall.
In the same year, the
Chesed-El
Synagogue
on Oxley Rise was built. In 1907, the
Singapore Cricket Club was
extended and refurbished, and the Telephone House on
Robinson Road was constructed. In
that year, the firm also designed and built one of the largest
shops in early Singapore, the
John Little department store in
Raffles Place, located on the opposite side of
the square from
Robinson and
Company. Between 1906 and 1912, Swan and Maclaren rebuilt the
Saint Joseph's Church on
Victoria Street,
dedicated to our Lady of Fatimah, in the
Gothic style. In 1911, Bidwell left Swan
and Maclaren to establish his own practice. By then, he was the
most important architect in Singapore.
After RAJ Bidwell
In 1913, Swan and Maclaren built a large
villa
for the
Chinese businessman
Eu Tong Sen on
Mount Sophia. The Eu Villa was built at a grand
cost of
$1 million. In the same year,
the firm designed the
Jinricksha
Station on
Neil Road.
In the
years between World Wars I and II, the firm continued to lead the local market
with projects such as the Sultan Mosque
(1924-28), Ocean Building (1923), Hongkong Bank
Chambers (now HSBC Building) (1925), Prinsep Street
Presbyterian Church
(1930) and the Singapore Turf Club (1934).
Swan and
Maclaren also designed the Cenotaph
, a granite memorial at the
Esplanade
Park
that commemorates the soldiers who died in World
War I. Its reverse side was inscribed with the names of
soldiers who died in World War II.
After World War II, Swan and Maclaren remained important but lost
some of its dominance due to increased competition from both local
and foreign companies.
Since 1999
In May
1999, Swan and Maclaren Architects was awarded the architectural
tender for the new National Library building
on Victoria Street to replace the main library on
Stamford Road that was
demolished. It was shortlisted out of five for the final
selection in
National Library
Board's (NLB)
architectural design
competition, from the 30 firms that made submissions.
In
September 2000, the firm's team leader, Malaysian
architect Ken Yeang, ended
his partnership with Swan and Maclaren Architects, which had
originally been contracted to see the
project through to completion. Subsequently, NLB released
the firm from its contract, and called for new
tenders for the construction of the new National
Library building. The National Library building was eventually
opened on 22 July 2005, after three years of construction.
List of projects
Other projects
Other projects (continued)
Notes
- Founded with Father Charles Benedict Nain and Swan &
Lermit
- Chapel extensions, in association with Father Charles Benedict
Nain
- St Nicholas Girls' School
- Extensions to St Nicholas Girls' School
- New covered wing
- Rebuilding
- War Memorial Wing (West transept)
- Extensions (East transept)
- New buildings
- Additions and alterations to various buildings
- Memorial Hall and Tower
- Renovation to Theatre
- In association with John Graham & Co.
- Additions and alterations
- Conversion to nursing home
- New hospital
- New building
- In association with Cyril Farey & Dawbarn
- In association with Tomlinson & Lermit
- New building, in association with E. Kolle
- 3rd Pavilion
- 4th Pavilion and new wings
- Northern and southern wings
- Original building at Bukit Location
- Modernisation
- Renovation
- In association with Sir Robert Matthew, Johnson-Marshall &
Partners
- Resources Centre
- Science Complex
- Extension to Senior Boarding House
References
External links
(1919)
(1854, 1890,
1913, 1951)
(1961-66)
(1952, 1983)
(1906-12, 1938, 1956)
(1910; Armenian
Street)
(1924)
(1905, 1954-58)
(1922)
(Orchard
Road
)
(1919)
(1927; Bukit Pasoh
Road)
(1936; now Yue Hwa Building
)
(1928; New Bridge
Road)
)
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