CLC’s research into the urban policies, planning and
development strategies that shaped Singapore’s ‘Golden
Shoe’ financial district, Singapore River, and Marina Bay
has found that each district is representative of different
periods of Singapore’s urban redevelopment.
The Golden Shoe was transformed through a combination
of phasing out of rent control, land acquisition and Sale
of Sites in the late 1960s to early 1980s. In contrast, the
Singapore River area was revitalised through a coordinated
environmental clean-up from 1977 to 1987 and innovative
conservation policies that balanced development needs
in the late 1980s to 1990s. More recently, Marina Bay
served as a seamless extension of the old financial district
in Golden Shoe, and was developed mostly in the 2000s
through innovative land sales mechanisms that facilitated
private investments and safeguarded public interests at the
same time.
This research was published as a case study on Urban
Redevelopment of the Singapore City Waterfront in the
World Bank’s new book, Regenerating Urban Land — A
Practitioner’s Guide to Leveraging Private Investment.
The Singapore study sits alongside others like Seoul’s
Cheonggyecheon Stream restoration, Washington D.C.’s
Anacostia Waterfront Initiative, Shanghai’s regeneration of
a historic neighbourhood, Xintiandi, and Johannesburg’s
renewal of the inner city. Together, these case studies offer
a diverse range of policy tools and strategies for urban
regeneration in different urban socio-economic contexts.
Singapore’s urban redevelopment story is further detailed
in CLC’s latest Urban Systems Studies book, Urban
Redevelopment: From Urban Squalor to Global City. It
documents the how the Central Area of Singapore was
transformed from a slum-filled city centre to a global
financial centre, drawing from new interviews with urban
pioneers like Alan Choe, the URA’s first General Manager; and Henry Wardlaw, who was the lead consultant for
the State and City Planning Project that culminated in
Singapore’s first Concept Plan in 1971.
The World Bank publication, Regenerating Urban Land — A
Practitioner’s Guide to Leveraging Private Investment, can
be downloaded
here.
About the Writer
Remy Guo
Senior Assistant Director
Centre for Liveable Cities
Ministry of National Development
Remy is a researcher at the Centre for Liveable Cities (CLC). His research areas cover integrated master planning, citizen participatory planning, urban design and active mobility. He holds a Master’s degree in Architecture from the National University of Singapore.