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Singapore, 20 December 2006
– Shoppers and pedestrians will now be dazzled by a new street-level
experience when they visit the heart of Orchard Road. At the launch this
evening, the Singapore Tourism Board (STB), jointly with the Urban
Redevelopment Authority (URA), the Land Transport Authority (LTA) and
the National Parks Board (NParks), presented the new junction lighting
feature at Bideford Junction. Bideford Junction is a major junction
crossing at Orchard and Bideford Roads, framed by Ngee Ann City,
Paragon, Crown Hotel At Orchard and Meritus Mandarin Singapore.
The new lighting experience at Bideford Junction is one of the proposals
under URA’s lighting masterplan to light up Singapore’s city centre and
part of the STB’s overall strategy to transform Orchard Road,
Singapore’s premier retail district, into one of the world’s greatest
shopping streets and a giant events stage offering compelling lifestyle
experiences. The rejuvenation of Orchard Road will help meet STB’s
targets to attract 17 million visitors and S$30 billion in tourism
receipts by 2015. Consistently the most-visited attraction in Singapore,
Orchard Road attracts some 6 million visitors each year, while thousands
of local residents visit the area for leisure and work each day.
The new lighting cum crosswalk experience at Bideford Junction is the
first project to be launched under the lighting masterplan for the city
centre, aimed at creating a revitalising and delightful experience on
the street-level for
pedestrians and visitors. Special lighting features (see photo
illustration) have been installed at the junction to project moving and
changing images and lights, adding a different dimension to the road
crossing experience. Every half-hourly for one minute between 7.30pm and
11pm (midnight on Fridays, Saturdays and eve of public holidays), all
vehicular traffic at this junction will stop to facilitate this engaging
and multi-sensory lighting cum crosswalk experience. Pedestrians along
Orchard Road can stop to admire it all, or step right into the heart of
the fun by crossing the junction in any direction they like.
Designers employed a range of state-of-the-art highly versatile and high
performance light fixtures as well as image projectors and colour-changing
washlights to create the lighting effects, which will showcase four
enthralling themes: A Garden City, Aurora, Walking on Water and Starry
Night Sky.
Dr Chan Tat Hon, STB’s Assistant Chief Executive (Leisure), said,
“Already entrenched as a must-visit attraction in Singapore, Orchard
Road and its gamut of retail and dining options and buzzing events
calendar is a magnet for residents and visitors year-round. When the
plans to transform it are completed, Orchard Road will be an even more
dynamic, pulsating and vital city centre as well as a compelling
shopping destination. The new lighting experience and crosswalk at
Bideford Junction is the first taste of what is planned to give visitors
to Orchard Road a completely new and immersive street-level experience.
Shoppers and pedestrians to Orchard Road can look forward to more
exciting changes to come.”
Mrs Cheong Koon Hean, Chief Executive Officer, Urban Redevelopment
Authority, said, “The lighting experience at Bideford Junction is one of
the many initiatives under URA’s plan to light up our city centre. We
are very pleased to kickstart the implementation of the lighting
masterplan with the Bideford Junction lighting experience. URA will
continue to work with relevant agencies to transform Singapore’s
nightscape, creating a captivating and memorable image to bring out the
beauty of our city at night.”
“This new lighting experience will hopefully get people to leave their
cars at home and enjoy the buzz that pulsates on the pavements and
streets of Orchard Road. It is the pedestrians who will enjoy the full
impact and benefit of this unique experience by doing anything they like
in the junction for one full minute, dancing or strolling or swaying to
the rhythm of the lights. If you stay in your car, you’ll likely be
looking on in envy when you reach this junction,” said LTA Chief
Executive, BG (NS) Yam Ah Mee.
Said Mr Kaoru Mende, President, Lighting Planners Associates, "In
conceptualising the lighting themes, we took inspiration from
Singapore's Garden City image and Orchard Road's unique tree-lined
boulevard character. Eventually, the four lighting themes of flowers,
water, aurora and stars were selected because these elements are closely
associated with nature."
Mrs Sng Ngoi May, Chairman of the Orchard Road Business Association (ORBA),
welcomed this phase of Orchard Road’s rejuvenation. She said, “The
government’s support is instrumental in strengthening Orchard Road’s
positioning as one of the world’s premier shopping streets. ORBA will
continue to work closely with the STB, so that shoppers, and especially
foreign visitors to Singapore, will return home with fond memories of
their experience on Orchard Road.”
Orchard Road is consistently ranked amongst the top-visited locations by
visitors to Singapore. Spanning two kilometres, the premier shopping
lifestyle district offers almost 800,000 square metres of gross floor
area of shopping, dining and entertainment lifestyle offerings,
complemented by hotels, offices and residences. Based on STB’s annual
Overseas Visitors Survey, Orchard Road was the most visited attraction
in 2004, receiving seven in 10 visitors. |
