The Quadrant
19 Cecil Street
Property Type:
Heritage Building
Address:
19 Cecil Street
Singapore 049704
Project Duration:
2012 - 2021
The History
The Quadrant's roots go deep into the history of Singapore taking us back to 1939, when it served as the base for the Kwangtung Provincial Bank founded by T.V. Soong (宋子文) and brother T.L Soong. They were brothers in law of Chinese Revolutionary Dr Sun Yat Sen and the bank was used as a conduit to raise funds for Anti-Colonial/Japanese movement in the mid 20th century. It is also important to note that the building has survived through World War II.
The Kwangtung Provincial Bank was one of 2 Chinese banks that were set up before WWII, supporting the entrepreneurial class. In the pre World War II era, it was difficult for the entrepreneurial class in Singapore to borrow from westerners and non Chinese. This bank, mostly comprising of expats from Southern China formed the basis of how the 30s and 40s became the time of Singaporean entrepreneurship.
The Architecture
The Quadrant stands as one of the last remaining architecture fronts influenced by the late Art Deco visual style in Singapore which was prominent in 1930s. The style can be identified by:
1. Rounded corners/walls
2. Whole columns within the building, and sliced columns on the 1st floor near the front doorway facade act as an archway
3. Cantilevered window shades
4. Windows, entrances and bandings come in threes
The Art Deco visual style was not only prominent in other Singaporean buildings such as Parkview Square & the shophouses that can be found in Tiong Bahru but it was a international movement as can be seen in prominent buildings around the world such as 55 Broadway and the BBC Broadcasting House in London.
55 Broadway, London
1929
BBC Broadcasting House,
London
1932
The Quadrant, Singapore
1939
The Conservation
The Quadrant also houses one of the last remaining Iron Gate Traction lifts in Singapore. These kinds of lifts not only save electricity as no air conditioning is needed they were also quite sophisticated for their time as they had safety mechanisms in place which inhibit lift movement when gates are not tightly shut.
Here at Homestead, we care deeply about conservation as such when we took over the building we spent 100,000 dollars to restore lift going through the effort to bring a lift engineer from Malaysia to repair the lift as no one in Singapore had the knowledge on such lifts. Even the parts required to repair the lift had to imported from Europe.
More details
The Quadrant
Squarefoot
Number of Floors
Uses
Asset Value
Total gross floor area of 20,925 sqft
Basement 1 to Level 5 + Rooftop + ORA
Office, Restaurant, Outdoor Dining Area
Est. 40 Million