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Shoppers and pedestrians will now be dazzled by a new street-level experience when they visit the heart of Orchard Road in Singapore. At the launch this evening, the Singapore Tourism Board (STB), jointly with the…
Shoppers and pedestrians will now be dazzled by a new street-level experience when they visit the heart of Orchard Road in Singapore. 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.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
