to Singapore's Marina Bay,
What is interesting about Marina Bay is that it has been planned out as part of a master plan and worked on for more than a decade. It is almost entirely composed of land reclaimed from the sea.
In this image, we see the original coastline in red and the old Central Business District in the green circle. Singapore's old downtown was where the Singapore and Kallang Rivers met the sea. With the infill, they have added three sections of land to let the two rivers merge into one before meeting the sea. They've also created two bays for recreation that have gradually been converted from salt water to freshwater. In this way the country is moving closer to their plans of water independence. The water flows into the sea at the Marina Barrage, which I believe produces a little hydroelectric power in addition to being a pedestrian bridge between the two newly reclaimed lands.
These three added pieces of land serve different functions. All are part of a new and very large botanical garden as part of the "City in a Garden" concept which will include something called supertrees,
The eastern piece of land is for sports facilities, housing, and golf. The middle piece has been set aside for some civic functions and hotels with the Singapore Flyer in the middle spinning and spreading good feng shui over the whole country.
The last and most important section provides two sides of Marina Bay. Marina Bay is the name of the body of water that has been formed in front of the old skyline. At first, it looked something like this,
At the Singapore City Gallery, we can see the full plan though.
It seems they want to triple the size of their sky line and make something of a box around the bay.
There are several key pieces to this mega investment. First, in a land of very expensive office space, there is soon going to be lot of it. There will be a few new subway lines added under the construction along this big square. There is a common services tunnel including basic utilities like shared air conditioning and waste management, there is a new highway with pedestrian bridges crossing it frequently.
There is also a very important walkway being constructed. Marina Bay is already one of the most popular places to go at night and the waterfront is crowded with people just sitting and enjoying the view--of construction for now. In time, they will be able to walk endlessly around and around the bay looking in at their skyline. The bay is small and intimate. Visibility is wonderful.
Personally, I find their outdoor performance stage to be tacky and taking up too much waterfront space. It is important that is can be walked around though.
For the pedestrian experience across the water, there are plans for an incredible new bridge.
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This bridge is for pedestrians only and comes equipt with viewing pods for people who feel like sitting down and just admiring the bay.
The bridge will connect to the main feature of the new construction, the Marina Bay Sands integrated resort.
This is a very interesting project that seems to have fit very well into its design constraints. First, it only has three widely spaced 50 storey hotels, so the ocean and cargo ships beyond are still visible to workers in the old skyscrapers across the bay. Singapore is the international conferencing hub of Asia and this structure will boost the room and conference space capacity of the city significantly. It is a key feature of their economic stategy. The subway runs under it. A beautiful waterfront walkway runs in front of it,
A highway runs behind it, but the structure incorporates the highway and bridges directly into the park behind. People walking along the water can walk on through to the park. All views from the hotel are sure to see the sea and park more than the highway.
There's something quite special about the top of the structure.
From a pool that is open to the public at large, one can swim and look across the whole island. The overhanging observation platform is well placed to see to see virtually all that is interesting in the city center.
Now what can St. Louis learn from the Marina Bay project?
The highways in East St. Louis do not need to be a problem. In fact, they could act as a natural park boundary. Give all the land locked between them over to greenspace. On the other side of the highway, construct tall buildings designed expressly for seeing the arch and St. Louis City. Ensure that these buildings include pedestrian ramps, bridges, and tunnels as part of their structure to negate the highways. These buildings, as seen above in blue, form something like an arch around the greenspace.
It would also be very important to provide bike and pedestrian bridges on the Eads and Poplar Street bridges on the side facing the arch. Including observation pods along the way would be wonderful as well. Getting a few coffee shops up there would be nice too. The box in orange above is my suggested route for people to walk, date, and take wedding photos.
Lastly, plan future metrolink routes and stations around this basic structure. Stations on both sides of the Poplar Street Bridge are obvious choices (the pink boxes in the picture). It might also be an idea to make this arch of buildings a major bus route. If all the buses that went downtown went to East St. Louis to turn around, it would add traffic to the bridges, but it would also include that section of East St. Louis in the St. Louis community and psyche. Such inclusion would help to heal the tribalism that currently resides in the region.
Like Marina Bay, we could walk around and around looking in and admiring our beautiful city. Highway drivers, don't dismay, this plan would not compromise your view at all. You'd just have a few pedestrian bridges above you now and then.
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