Gardens by the Bay
Gardens by the
Bay
We had promised PinLi (who we met
whale watching on South Island, New Zealand on the 13th of July 2014) that
should we visit Singapore we would meet – she arrived at our hotel with special
local coffee and a ton of hugs. We took the hotel shuttle to the Metro and as we
walked through the station near the Gardens we saw beautiful pictures amongst
the glamour of the station walkway.
Our first
structure in the Park.
Lilies in all their glory on the pond beside
us.
We bimbled into the Gardens by the Bay
and posed with the Singapore Flyer behind us. Pin looked
great.
We bimbled over the bridge and to our
right a fountain and two huge
dragonflies.
To our left our
first glimpse of the Supertrees that dominate the Gardens.
Gardens by the Bay is a nature park spanning 250 acres of reclaimed land in central Singapore, adjacent to the Marina Reservoir. The park consists of three waterfront gardens: Bay South Garden, Bay East Garden and Bay Central Garden. The largest of the gardens is Bay South Garden at 130 acres. Gardens by the Bay is part of a strategy by the Singapore government to transform Singapore from a "Garden City" to a "City in a Garden". The stated aim is to raise the quality of life by enhancing greenery and flora in the city.
First announced by the Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong, at the National Day Rally in 2005, Gardens by the Bay was intended to be Singapore's premier urban outdoor recreation space, and a national icon. In 2006, an international competition for the design of the park was held, attracting more than 70 entries submitted by 170 firms from 24 countries. Two British firms – Grant Associates and Gustafson Porter – were awarded the contracts for the Bay South and Bay East Gardens respectively.
Alongside the lead designers Grant Associates, the design team for Bay South included Wilkinson Eyre Architects, Atelier Ten (environmental design consultants) and Atelier One (structural engineers). They were supported by a number of Singapore firms including CPG Consultants (architecture, civil and structural, mechanical and electrical), Meinhardt Infrastructure (civil and structural), Langdon & Seah (cost consultants) and PMLink (project management). The final construction cost for the project, not including the price of the land but including an access road, drainage works, and soil improvement, was within a $1.035 billion allocated budget. The annual operating cost was expected to be approximately $58 million, of which $28 million was for operation of the Conservatory buildings.
The project received 1.7 million visitors between June and October 2012, who had free admission to most portions of the park but were required to purchase tickets for entering the Conservatories. The park is quite popular, with 6.4 million visitors in 2014, and it had its 20 millionth visitor in November 2015.
We followed a path to the Chinese Garden, one of many different feature gardens within the park.
Interesting information snippets, a water feature and a beautifully kept path to the next feature garden.
A handsome looking chap.
Not as handsome as this magnificent beast – I know I am, moving right along. Bear and Pin with handsome........
We headed for the Information Centre, there we could see some impressive chunks of wood. Looking out, we could see the second group of Supertrees. We could buy tickets to visit the two huge domes, I was interested in the one with floral displays but today fairly bare as tomorrow sees it closed whilst they arrange the Christmas display - never mind, we went to look at the wood.
Bear’s trigger finger poised on an ant and Pin was dwarfed by an impressive burl sculpture.
On the move again, it was lovely to see one of our favourite palms in ‘bloom’.
Time to head to the Singapore Flyer, we bimbled past the floral conservatory and I fell in behind the ‘happy chatters’.
This garden is most certainly one of the best we have ever visited and will stay in our memories forever.
ALL IN ALL IMPOSING, UNUSUAL AND WONDERFUL TO VISIT VERY BEAUTIFUL CREATION |