Sunday, June 28, 2009

Yishun town centre to get new look

Source : Sunday Times – 28 Jun 2009

Look out for a three-storey lookout tower.

Coming up too are a new shopping complex linked to a condominium, an air-conditioned bus interchange and a remake of Yishun Pond. –PHOTO: HDB

That is one attraction that residents in Yishun can look forward to when the town centre is transformed in the coming years.

Coming up, too, are a new shopping complex linked to a condominium, an air-conditioned bus interchange and a remake of Yishun Pond.

Yishun is one of three towns selected for rejuvenation under the Housing Board’s Remaking Our Heartland initiative. The other two are Punggol and Queenstown.

The HDB shared its plans with reporters yesterday.

The lookout tower at Yishun Pond, beside the new Khoo Teck Puat Hospital, will offer panoramic views of the town centre when its construction is completed by the end of next year.

The 12.5m-tall tower will have a 94m-long curving ramp that will take visitors to the top.

Said Ms Nina Yang, senior vice-president at CPG Consultants, the firm in charge of the design: ‘The tower is designed according to the theme of nature and the metamorphosis of a butterfly. Similarly, it showcases the metamorphosis of Yishun New Town too.’

The area near the MRT station will have a shopping complex integrated with housing. The retail space is touted to exceed that of the Northpoint Shopping Centre. A tender for the project is expected to be called in 2011.

By next year, other developments that will be ready include an upgrading of the pedestrian mall and a heritage corner and trail.

Mr Fong Chun Wah, director for building quality at HDB, said the upgrading of the pedestrian mall will make it more elderly- and handicapped-friendly.

It will have ramps and newly paved floors.

Engineer Bryan Tan, 33, an Yishun resident for 10 years, is looking forward to the changes.

‘I know that these projects will still take some time to complete, but I’m very glad they are making the bus interchange air-conditioned as it is rather old now,’ he said.


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