Background

Marina Bay Sands is one of two winning proposals for Singapore's first Integrated Resorts, the other being the Resorts World Sentosa, which incorporates a familyfriendly Universal Studios Theme Park. The two large-scale resorts were conceived to meet Singapore's economic and tourism objectives for the next decade and they will have 30-year casino licenses, exclusive for the first ten years. Bidders were assessed based on four criteria:

tourism appeal and contribution architectural concept and design development investment strength of the consortium and partners

The infinity edge swimming pool in the Skypark.

On 27 May 2006, Las Vegas Sands (LVS) was declared winner of the Marina Bay site in the prime new business district of Marina South with its business-oriented resort. LVS highlighted its forte in Meetings, Incentives, Conferencing, Exhibitions (MICE), of which its founder, Sheldon Adelson, is a pioneer in Las Vegas and the key to his early business success.[11] In the Design Evaluation portion of the tender, a panel of local and international architects commended Sands' design as superior to other bids in terms of pedestrian circulation and layout, and it also fit in with the Marina Bay landscape best. They liked that the hotel towers was set back from the waterfront to open up expansive views of the city and the entire Marina Bay, making the skyline for Singapore's downtown more attractive and distinctive.[12] Singapore Tourism Board highlighted Sands' line-up of six celebrity chefs, such as Tetsuya Wakuda, Wolfgang Puck, Daniel Boulud and Mario Batali

LVS submitted its winning bid on its own. Its original partner City Developments Limited (CDL), with a proposed 15% equity stake, pulled out of the partnership in the second phase of the tender process. CDL's CEO, Kwek Leng Beng said his company's pullout was a combination of factors - such as difficulties in getting numerous companies he owns to comply in time, as well as reluctance of some parties to disclose certain private information in probity checks required by the Singapore government.[13] However, Kwek was retained as an advisor for Sands' bid.

Investment

Inside the Marina Bay Sands Hotel

Las Vegas Sands initially committed to invest S$3.85 billion in the project, not including the fixed S$1.2 billion cost of the 6,000,000 square feet (560,000 m 2) site itself.[14] With the escalating costs of materials, such as sand and steel, and labour shortages owing to other major infrastructure and property development in the country, Sheldon Adelson placed the total cost of the development at S$8.0 billion as of July 2009.[1][15] Las Vegas Sands declared the undertaking as "one of the world's most challenging construction projects and certainly the most expensive stand-alone integrated resort property ever built".[16] It expects the casino to generate at least $1 billion in annual profit.[7] Two months after the initial phased opening, the casino attracts around 25,000 visitors daily, about a third being Singaporeans and permanent residents who pay a $100 daily entry levy or $2,000 for annual unlimited access.[17] Half a million gamblers passed through the casino in June 2010.[18]

For the economy, Marina Bay Sands is projected to stimulate an addition of $2.7 billion or 0.8% to Singapore's Gross Domestic Product by 2015, employing 10,000 people directly and 20,000 jobs being created in other industries.[13]

Design

Architectural model showing the layout of the Marina Bay Sands Integrated Resort: The hotel and SkyPark are in and on the towers in the background, respectively; the shopping mall, theatre and casino are in the long lower building; and the ArtScience Museum is in flower-shaped building in the foreground.

The resort is designed by Moshe Safdie, who says it was initially inspired by card decks. In addition to the casino, other key components of the plan are three hotel towers with 2,500 rooms and suites, a 200,000-square-foot (19,000 m2) ArtScience Museum and a convention centre with 1,200,000 square feet (111,000 m2) of space, capable of accommodating up to 45,000 people. The resort's architecture and major design changes along the way were also approved by its feng shui consultants, the late Master Chong Swan Lek and Master Louisa Ong-Lee.[19][20] The Engineering for the project was headed by Arup and Parsons Brinkerhoff (MEP/ELV). Arup had originally worked on such prestigious projects such as theBeijing National Aquatics Centre and the Sydney Opera House. In spite of their experience, they described the integration of the varied and advanced technologies as the 'most difficult to carry out in the whole world'.[21] The extensive background music system was installed by Singapore based contractor Electronics & Engineering Pte Ltd.

Attractions

View of the CBD skyline, City Hall, and Esplanade from the SkyPark

View of Singapore Flyer from the SkyPark

Marina Bay Sands features three 55-story hotel towers which were topped out in July 2009. The three towers are connected by a 1 hectare sky terrace on the roof, named Sands SkyPark.[26] In front of the three towers include a Theatre Block, a Convention and Exhibition Facilities Block, as well as the Casino Block, which have up to 1000 gaming tables and 1400 slot machines. The ArtScience Museum is constructed next to the three blocks and has the shape of a lotus. Its roof will be retractable, providing a waterfall through the roof of collected rainwater when closed in the day and with laser shows when opened at night. In front of the Event Plaza is the Wonder Full show, a light and water spectacular that is the largest in Southeast Asia.[27] The ArtScience Museum and Wonder Full show opened on 17 February 2011. The SkyPark is home to the world's longest elevated swimming pool,[28][29] with a 146-metre (478 ft) vanishing edge, perched 191 metres above the ground. The pools are made up of 422,000 pounds of stainless steel and can hold 376,500 gallons (1424 cubic metres) of water. The SkyPark also boasts rooftop restaurants

such as The Sky on 57 (by Justin Quek), nightclubs such as KU D TA, lush gardens, hundreds of trees and plants, and a public observatory deck on the cantilever with 360-degree views of the Singapore skyline. There are four movement joints beneath the main pools, designed to help them withstand the natural motion of the towers, and each joint has a unique range of motion. The total range of motion is 500 millimetres (19.68 inches). In addition to wind, the hotel towers are also subject to settlement in the earth over time, so engineers built and installed custom jack legs to allow for future adjustment at more than 500 points beneath the pool system. This jacking system is important primarily to ensure the infinity edge of the pool continues to function properly. [29] The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands also boasts close to 1,000,000 square feet (93,000 m2) of retail space with over 300 stores and F&B outlets, including numerous luxury duplexes for boutiques such as Ralph Lauren, Chanel, Cartier and Prada. Other luxury stores include Gucci, Herms, Emporio Armani,Chopard, Burberry, REDValentino, Dior, Dunhill, Vertu, Miu Miu, Yves Saint Laurent, Salvatore Ferragamo, Montblanc, Blancpain, an Herms Watch Boutique, and Herve Leger.

The Rain Oculus above the shopping mall canal.

A canal runs through the length of the Shoppes, in the same style as the Venetian in Las Vegas. Sampan rides on the canal are available for guests and shoppers at the shopping mall, similar to the gondola rides available in the Venetian. Also housed within the Shoppes are the six of the seven Celebrity Chef Restaurants - Cut (by Wolfgang Puck), Waku Ghin (by Tetsuya Wakuda), Pizzeria and Osteria Mozza (by Mario Batali), Guy Savoy (by Guy Savoy), DB Bistro Moderne (by Daniel Boulud), and Santi (by Santi Santamaria).

Two notable attractions of the resort are the two Crystal Pavilions. Despite a brief legal dispute in June 2011, it has been decided that one of the Pavilions will house two internationally-renowned nightclubs - Avalon and Pangaea. In addition, the second Pavilion will house the world's largest Louis Vuitton boutique, in addition to being on a floating island, at 20,000 square feet (1,900 m2), which will be connected to the portion of the boutique in the Shoppes via an underwater tunnel. The Sands Theatre and Grand Theatre seat over 1900 people and 2200 people respectively, with The Lion King showing at the former, and international acts, such as Cirque loize and A. R. Rahman's Jai Ho, located in the latter during their world tours. Set next to the theatres is an skating rink (plastic surface instead of ice) measuring 6,500 square feet (600 m2), rivaling that at the Rockefeller Center in New York. Moshe Safdie designed an Art Path within the resort, incorporating seven installations by five artists including Zheng Chongbin, Antony Gormley, and Sol LeWitt. The pieces are meant to play on environmental influences including light, water and wind, integrating art with architecture.[30]