Draft:Faber House (Singapore)

Faber House was first announced in January 1969 by Faber Union Pte Ltd. (now UOL Group) as part of an extensive development programme^[1] as well as to aid in the shortage of office space in Orchard Road.^[2] At some point in 1970, the property was sold for a profit of S$566,345 (1970) (US$185,006.3) to Faber House, a subsidiary of Faber Union, as part of a partnership with United Overseas Bank (UOB). In early 1971, foundation works for the building was laid out.^[3] In March 1971, construction of the building was expected to start soon, costing $5 million to build.^[4] By August of the same year, it costed $7 million to build.^[5] It was reported that there was "rapid progress" on the construction of the building in July 1972, with its podium completed and its tower block to start soon.^[6] In August of the same year, bookings for spaces in the building have commenced, with "a fair number of inquiries have been received".^[7] The building was expected to have its opening reception on 1 October 1973, from 10am to 12pm.^[8]

In May 1973, Faber Union employed Edmund See as the first building and service manager of Faber House.^[9] The tenants of the building included the Canadian High Commission and the Israeli Embassy, the latter would be the target of one of the attacks.

There were two explosions near the building in 1985 and 1986 along with a series of hoax bomb threats. The first explosion was caused by Palestinian guerilla Fuad Hassin al-Shara, who planted a plastic explosive in a drain parallel to the side of Faber House to target the Israeli embassy. It caused an estimated $100,000 in property damages.

The first explosion occurred on 17 March 1985 at approximately 11:30 pm. It is believed that the explosion was caused by a less than 500 g plastic explosive^[10] attached to a 25 cm wide drain parallel to the sidewall of the building next to a row of two-storey shophouses. Due to the placement of the explosive, the trajectory of the explosion was direct upwards instead of being sideways.^[11] This caused a blast crater to be formed in the drain and property damages to both buildings, with the tiles of the shophouse roofs blown off. As for Faber House, the glass doors on the first floor and windows from the first to sixth storey were shattered as well as knocking out the display panel for the Chung Khiaw Bank. It also caused 60 cm radi holes to be created in a 2.5 cm-thick black marble wall in the building.^[12] According to witness, the explosion produced "big flash of light" and "a lot of smoke" as well as being heard over "a large part of the city, including Alexandra Road, [which is] four kilometres away". The police were alerted to the explosion, who (along with a security guard from the Canadian High Commission) searched through the debris but stopped due to fears of another bomb being there. After being called, the bomb disposal unit came to the site at 1 am. Initially, the unit could not search the premises as it was dark though with the assistance of the fire trucks emergency lighting system, the search continued even when there was rain. Additionally, there was a rear-end car collision during the explosion as both drivers were taken aback by said explosion. They were promptly rescued by fireman. Investigators left the scene 3 am, with a police team cordoning the building.^[13] The damages were initially deemed to be not serious with an estimate of less than $50,000 by United Overseas Land, later being $100,000. No one was reported to be injured, with the only people in the building during that time were security guards.

The culprit behind the explosion was unknown until 1991, where a Palestinian guerrilla named Fuad Hassin al-Shara was captured by the Israeli army and confessed to being behind the first Faber House explosion.

Unlike then first explosion, the second explosion cause is unknown. The only damage caused by the explosion were windows shattering and walls cracking in the nearby Singapore Chinese Girl School. The second explosion occurred on December 21, 1986, at 8:40pm. The explosion came from a drain near the Faber House's power substation at the back of the building, though investigators did not find any evidence of explosives being used. Although there was no damage to the Faber House building itself, it did leave a 30 cm wide and 30 cm deep hole in the drain as well as shattering some windows and cracking some of the walls of the nearby Singapore Chinese Girls' School, which was located 15m away from Faber House in the nearby Emerald Hill road.

Additionally, there were two hoax bombs the Faber House building. The first one was a day after the 1985 explosion where someone informed the police that a bomb was set to explode at 9:45 am. The building was evacuated after 9:20 am and all the workers were allowed to return later in the morning when the police found out it was a hoax.

The other hoax was in November 1987 when a call was made to the police informing them of a bomb in Faber House. The police sealed off the building to let bomb diffusers investigate where the 'bomb' is. Three and a half hours later, the workers were allowed to return to the premises at around noon.

Faber House is a 12-storey building located at 230 Orchard Road, Singapore, including a basement and the ground floor.^[14] It is located at the junction of Cairnhill Road and Orchard Road.^[1][15] A feature of this building is its aluminium cladding, which is reportedly the "first . It also has special glaze windows for "elegance and protection from direct sunlight".^[5] The building was expected to have a "high speed computerised lift service", centralised aircon system, and push button communications. The first floor (basement) and second floor had been allocated as car parks with 40 lots, with a visitor car park in front of the building.^[4] There is over 65,000 sqft of office space. It was planned to build a 24 hour coffee stand in the third floor.^[4]

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