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By Krist Boo - Aug 17, 2006

SAVINGS PLAN: Urban conservation takes legwork, persuasion and persistence for URA's team of planners, with (from left) Ms Lee, Mrs Teh, Madam Wong, Mr Koh, Mr Tong and Miss Tan. -- STEPHANIE YEOW

URBAN planning executive Richard Tong remembers the countless times he trespassed into other people's property.

He was chased by dogs, glared at by house owners and, once, had the fright of his life when he jolted a family of monitor lizards out of slumber.

For six years back in the 1980s, his job was to shoot pictures of old buildings.

Armed with declassified military maps, cameras and lenses, he would comb the streets of Singapore every day, snapping away.

In all, he and his colleagues at the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) took more than 10,000 photographs which filled 280 albums - the first inventory of the island's historical buildings.

Over the next 20 years, those photographs would prove critical in efforts to rescue 6,500 old buildings from the bulldozer.

Today, they stand in areas like Tanjong Pagar, Little India and Chinatown. Once crumbling and vermin-infested, they are now offices, restaurants, tea houses, pubs and shops that draw tourists and Singaporeans alike.

Last month, URA's efforts were recognised when it won a coveted award for excellence in urban conservation from the Urban Land Institute, a non-profit body based in Washington and London.

The Singapore entry was one of five winners picked from 25 submissions in the Asia-Pacific region. There were 15 more from Europe and the Americas. They will vie for a global award to be presented by the institute later this year.

For URA's small team of urban planners - there are only 18 today - this first international accolade rewards the behind-the-scenes legwork, persuasion and persistence that went into saving Singapore's old buildings.

For this report, six members of the current team chose to meet The Straits Times at a vegetarian restaurant in the first block of shophouses they restored, in Tanjong Pagar Road.

Senior planning executive Doris Lee, 56, recalled how she and a colleague stood on chairs, measured buildings and scribbled on their note-pads the details of the buildings that they hoped to save.

'It was experimental, our first step towards conservation,' she said. 'We really sweated.'

She almost did not live to tell her tale. She recounted a visit to a Sago Lane shophouse in Chinatown: 'When I came out, there was some noise. I turned around and saw the ceiling drop. If I had been a few seconds late...'

Among the first buildings earmarked for preservation were the colonial shophouses built before World War II. With their five-foot way, they were unique to Malaysia and Singapore.

While the political leaders were supportive, it was initially hard to persuade building owners that restoring their premises was worthwhile.

Once the effort took off, it was a race to come up with restoration plans fast enough to transform entire batches of buildings with new uses.

Improvisation was sometimes key, as there were no set precedents for conservation in this part of the world.

URA's head of mechanical and electrical department, Mr Koh Kian Chuan, 50, remembers having to come up with some novel solutions to not only restore electricity to refurbished buildings, but to also give them a wattage boost for their new life. 'We had to spend some time convincing the firemen,' he quipped.

Talk to this team, and they wax lyrical about old floor tiles, eaves and carvings found on the old buildings. They all have their favourites.

Madam Wong Yoke Khien, 56, still keeps her pencil sketches of a three-storey shophouse at Bukit Pasoh in Chinatown.

Its beauty spoke volumes to her about the passionate craftsmen who had worked on it long ago.

'Not every owner would have told the craftsmen what to do,' she said. 'Sometimes, the craftsmen would do a little more. Instead of just a column or a beam, you find that they embellished it to give it meaning.'

A turning point came in the late 1980s, when URA was appointed the conservation authority.

That year, 1989, 10 historical enclaves in Boat Quay, Clarke Quay, Bukit Pasoh, Kreta Ayer, Telok Ayer, Kampong Glam, Cairnhill, Emerald Hill, Tanjong Pagar and Little India were gazetted for preservation.

The deputy director of the conservation team, Mrs Teh Lai Yip, 49, remembers working against the clock, churning out sketches, measurements and slides on thousands of buildings the team wanted rubber-stamped for preservation.

In 1989, they had succeeded for over 3,000 buildings in areas including Chinatown, Little India and Boat Quay. This was followed in 1991 by 2,000 more at Beach Road, River Valley, Jalan Besar and Geylang.

Mrs Teh remembers the work that went into saving the old shophouses fronting the Singapore River. Granite was shipped in from China's Fujian province because Boat Quay used to house the Hokkien community.

To replicate cast iron railings that had disintegrated, the team turned to a sewer-pipe maker.

'We told the contractor that we were going to use this river for national events, so the railings had to withstand the crowd,' Mrs Teh said. 'For every three they cast, they had to reject one.'

After Boat Quay, the agency moved to getting the private sector on board. It refined the conservation guidelines for property owners and developers and started the Architectural Heritage Awards in 1995 to recognise heritage works.

More old buildings were saved over the years that followed: Thian Hock Keng temple at Telok Ayer; a whole cluster in Chinatown that was reborn as Far East Square; the old General Post Office became The Fullerton hotel; and the former Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus at Victoria Street is now Chijmes.

Despite what has been accomplished, URA has drawn flak from critics who dislike the gentrification of Chinatown or mock the way other landmarks have been restored.

It makes the team sigh. They remember how so many of the old buildings were in a wretched state - rat-infested and falling apart - before they were saved.

Mrs Teh said: 'We don't have a lot, Singapore is small. But we value what we have, and that will make our city different.

'Maybe now people take it for granted, but as more developments come in, we will see the difference. And we will feel the difference.'

For URA, the next step is to repeat the conservation process with post-war buildings, and to spread the word.

URA architect Tan Huey Jiun, 30, said: 'It's very important that more people, especially the young, get interested in conservation. Only then will there be a sense of continuity.'