I know my friends in Europe will fall over laughing and condescendingly pat me on the head, but I’ve always thought of Boston as a city that respects the old while building the new. After all, how many cities have the “Old City Hall” built in the 18th century next to a towering skyscraper?
Granted, that’s nothing when you consider the remnants of the original Roman wall to the city of Londinium next to the Tower of London next to modern skyscrapers in modern London, but for the US, it’s pretty damn good.
Something that still causes culture shock/disorientation in Singapore is when buildings that are 20 years old are disdainfully called “old.” I was reminded of this yesterday as I was reading a new (to me) blog called “Mr. Brown.” Mr. Brown also writes a column on the local CNN site, and I found myself laughing at his satirical commentary about Singapore, 30 years from now…
I think Future Singapore will need to complete the razing of all our old buildings. Any building older than five years will be torn down and made into something useful, like a shopping mall or multi-story car park. We’ll make our concrete jungle dreams come true yet, people!Read more: Singapore in 30 years, according to mrbrown | CNNGo.comhttp://www.cnngo.com/singapore/life/step-back-time/mrbrown-predicts-future-singapore-759358#ixzz18L5VMxus
What I really envied when I lived in New Zealand were “family homes”. You know, friends who told me about how they’d grown up in a house, and their mother/father before them, and their grandparents had been the ones to build it. Rambling houses with hodgepodge extensions as the family grew. There was just something so sweet about it!
But in Singapore, there’s really no such thing as a family home. Everyone has to move and there’s no way you can root your family in one place. 😦
Thanks so much for the blog love 🙂 It’s so true. Everytime I travel, the first thing I marvel at are the gorgeous old building with so much history. Yes it’s definitely due to lack of space I think that we keep building up and up and tearing down the old. It’s also a hunger for the new, more convenience and air-conditioning.
One of the old places I am sad about is the old railway station at Tanjong Pagar and the old National Library red brick building that I remember from childhood.
Yes it’s true that everywhere you go in Singapore there’s construction going on all the time and it’s a never ending thing. Can be quite tiresome.