Four Highrises

Significant historic buildings affected by four controversial highrises developments in George Town World Heritage Site, December 2008

POTENTIAL IMPACTS:

• Affecting integrity of historic townscape and World Heritage Site
• Affecting height lines and sight lines, including waterfront views (as all projects are on the waterfront), visual lines from the street, roofscape view from high vantage points and visual context of adjacent heritage buildings
  
• Piling may damage adjacent or neighbouring historic buildings
• Contributing to local congestion and increasing traffic density in World Heritage Site

1. Significant historic buildings affected by proposed highrise facing Beach Street and Weld Quay, facing eastern waternfront in Core Zone.

• George Town Dispensary, Lebuh Pantai. Architecturally significant building from 1923, architect from firm of Swan & McLaren, originally housing a pharmacy and doctor’s clinics, lawyers and architects offices. Historical personality and famous lawyer H.H. Abdoolcader had his office here.

• F.M.S. Railway Building (subsequently Malayan Railways Building), Gat Lebuh China. Architecturally and historically significant building related to Penang Port, from 1907. The ‘Penang Station’ with its prominent clocktower was known as ‘the only railway station without a rail’.

• Paterson Simons & Co., Lebuh Pantai. Architecturally and historically significant related to Penang Port, circa 1900. British import-export merchant house, which leased offices and godowns built by historical personality Phuah Hin Leong. Best example of granite-paved alleyway and godowns characteristic of shipping offices of the period.

2. Significant historic buildings affected by highrise on Weld Quay (under construction), facing eastern waterfront in Core Zone.

• Bangunan Tuanku Syed Putra, Lebuh Downing. This public building was named after the last King of Malaya and the first King of Malaysia. Historically and architecturally significant Public Works building for offices of Education Office and the General Post Office. Foundation stone laid by Malaysia’s first Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman in 1961 and opened in 1962 by Raja Tun Uda, Penang’s first Governor. Possibly Penang’s most important public building in the early post-Merdeka years, also in terms of early Modernist architecture. Glass panes currently cracked.

• Schmidt Kuestermann & Co., Pengkalan Weld. Architecturally and historically significant building related to Penang Port, circa 1900. German import-export merchant house, which Nobel-prize winning German author Hermann Hesse and Swiss painter Hans Sturzeneggar visited in 1911 on their historic ‘Aus Indien’ journey. After WWI, this became Sturzeneggar & Co., Swiss merchant house.

3. Significant historic buildings affected by proposed highrise on Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah Status, facing northern waterfront in Buffer Zone.

(For the record, a historic mansion which formerly stood on the site was illegally demolished in early 1990s.)

• Shih Chung School, Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah. Better known as Goh Chan Lau or ‘five-storey villa’. Historically and architecturally significant example of domestic architecture. It was owned by historical personality Cheah Tek Soon’s family and sold to finance Sun Yat Sen’s revolutionary movement. Then bought by historical personality Tye Kee Yoon, China Vice-Consul (1907-1911). Architecturally significant as an Anglo-Chinese villa in a rare style which has a counterpart in Rangoon and one of the largest mansions of the late 19th century.

• Leong Yin Khean Mansion, Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah. Architecturally important example of domestic architecture, commissioned by Cambridge educated Leong Yin Khean, in 1924, the architect is Joseph Charles Miller of the Scottish civil engineering firm of Stark & McNeill.

4. Significant historic buildings affected by the highrise (under construction) facing the northern waterfront in the Buffer Zone.

• Mission House, Lebuh Farquhar. Historically significant bungalow from mid-19^th century, property originally owned by London Missionary Society. For many decades this was the base of the Brethren missionaries, a 19^th century non-denominational Christian movement which started the chain of Gospel Halls throughout Malaya.

• Lim Lean Teng Mansions, Lebuh Farquhar. Architecturally significant mansion blocks, four storeys, built in 1930s for expatriate tenants. The historical personality Lim Lean Teng was renowned for his education philanthropy.