Marina Bay Sands

Of all the iconic buildings dotting Marina Bay – Singapore’s downtown waterfront, there is one which is the most photogenic of all. It’s none other than Marina Bay Sands (‘MBS’ for short), the sister building of Las Vegas Sands (LVS). Built at a cost of $5.5 billion, It has the dubious distinction of being the second most expensive building in the world. Amongst others, it was built to meet Singapore’s tourism objectives – to make its downtown skyline attractive!. The integrated resort houses a luxury hotel, a convention center, theatres, shops, restaurant and one of the two casinos in Singapore.

The design of MBS is what makes it photogenic – three 55 story buildings connected on top with an ark-like ‘SkyPark’ in which is an ‘infinity edge’ swimming pool. It is an unique design – the inspiration for architect Moshe Safdie apparently came from a deck of cards. The boat-shape of the Skypark conjures up ideas and fires the imagination – my favorite is imagining that Noah’s ark came to rest on top of the building during the last deluge.

The Infinity edge swimming pool in the top of the building is generally not open for public. (At one point they charged a $20 ‘entry fee’ for visitors & I am not sure if they still continue that).  The roof top would be a dream location for every photographer with its sweeping 360 degree view of Singapore skyline and the ocean beyond.  If you are photographer visiting Singapore, do not miss it. Anyway, it is hard to miss!

I had an opportunity to visit the SkyPark and the infinity pool once when I attended a conference in the hotel. As luck would have it, it was raining and I couldn’t spend much time there; moreover some of the ‘good’ photographic spots were out of bounds because of the weather 🙁 I hope I can spend time when I next visit Singapore.

Nevertheless, I have photographed the building whenever I was in or around the Marina Bay area. In fact, one of the tricks to photograph a well-known icon is to picture it from different perspectives and avoid the same template shots that people are used to. So here is a collection of those photos – my one little drop in an ocean of MBS photos out there.

You can learn more about MBS here.