The Scala - nice and close to the station (very close).
Singapore is a great place to live a transit-oriented lifestyle, and earlier this year, when I was looking for a new apartment, proximity to transit ranked high on my list. Although some cities have few transit advantaged sites, Singapore is Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) rich. Almost every station has many apartments (they must surely all add up to millions in total) within an easy walk of a station, and my new building – The Scala – cannot be any closer.
A few steps from my door, the voice of Dame Judi Dench greets me as I enter and exit the "lift" (I wonder if she get royalties every time she says "___ Floor"...), then a short walk to the security gate which immediately opens up onto the Lorong Chuan MRT Station. A short escalator ride connects me to the gleaming platform below, and the MRT system is typically no more than a 3 to 4 minute headway from whisking me off to just about anywhere on the island (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorong_Chuan_MRT_Station).
Our apartment is certainly much smaller than our 2000 sf home in Portland, but the 2BR flat boasts a cozy 860 sf and is plenty of room for these "empty nesters" (not sure if we even have a designated parking space, but my bicycle stays nice and dry in the sparsely used structured carpark). The grounds are filled with onsite water gardens, environmental art, a tennis court, a basketball 1/2 court, 50 meter pool, tea house, and an outdoor pizza oven / party space.
Now, if only the guy upstairs didn't flick his cigarette ashes off his lanai and, therefore, on to ours... :-/
Looks great Jim. Get some plants! I love the transit proximity. Unfortunte to hear you have the same problem with the upstairs neighbour as I :-E Could be worse though.
Reply
Leave a Reply.
Author
James Hencke is a licensed Landscape Architect and Member of the American Society of Landscape Architects. He never thought much about Singapore, until employment opportunity took him there...