Raffles Hotel Singapore

Hill provided project management and construction management services for the renovation of the historic Raffles Hotel at No. 1 Beach Road in Singapore. Declared a national monument by the Singaporean government in 1987, the 103-suite hotel was built in 1887 and was last updated in 1991. This project updated the hotel’s retail and commercial spaces with modern amenities and systems, restored some of the hotel’s iconic suites, and provided enhancements and upgrades throughout the entire grounds and facilities. A focus of the project was to retain the charm and allure of the hotel while upgrading systems to meet current hospitality standards, all while minimizing impacts to guests and tenants. 

Work was planned across three phases, executing designs by the award-winning firm Aedeas Singapore. The first phase encompassed work on Raffles Hotel Arcade, home to 40 commercial and retail tenants. Work in the second phase focused on improvements in the main hotel building and lobby as well as a portion of the hotel suites. Following that, Raffles Hotel Singapore closed entirely for the final phase before a grand reopening.

Hill’s support included supervision of detailed engineering works, materials procurement and related coordination, budget and schedule control, and stakeholder management. A key challenge was maintaining “business as usual” and enabling the hotel to continue generating revenue for the client while work proceeded. To meet this objective over the project’s first two phases, the Hill team emphasized noise reduction, site safety, and security and closely monitored staging and logistics plans. An additional challenge was the permitting process. As Raffles is a national monument, any renovation or redevelopment work that changes the hotel’s façade is not permitted, necessitating careful constructability reviews and inspection support. Finally, the tight schedule of nearly 16 months meant that all deadlines had to be strictly met so that the renovated hotel could be handed over to the client as planned.

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