SJI starts upgrading work on Malcolm Road campus
SINGAPORE — More than six months after St Joseph’s Institution (SJI) students moved out of their Malcolm Road campus, works to redevelop the school have finally begun, with a new target of moving them back by March 2017.
And at the unveiling of the new campus master plan today (July 20), SJI Campus Redevelopment Committee chairman Mr Chan Keng Luck shared with reporters the details of the constraints that are holding back construction from being done by the middle of next year, as slated originally.
“We have to build some buildings above existing buildings, so we had to be very careful about that. There’s also a high slope near the indoor sports hall, so we had to locate the building judiciously so as to minimise the earth retaining works and costs,” he said.
The new indoor sports hall also fell within the Land Transport Authority’s railway protection zone, and SJI had to ensure that the design and foundations complied with the code of practice.
The delay has meant an extended occupation of its interim site in Bishan. In turn, a new junior college in 2017 for students from Catholic High, St Nicholas Girls’ School and Singapore Chinese Girls’ School has to move to another holding site on Mount Sinai Road.
In May, SJI principal Dr Koh Thiam Seng sent a letter to parents to assure them that its Malcolm Road campus will be ready as soon as possible, with updates to be provided when various construction milestones are completed.
The S$40-million redevelopment project includes four new buildings to increase SJI’s capacity, adding 14,000 sqm of floor space, and refurbishment of the existing buildings, which are more than 25 years old.
The new sports hall will house basketball, tennis and badminton courts, among other things. One of the new blocks will have a 600-seat lecture theatre and meeting rooms, while two blocks with 32 classrooms will be built above existing buildings and connected by a link bridge.
Dr Koh said it was timely to add new facilities, which will enable SJI to increase its two-year International Baccalaureate intake from 160 students to 500, and have a total of 2,000 students at a steady state by 2018, up from about 1,660 now.
He stressed that the campus is also designed to meet students’ educational needs, such as learning beyond the classroom to develop independent learners. “So, we try to design space where there’s seamless transition from formal to informal space,” he said.
