SMU may save or move grand old raintrees

Shady 50-year-old trees in Bras Basah area may be retained as part of the landscaping for university's city campus

By Neo Hui Min

MORE than 50 trees in the civic district, which conservationists had feared would be felled with the building of the Singapore Management University (SMU), may be saved after all.

The university told The Straits Times that the raintrees, known for their massive, umbrella-shaped crown, will either remain where they are or be transplanted within its new city campus in the civic district. The trees are about 50 years old and about 12 metres tall.

Six parcels of land in the civic district - the National Library plot, Armenian Street, Bras Basah Park, Victoria Street and Queen Street have been set aside for Singapore's third university. The Bras Basah Park has two plots.

When the campus building plans were unveiled last year, the public was concerned that this green lung in the civic district would have to give way to the campus.

The issue was raised again last month when Singapore launched a scheme to preserve mature trees and tree-lined old roads but the raintrees did not figure in the scheme.

Mr Vinson Chua, SMU's assistant director of campus development, said the university is aware of the public's concern and that it plans to incorporate the trees into the landscape of the Bras Basah campus.

About 20 raintrees lining Bras Basah Road and Queen Street will remain where they are. Another 30 or so in Bras Basah Park itself and along Waterloo Street will also get a fresh lease of life, but not where they now stand. The SMU is proposing that these be transplanted to other parts of the new campus.

He said that these trees have to be moved because they will be affected by the building works. Transplantation is a complex operation involving pruning, uprooting, and replanting. The bill can come up to between $70,000 and $100,000 for one tree. 9

Work on the campus is scheduled to begin early next year. The architects - Edward Cullinan Architects from Britain and Singapore's KNTA Architects - have said earlier that the campus will be green and environmental friendly.

The National Parks Board has welcomed SMU's plan to save the raintrees. The largest trees it had successfully transplanted were about 1.5 m in girth. So there is much to learn if SMU succeeds in transplanting trees that are wider, it said.

Mr Edward Wong, president of the Singapore Institute of Architects, who has been pushing for the trees to be kept, said he is glad that the university is taking the initiative to preserve them.

'It's an excellent move,' he said. 'Transplanting the trees is much better than planting new ones.'