Sketching an Old Estate in Singapore

[By Tia Boon Sim] My first post here in 2017.

Dakota Crescent is older than Singapore. It was built by Singapore Improvement Trust (SIT) in 1958 and handed over to Housing and Development Board (HDB) in 1960. The name Dakota was taken from the American transport aircraft Dakota DC-3, which commonly landed at Kallang Airport before it was closed. The name Dakota could also commemorate the aviation disaster of June 29, 1946, when one of the Royal Air Force’s Dakota aircraft crashed at Kallang Airport in a thunderstorm, killing all passengers on board. Anyway, its days are numbered too. It is to be demolished and make way for new development. You can read all about it here

The playground seen in the sketch which I cropped on the left is also iconic. It was called the Dove Playground designed by a very senior HDB architect in 1979. The same architect also designed the other iconic playgrounds in Singapore – the Dragon playground in Toa Payoh. I sketched it here. The Dove Playground will be demolished too but the Dragon Playground will remain.