The Waterboat House project team (L-R) Mr Mink Tan, MINKTan Architects, Mr Chia Boon Pin, Far East Organization, Dr Bailey Wang, KTP Consultants Pte Ltd (fourth from left), and Lim Chee Hoong, Hexacon Construction Pte Ltd - received the award from Mr Mah Bow Tan, Minister for National Development, at the Awards Presentation Ceremony on 26 September 2005.

The Waterboat House is integrated into the award-winning Fullerton Square development that comprises The Fullerton Singapore and One Fullerton. The Fullerton Square Project has been lauded for excellence by international and local real estate authorities and organisations, winning the United States-based Urban Land Institute Award for Excellence in 2004 and the prestigious international real estate award, FIABCI Prix d'Excellence in 2003.

At the Waterboat House, the old world charms of the 1919 Art Deco building with its nautical details of circular windows, elegantly curved facade, glass enclosed lookout deck recall the romantic age of the liners. Originally built for the prosaic purpose of facilitating the transportation of fresh water to ships anchored offshore, it now hosts relaxed musings at the cigar + wine bar or at the cocktail lounge, and intimate dinners that see patrons dressed to the nines, and houses a souvenir shop with beautiful mementoes for visitors to remember the past and present of this lovely building and area.

The reinterpretation of the new roles of the Waterboat House led not just to the reconfiguration of the internal space but the building of a new glass annex - reflecting a more adventurous approach to restoration that harmonises with the sea-fronting side of the original structure.

The Waterboat House's glass annex concept revolves around the idea of a veil, slowly revealing the different atmospheres of the building as day progresses into night. The all-glass cladding serves as a membrane comprising the layers of transparency that slowly reveals the resplendent heritage that is Waterboat House.

The design of this new annex conveys the same nautical theme as that of the 1919 Waterboat House. The glass annex expresses itself literally as a ship, moored next to the original building. Giving the impression of floating on water, the annex appeared to be held together by suspension cable fixings, and accessible by nautical stairways internally and externally.

The contrasting visual of the lightness of the glass annex against the solid masonry of the 1919 Waterboat House reflects the essence of the Fullerton Square development. In juxtaposition with the state-of-the-art glass and steel structures of One Fullerton and the Waterboat House new glass annex, the old world charms of the Art Deco style Waterboat House and the grandeur of The Fullerton Singapore convey the yin and the yang, the contemporary and the old, the past and the present, all existing and serving in symbiosis in a dynamic relationship that not only is respectful of the past but unabashedly embracing the exciting present and the future.

The Waterboat House's latest accolade is the third URA Architectural Heritage Award conferred upon Far East Organization for its efforts in lovingly protecting and restoring Singapore's built heritage, and in bringing a new vibrancy and life to monuments and conservation buildings with modern uses. The Organization's other award-winning projects are Far East Square (1999) and The Fullerton Singapore (2001).