Asia Insurance Building

The former Asia Insurance Building on Raffles Quay in Singapore's Central Business District is a distinct Art Déco tower completed in 1955 to a design by Ng Keng Siang, one of Singapore's pioneering local architects. At 270 feet it surpassed the Cathay Building to become the city's tallest structure, holding that title until 1971 — a period that captured Singapore's postwar economic transformation on the cusp of independence. The tower served as headquarters for the Asia Insurance Company, among the earliest locally founded insurers in the country. Acquired by the Ascott Group in 2006, it now operates as Ascott Raffles Place, a serviced apartment hotel. Its preserved Art Déco detailing makes it one of the few surviving examples of that style amid the glass-and-steel towers of the modern CBD.