(Photo courtesy of Singapore Press)

S

porting a rooftop garden stretched across three high-rise hotels, the government of Singapore plans to attract tourism with a $3.6-billion integrated resort. Moshe Safdie and Associates, Somerville, Mass., was selected to design the Marina Bay Sands, along with Aedas Architects and Arup Consulting Engineers. The six-million-sq-ft resort, to be built by Las Vegas Sands Corp., is to include a 200,000-sq-ft casino, two 2,000-seat theaters and a 250,000-sq-ft Art and Science museum. A 4,000 car garage will service three 50-story hotel towers with 1,000 rooms each, to be capped by a two-acre sky garden. “It became a driving force behind the design,” says Trevor Thimm, an architect at Safdie. Design and engineering of the rooftop gardens is “being studied,” he says. The Marina Bay Sands is scheduled to be completed by 2009.