Top 7 Heritage Building Restoration Firms in SG

Heritage restoration in Singapore is a narrow trade. Unlike new construction, it requires measured drawings of Corinthian plaster columns, sourcing 1930s Chengal timber, and negotiating URA’s Conservation Advisory Panels. The firms below have repeat portfolios of actually-gazetted buildings, not just interpretation centres styled like heritage.

1. W Architects

Mok Wei Wei’s firm is the default name in Singapore conservation. At the former Raffles Girls’ School campus, now New Bahru, they kept the 1928 top-hung window pattern and mezzanine classroom volumes intact while slotting in patinated steel staircases between old brick party walls. Earlier work on The Warehouse Hotel (1895, Robertson Quay) meant repairing original timber roof trusses after decades of moisture ingress, and re-rendering interiors with lime plaster instead of bagged cement.

They are equally known for shophouse interiors in Tiong Bahru and Emerald Hill, where projects typically take 18–24 months because of repeated on-site mock-ups for stair balustrades and floor tile matching.

2. DP Architects

DP handles the big compounds where restoration sits beside new retail and hotel blocks. Their CHIJMES portfolio covers the 1852 Gothic Revival chapel, the converted convent school wings, and the cobblestone courtyard drainage. On Capitol Singapore, DP coordinated the conservation of the Capitol Theatre’s 1930 proscenium arch and the former Stamford House facade while twin hotel towers rose directly behind.

A DP restoration typically begins with LiDAR scanning of every plaster corbel and column base, then casting replacement mouldings from silicon impressions of surviving originals. That level of documentation is what makes them feasible for URA Architectural Heritage Award submissions.

3. CPG Consultants

CPG is the engineering and execution arm that emerged from the old Public Works Department. Their signature file is National Gallery Singapore, where they were executive architect alongside Studio Milou, integrating modern air-handling units into the original Supreme Court and City Hall structures without cutting into terrazzo staircases.

CPG also writes the building condition reports that many owners submit when applying for the URA’s restoration grant. Their surveys document spalling concrete patches, termite-damaged timber joists, and the differential settlement between the two former buildings. For commercial owners, CPG’s audits decide whether a facade can be restored at all.

4. Studio Milou

Jean-François Milou’s Singapore office designed the new roof and circulation spine at National Gallery Singapore, but the more painstaking work was subtractive: removing 1970s partitions, a dropped ceiling, and air-conditioning plant rooms that had obscured the 1929 Supreme Court’s original rotundas and skylights.

The firm’s method favours full-scale physical mock-ups before applying finishes. They will build a 1:1 test panel of the facade area around a window bay to check the sand-and-lime render tone against original paint scrapes, then only hand that sample over to the main contractor. That level of control keeps them relevant for national monuments where the client is the government.

5. Arup

Few restoration projects in Singapore proceed without an Arup structural sign-off. On National Gallery Singapore, the team engineered a new two-storey steel canopy that capped both monuments while transferring loads past fragile masonry walls. On Capitol Singapore, Arup designed a system to underpin the existing theatre shell while excavation for basement carparks ran metres below the stage.

Arup also does the unglamorous work: crack-monitoring across facade arches, half-cell corrosion testing on embedded steel, and reversible strengthening using flitch plates hidden inside wall cavities. Their conservation engineering reports are effectively pre-approval documents for URA.

6. ONG&ONG

ONG&ONG built a hospitality-adjacent conservation practice around waterfront and commercial buildings. Their best-known restoration is the Clifford Pier (1933) at the Fullerton Bay Hotel, where the original 60-metre timber lattice roof was retained, cleaned of dry rot, and re-bolted with discreet stainless connections before the pier reopened as an event venue.

Shophouse clients come to ONG&ONG for basement waterproofing and five-foot-way granite slab repair, especially in Joo Chiat and Telok Ayer where high groundwater and adjacent construction excavation cause differential cracking. They pair restoration drawings with M&E integration, which is rarely handled well by smaller heritage specialists.

7. CSYA (Chan Sau Yan Associates)

CSYA is the bridge between old-school conservation doctrine and current URA regulations. The practice was responsible for the restoration of the Old Hill Street Police Station, the 1934 Neoclassical landmark with its 927-shuttered facade. The project documented original paint colours, reinstated the full-height central void, and hid modern ducting above restored timber ceilings rather than punching new openings.

The firm also advises on infill extensions, setback requirements, and how to maintain a building’s “outline of significance” once it is gazetted. For owners of pre-war civic buildings—former schools, post offices, municipal halls—CSYA offers the most complete heritage documentation service in the market.