Marina Bay Sands Expo & Convention Centre

The Sands Expo and Convention Centre forms part of Marina Bay Sands, the integrated resort at 10 Bayfront Avenue on Singapore's Marina Bay, in the Downtown Core. The resort opened in stages from 27 April 2010, with its official opening on 23 June 2010, and it was conceived as the anchor of the Marina Bay renewal - a piece of city-making as much as a hotel. Its convention centre gave Singapore a downtown meetings facility of a scale it had not had before, and the resort as a whole is a landmark of Singapore's tourism economy. The convention centre holds 30,000 sqm of exhibition halls on Level 1 and Basement 2, configured as lettered halls (A to E) with sub-divisible variants, plus the Sands Grand Ballroom of about 8,000 sqm - among the largest ballrooms in Southeast Asia - and a large inventory of meeting rooms and pre-function foyers. Across the resort, the meetings and conventions facility totals about 120,000 sqm. Exhibition halls on Level 1 run to 14,560 sqm gross with ceilings of 9.45 m, a maximum hanging height of 7.45 m and a 33 by 18 m structural grid, while Basement 2 provides a second, darker and more flexible hall layer with vehicle access. Support facilities include organiser offices, business centres, loading bays, extensive food and beverage, and direct connection to the Shoppes, the theatres and the hotel towers, so delegates never need to leave the complex. Architecturally the resort is by Moshe Safdie: three hotel towers linked by the Sands SkyPark, a 12,400 sqm platform cantilevered 66.5 m beyond the north tower, and the lotus-shaped ArtScience Museum at the water's edge. The convention space itself is deliberately neutral, a glass-clad podium beneath the towers. Access is by MRT to Bayfront Station on the Circle and Downtown lines, which sits directly beneath the resort; Marina Bay Station and the waterfront walkways are also within reach.