College of Medicine Building
The College of Medicine Building (Malay: "Bangunan Maktab Perubatan"; Chinese: 医药学院大厦) is a historic building in Singapore, located within the grounds of the Singapore General Hospital at Outram Park, within the Bukit Merah Planning Area near Singapore's central business district. Its name comes from its former function as the location for the King Edward VII College of Medicine, the first school of medicine in British Malaya (Present day: Malaysia and Singapore). History. The Straits and Federated Malay States Government Medical School was established in 1905 in a former women's mental asylum at Sepoy Lines  as Singapore's first medical training institution. It was subsequently renamed the King Edward VII College of Medicine in 1921. To help accommodate the expanding medical school, the College of Medicine Building was built in 1926. The medical college would go on to occupy this building even while it later became the Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya and its successor institutions the University of Singapore and National University of Singapore. In 1982, the Faculty of Medicine moved into new buildings and a new National University Hospital erected at the new Kent Ridge campus of the National University of Singapore . The College of Medicine Building was preserved as the seat of the Academy of Medicine, whose members are largely alumni of the medical school. From 1985 to 1987, the building underwent restoration. The College of Medicine Building was gazetted as a national monument on 2 December 2002. Architecture. The College of Medicine Building was built in reinforced concrete with a massive, floral Neo-Classical façade of Doric columns. This grand colonnade, designed by Italian sculptor Cavaliere Rudolfo Nolli, dominates the building's façade, with bas reliefs depicting the Allegory of Healing on the walls on either side. Behind this colonnade  are a row of eleven enormous doors. A sculptured Roman spread-eagle, encircled by a wreath, emblazons above the central doorway. At one time, there was a long, elliptical pool of water in front of the building, which helped to reflect and soften its massive image, but this pool has long since vanished. During the building's restoration in the 1980s, a grand staircase in the main lobby, which was in the original plan but never built, was installed as originally intended.