Where's the next stop for Singapore's Tanjong Pagar and Bukit Timah Railway Station?

Come July, two pertinent pieces of Singapore and Malaysia's history will come to an end when the tracks of Singapore's Tanjong Pagar Railway Station and Bukit Timah Railway Station are shut for good.

According to a joint statement from the Preservation of Monuments Board (PMB) and Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) released last week, both will be preserved for its "deep historical significance, and to protect physical reminders of our rich heritage."

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The KTMB railway passing through both stations has been the only means of locomotive transportation between the two countries for nearly 80 years.

The Tanjong Pagar Railway Station will be kept as a national monument, while the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) is gazetting the Bukit Timah Railway Station as a conserved building.

While this all sounds good on paper, the fate of several national monuments and conserved buildings in Singapore is less than pleasing.

Already, according to a report by local newspaper TODAY, "One could become the centrepiece of the glitzy redevelopment of the Tanjong Pagar area, while the other, an endearing local landmark in Bukit Timah, will stand as a piece of Singapore's transport history."

As the fate of both are being decided, the various departments and government bodies involved should keep in mind the examples of the Cathay Building and Boat Quay.

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The former -- built in 1939, the same decade as the Tanjong Pagar Railway Station -- is one of 64 national monuments and was a shining example of art deco architecture with its Brewer façade design of distinctive overhangs.

Redeveloped, renamed and reopened as the Cathay Building in 2006, Japanese architect Paul Tange of Tange Associates redesigned the building a with a shopping mall friendly glass façade while incorporating the original brown-tiled façade of the old Cathay Building; just in white.

As a result, the building was indeed conserved, but only in name. In theory, the building was revitalized for commercial reasons.

And what about Boat Quay? A conserved building according to the URA but hardly a fine example of conservation; unless drunk after-work crowds and touts hawking bottom-priced seafood meals honor the memory of an area that was once the busiest part of Singapore's old port.

At present, the suggestion by The Nature Society, that "the related lands, both along the main Bukit Timah corridor, as well as the Jurong branch line, could be preserved as nature corridors and possibly incorporated into the successful park connector network" remains the most appeasing.

The idea of turning Tanjong Pagar into Singapore's next waterfront "city" -- and a glitzy one at that -- brings chills to the spine as it is hardly an example of honoring a place for its "deep historical significance" or as a reminder of "our rich heritage."