Singapore’s Changi Airport is often cited as the world’s best airport. Lee Kuan Yew laid the groundwork for it when trying to woo semiconductor and tech firms in the late-1960s (Texas Instruments, HP, GE): ▫️ “Visiting CEOs used to call on me before they made their investment decisions. I thought the best way to convince them was to ensure that the roads from the airport to their hotel and to my office were neat and spruce, lined with shrubs and trees.  When they drove into the Istana domain, they would see right in the heart of the city a green oasis, 90 acres of immaculate rolling lawns and woodland, and nestling between them a nine-hole golf course.  Without a word being said, they would know that Singaporeans were competent, disciplined, and reliable, a people who would learn the skills they required soon enough.” ▫️ In 1975, the government decided to build a new airport away from the city centre. This location could handle more traffic, create less noise pollution for the residents and showcase more nature of The Garden City. Six years later, Changi Airport opened and became Asia’s largest airport.  “[Changi Airport] and the pleasant 20-minute drive into the city made an excellent introduction to Singapore,” Lee wrote in his book From Third World To First. “The best S$1.5B investment we ever made.” To give a sense of scale of the investment, Singapore’s GDP was S$30B in 1981 (so, 5% of GDP). Fast forward to 2019 and Changi Airport added the ~USD$2B Jewel entertainment, retail and greenhouse complex (3,000 trees, 60,000 shrubs). Designed by Moshe Safdie — who also did the Marina Bay Sands — the 10-story structure (1,461,000 sqft) connects to all 4 terminals and has the world’s tallest indoor waterfall.  A site worth visiting whether or not you're flying (especially if your kid wants Pokémon cards from the Pokémon store like I was recently strong-armed into getting). In 2030, Changi will open Terminal 5. The USD$10B expansion project is larger than all the other terminals combined and will double the airport’s capacity (from 50m to 100m visitors a year). Wild. *** More on the Jewel engineering via B1M: “From Third World To First”: