[1] In July 1994, the Singapore Council of Women's Organisations announced that it had acquired a 30-year lease of the building from the Urban Redevelopment Authority.
It was to serve as a "one-stop counselling, resource, training and networking hub for Singapore women.
"[4] Plans were later made by the council to spend $2.8 million to demolish the bungalow and erect a new four-storey building in its place, which was to house an auditorium named after Nanyang artist Georgette Chen, whose trust fund donated $350,000 to the council, a research library dedicated to Justice Frederick Arthur Chua, a Family Crisis Centre which was to be run by both the council and the Society Against Family Violence, a counselling and mediation centre and eight affiliate associations which did not have their own premises, including the Singapore Association of Women Lawyers, the Singapore Association of Administrative Professionals (then known as the Singapore Association of Personal and Executive Secretaries) and the Home Economics Teachers Association.
However, the Urban Redevelopment Authority told the council that it had been granted the lease on the condition that the bungalow be refurbished and not demolished.
The complex was to house a shelter for women, as well as office space for 40 affiliate organisations, administrative offices a recreational centre, the Georgette Chen hall and the research library, which was named the SAWL-Justice F. A. Chua Library.