The Murray is one of several historic landmarks repurposed under the Conserving Central Initiative Project to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Hong Kong SAR.
A former government headquarters tower, the 27-storey Murray Building has been transformed into a 336-room luxury hotel with panoramic views over the city’s Central Business District. The flagship property of Niccolo Hotels, The Murray will fully open for guests in March 2018.
Originally designed by architect Ron Phillips almost 50 years ago, at a time when the city was car-centric, the tower stood on an island site, surrounded by roads, making it impermeable for pedestrians. One of the central aims of the project was to reconnect the building with the city at ground level, creating a new street frontage on Garden Road with transparent and welcoming ground floor spaces, and enhancing and extending the landscaped grounds to incorporate a public tai chi area.
At the tower’s base is a sequence of four-storey-high arches, intersected by a podium and a vehicle ramp, which is a distinctive feature of the original building. A large historic tree, rising up through a void in the parking slab of the podium, has been ‘liberated’ and conserved as the centrepiece of the arrivals sequence for guests.
The tower is characterised by the distinctive pattern of its white façade, made up of a grid of square windows. In a fusion of interior and exterior, the inset bays provide a modular unit and organising principle for the hotel rooms, allowing for a variety of planning options. The upper-level suites are angled to create a generous central living space. Corner suites benefit from dual-aspect views of the harbour, peaks and gardens. Surfaces are covered with rare stones, leather and textiles, creating sophisticated urban chic sanctuaries in the heart of the city.
The architecture of the original building is in direct response to the climate of Hong Kong— the floor-to-ceiling windows are recessed and carefully orientated to avoid the harsh tropical sunlight—gaining it the Energy Efficient Building Award in 1994. The new design retains the façade, while upgrading other aspects of the building and extending its life by introducing new functions appropriate for the changing demands of the city for years to come.
PROJECT DATA
Project Name: The Murray, Hong Kong, a Niccolo Hotel
Location: 22, Cotton Tree Drive, Central, Hong Kong
Completion Date: December 2017
Gross Floor Area: 33,000 square metres
Building Height: 25 storeys
Number of Rooms: 336
Client/Owner: Niccolo Hotels
Architecture Firm: Foster+Partners
Principal Architect: Luke Fox
Civil & Structural Engineer: Wong and Ouyang Civil Structural Engineering
Quantity Surveyor: Rider Levett Bucknall
Lighting Engineer: Tino Kwan Lighting
Landscape Architect: Urbis
Images: Niccolo Hotels; Foster+Partners
