The Upper House

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The Upper House

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Who would have thought this low-set building is the entrance to The Upper House, Hong Kong? By: Mary Gostelow

The Upper House is in the same high-rise as the JW Marriott – when that opened in 1990, the floors above were Atrium service apartments. In 2006, the then-chairman of Swire Properties, Keith Kerr, said they would be much better turned into a hotel, but without spa or business center.

is a freestanding wood-grain sandstone egg by a Taiwanese sculptore,

a Kerr find, young André Fu, a protégé of John Pawson. Its front door is

Marvin Minto Fang. The stationery is traditionally elegant. The guide to

in the sleek grey striped Bedonia stone building next to it. Inside the

services, by contrast is fast-forward modern, namely all on an Apple

13ft-high textured nickel door, set in floor-to-ceiling glass walls which

iTouch.

appear to sit on top of pools of water set at right angles to the flow of traffic, a bevy of youngsters stood around in various hues of eggplant

The bed has a three foot-high dull green fabric headboard with recessed

and soft grey-brown, all designed by Billy San. The women carried

light reflecting on the oak wall behind. There is a green-tea cashmere

aubergine-colored pouches, like handbags, that matched their high

throw, with hotel logo, on the otherwise-white cloudy bed shape.

heels. This area is a bijou lobby, known as The Lantern. There was no

Lighting throughout is not too extreme, and easy to control. An armoire

front desk in the usual sense, merely a small counter where they could

holds a glass-fronted minibar – all free, apart from Duval Leroy

store things. The pouches carry PDAs, which are used to effect all check-

champagne, and wine. The complimentaries include Llanllyr Source

in, although this was actually done in my room.

water, Firefly Recharge (pomegranate and Echinacea) and Detox (lemon, lime and ginger). I have a Illy Francis Francis X7 Espresso

I was escorted up a steep escalator to what could well have been two

machine, and white Nikko cups.

floors up but is known as Level 6. Here, after passing a picture window framing a big marble urn by artist Cynthia Sah, you can go out to The

I push the Do Not Disturb button and head for the elevator bank: each

Lawn, a tennis court-sized outside garden, in formal style with

door is separated by a ceiling high marble-look column that illuminates,

parterres, topiary and teak seating. Back inside the hotel, you find the

with a sound similar to a church bell, when an elevator is coming. I head

elevator bank, to soar up to floors 38-49. The elevator is soft pale

up to the 48th floor gym, open 24 hours. It has supplies of green apples,

wood, with a 30-cm wide celadon pot, behind illuminated glass, at the

Evian bottles and new, still-packaged headsets. The equipment is Precor

rear. At the 45th floor, you exit and, turning to the right, you can look

and there is a Kettler ‘kinesis lookalike’. After this, I shower, and head

straight through a window into the six-sided inner atrium that reaches

out for dinner.

up through 11 floors. Up the walls sits a stainless steel sculpture, appropriately called Rise, by Osaka-born artist Hirotoshi Sawada. All the

In the morning after an excellent night’s sleep, I get ready for

hotel’s artworks, apparently, have been chosen by consultant Alison

breakfast. Out in the elevator lobby are neat piles of the Financial

Pickett, who spends half of the year here in Hong Kong and the rest of

Times, International Herald Tribune and South China Morning Post. Up

the time that birthplace of marble, Carrera, Italy.

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From our Correspondents

Hence The Upper House, which opened early October 2009, designed by

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on the 49th, top floor, sits the main lobby, a big, light area that must be appealing to those for some reason do not want to sit in their big, light

Room 4511, accessed via a pressure pad on a spot near the front door, is

bedrooms. I take the sky bridge, across the central atrium, to Café Gray

shaped like an origami plane that has been unraveled to give a 750 sq ft

Deluxe, which is a blend of eggplant, soft green and gold. Some of the

multi-angled space. You enter into a limestone foyer and straight on

chandeliers are formed of vertical strips of bamboo. Tables have dark

into a sea of soft lined oak. The numerous walls are either mostly glass –

brown leather tops, and are set with taupe leather place mats, white

views of neighboring highrises and down to the harbor – or oak or soft

Nikko china and vertically-set Laguiole knives. The menu cover is brown

green-tea fabric. Curtains are soft-sand gauze, with additional

and taupe leather. Gray Kunz, who used to cook at Plume in the former

blackouts, and pull easily across via one-end pulleys. You can meander

Regent Hotel, does all the hotel’s food, including room service and

from the bed-living room through to a short corridor, which houses the

special events on the outside garden. A server, Cherry, and her

double-sink basin unit, with open closet and toilet stall to your left and,

colleagues deliver our à la carte breakfast, fabulous fresh juice, good

to the right, the main wet area, all of 300 sq ft, with a big rectangular

coffee, bowls of berries and natural yogurt. My English muffins, and my

tub, glass-walled shower and masses of big windows. A standing sign

friend’s toast, come in silver toast-racks, each holding four items, with

here says Sneaky Peaky. Close the drapes to avoid giving a show to the

are accompanied by little round pots of butter and preserves. Everyone is

neighbors. Back at the washbasins, you can look through the wet area,

so friendly – in fact, says hotel GM Dean Winter, all his 176-strong team

to have that view. You have Ren toiletries, linen robes and honestly the

is entirely enthusiastic. They were recruited after an initial online survey

softest-cuddliest cashmere-type robes imaginable. You also have a yoga

invited them to share what made them laugh and how they would react

mat.

to certain situations. Now they are, apart from those in the kitchen, all cross-trained, to do anything: guest services, as this system is called, is

Back in the main room, the long oak desk, with inset dull green leather

headed by Marcel Thoma, formerly in charge of the front desk at The

pad, has banks of electric sockets hidden under a flap. There is a hand-

Carlyle, New York. Two of The Upper House, Hong Kong, team showed

held phone by the bedside (and a wall-set, with-cord Jacob Jensen in

their versatility by then driving me, in the hotel’s sand-colored Lexus

the toilet). There is fast wireless internet, free. A dull green-tea carpet

Hybrid RX450h, to the ferry terminal and making sure I actually got on

matches a giant L-shaped sofa that would seat ten, with two easy-move

the right turbojet for Macau.

C-shaped oak tables, fitting in over the sofa, that hold some of the wellchosen heavyweight hardbacks. Modern Ming: Furniture designed by Tian Jiaqing, Joint Publishing HK Co Ltd, and Hong Kong: The Classic

The Upper House, Hong Kong, S.A.R., China

Age, Peter Moss, FormAsia. There is also the Swire magazine, In House.

See other hotels in Hong Kong, S.A.R. (10)

The current edition of the monthly In-House magazine fits nicely with

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such polysyllabic tomes. In-House is edited by Ann Tsang, and contains

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articles on the designers and artefacts both of the Upper House and its

View other Around the World Articles

year-older sibling, The Opposite House in Beijing. The abstract art is by Brit Gerard Bookle, and there

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