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The Upper House
The Upper House
Who would have thought this low-set building isthe 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 Atriumservice apartments. In 2006, the then-chairman of SwireProperties, Keith Kerr, said they would be much better turnedinto a hotel, but without spa or business center.
Hence The Upper House, which opened early October 2009, designed bya Kerr find, young André Fu, a protégé of John Pawson. Its front door isin the sleek grey striped Bedonia stone building next to it. Inside the13ft-high textured nickel door, set in floor-to-ceiling glass walls whichappear to sit on top of pools of water set at right angles to the flow oftraffic, a bevy of youngsters stood around in various hues of eggplantand soft grey-brown, all designed by Billy San. The women carriedaubergine-colored pouches, like handbags, that matched their highheels. This area is a bijou lobby, known as The Lantern. There was nofront desk in the usual sense, merely a small counter where they couldstore things. The pouches carry PDAs, which are used to effect all check-in, although this was actually done in my room.I was escorted up a steep escalator to what could well have been twofloors up but is known as Level 6. Here, after passing a picture windowframing a big marble urn by artist Cynthia Sah, you can go out to TheLawn, a tennis court-sized outside garden, in formal style withparterres, topiary and teak seating. Back inside the hotel, you find theelevator bank, to soar up to floors 38-49. The elevator is soft palewood, with a 30-cm wide celadon pot, behind illuminated glass, at therear. At the 45th floor, you exit and, turning to the right, you can lookstraight through a window into the six-sided inner atrium that reachesup through 11 floors. Up the walls sits a stainless steel sculpture,appropriately called Rise, by Osaka-born artist Hirotoshi Sawada. All thehotel’s artworks, apparently, have been chosen by consultant AlisonPickett, who spends half of the year here in Hong Kong and the rest ofthe time that birthplace of marble, Carrera, Italy.Room 4511, accessed via a pressure pad on a spot near the front door, isshaped like an origami plane that has been unraveled to give a 750 sq ftmulti-angled space. You enter into a limestone foyer and straight oninto a sea of soft lined oak. The numerous walls are either mostly glass –views of neighboring highrises and down to the harbor – or oak or softgreen-tea fabric. Curtains are soft-sand gauze, with additionalblackouts, and pull easily across via one-end pulleys. You can meanderfrom the bed-living room through to a short corridor, which houses thedouble-sink basin unit, with open closet and toilet stall to your left and,to the right, the main wet area, all of 300 sq ft, with a big rectangulartub, glass-walled shower and masses of big windows. A standing signhere says Sneaky Peaky. Close the drapes to avoid giving a show to theneighbors. Back at the washbasins, you can look through the wet area,to have that view. You have Ren toiletries, linen robes and honestly thesoftest-cuddliest cashmere-type robes imaginable. You also have a yogamat.is a freestanding wood-grain sandstone egg by a Taiwanese sculptore,Marvin Minto Fang. The stationery is traditionally elegant. The guide toservices, by contrast is fast-forward modern, namely all on an AppleiTouch.The bed has a three foot-high dull green fabric headboard with recessedlight reflecting on the oak wall behind. There is a green-tea cashmerethrow, with hotel logo, on the otherwise-white cloudy bed shape.Lighting throughout is not too extreme, and easy to control. An armoireholds a glass-fronted minibar – all free, apart from Duval Leroychampagne, and wine. The complimentaries include Llanllyr Sourcewater, Firefly Recharge (pomegranate and Echinacea) and Detox(lemon, lime and ginger). I have a Illy Francis Francis X7 Espressomachine, and white Nikko cups.I push the Do Not Disturb button and head for the elevator bank: eachdoor is separated by a ceiling high marble-look column that illuminates,with a sound similar to a church bell, when an elevator is coming. I headup to the 48th floor gym, open 24 hours. It has supplies of green apples,Evian bottles and new, still-packaged headsets. The equipment is Precorand there is a Kettler ‘kinesis lookalike’. After this, I shower, and headout for dinner.In the morning after an excellent night’s sleep, I get ready forbreakfast. Out in the elevator lobby are neat piles of the FinancialTimes, International Herald Tribune and South China Morning Post. Upon the 49th, top floor, sits the main lobby, a big, light area that must beappealing to those for some reason do not want to sit in their big, lightbedrooms. I take the sky bridge, across the central atrium, to Café GrayDeluxe, which is a blend of eggplant, soft green and gold. Some of thechandeliers are formed of vertical strips of bamboo. Tables have darkbrown leather tops, and are set with taupe leather place mats, whiteNikko china and vertically-set Laguiole knives. The menu cover is brownand taupe leather. Gray Kunz, who used to cook at Plume in the formerRegent Hotel, does all the hotel’s food, including room service andspecial events on the outside garden. A server, Cherry, and hercolleagues deliver our à la carte breakfast, fabulous fresh juice, goodcoffee, bowls of berries and natural yogurt. My English muffins, and myfriend’s toast, come in silver toast-racks, each holding four items, withare accompanied by little round pots of butter and preserves. Everyone isso friendly – in fact, says hotel GM Dean Winter, all his 176-strong teamis entirely enthusiastic. They were recruited after an initial online surveyinvited them to share what made them laugh and how they would reactto certain situations. Now they are, apart from those in the kitchen, allcross-trained, to do anything: guest services, as this system is called, isSign up for the FreeWOW ConfidentialNewsletter
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