3 minute read

Hollywood Splendour

Step into a world of movie sets and your Hollywood inspired journey through Studio City Macau. Bringing a slice of Hollywood and its studio concept into the integrated resort on the former Portuguese settlement. The opening of the hotel welcomed Hollywood actors Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro and director Martin Scorsese, a truly star-studded affair.

The hotel’s architecture is both dynamic and iconic, featuring an art-deco façade and a gigantic “Golden Reel” ferris wheel suspended in the middle of the massive curved tower, 130 meters above ground, connecting the two wings housing the 5-star Celebrity Tower and the 6-star Star Tower. According to the owning company, Melco Resorts & Entertainment, it’s like “two flaming asteroids crashed through the building façade in tandem, forming a pair of rings.”

The guestrooms and suites for each tower boast customized design styles respectively that are both distinctive, lavish and elegant. Star Tower suites channel the glamour of old Hollywood by incorporating elements such as padded fabric and timber headboard panels with curved double-line gold trims, subtly picked up in the double gold lines of the pillowcases. The overall colour scheme includes a palette of black, white, gold and burgundy, reminiscent of the dramatic and sophisticated 1920s era.

To inject a distinctive look for the Celebrity Tower guestrooms, LTW approached the design through bold and contemporary inspirations. The charismatic rooms are decked out using muted shades of red carpeting and grey walls with a dramatic black-andwhite film strip ribbon flowing across the headboard panel. Amenity areas such as the writing desk, TV console and minibar are all affixed to the side walls to allow rooms to be as spacious as possible.

Spotlight is the hotel’s all-day dining venue with an interior inspired by old Hollywood films from the early 20 th century. The dramatically dark restaurant with black chalkboard ceilings and column cladding serves as a perfect backdrop for hand-drawn film reel artwork to flow across the space and black-andwhite pages from old school magazines of actors and starlets form a tornado effect as dozens of pages twirl and dance up a central column and onto the ebony ceiling. Black leather curved banquettes sit below tall black metal screens with glimmering wavy glass inserts that add sparkle to the dark matte surfaces.

The buffet counter is designed to look like a stage while guests and diners sit around like audience members, watching the action on a film set. The “grand stage” is finished with black granite countertops, metal-framed cabinets with studded detailing, with the overall look complimented by vintage oven and stovetops. The movie theme extends all around the restaurant with names of famous movie stars and movie quotes etched onto the walls, allowing guests to dine in an ultimate movie set experience. LTW received an accolade for its work for the allday-dining restaurant when it won Gold at the Hong Kong Restaurant Interior Design Awards 2016.

The modern and elegant Chinese restaurant Pearl Dragon was designed as a blend of Chinese and European transitional style, a perfect interpretation of an East meets West theme. The restaurant features Asian chinoiserie elements blended carefully with a luxurious modern classic architectural backdrop. Black metal screens with hundreds of convex glass pieces in contiguous geometric patterns add additional reflections to the waiting lounge and dining room while providing semi-privacy for diners. Wall panels are carefully wrapped with softly shimmering fabrics, while smooth white marble pilasters with grey veining hold bespoke silver wall sconces.

“As an upscale dining venue catering to primarily an affluent Chinese clientele,” says LTW head of development Robert Shen, “the private dining rooms are of particular importance, so we designed them as grand suites with ample space for lounging, dining and dish preparation and presentation.” Custom designed crystal chandeliers hang above, created by a series of curved, concentric panels lit with cool white light. Soft furnishings in the lounge areas have a more European style with curved lines and upholstered with textured shades of iridescent blue, pearl and celadon. By contrast, Chinese style mahogany bent-wood chairs surround the circular dining tables, made more comfortable with embroidered imperial yellow silk cushions.

The artwork and accessories are curated by art and cultural specialists, and range from jade carvings, glazed teapots and ceramic crane figurines, to modern paintings with bold brush strokes to compliment the overall interior.