Three of the world’s most impressive hotel atriums are in the same city

I’m on one of the dizzying mid-air walkways in the soaring atrium of Conrad Singapore Orchard hotel, located between Orchard Road shopping district and Singapore Botanic Garden. The walkway is vertiginously high – about 60 metres. I’m gripping the handrail to steady myself, but it’s the fantabulous vantage point that roots me to the spot.

Before me is a marvellously conjured optical illusion, an eye-ogling visual enigma of horizontal balconies T-barred by walkways and lit by strips of light that lead the eye in repeating rectilinear patterns. They are intersected by a central vertical tower with domed glass elevators that have an ethereal quality as they quietly ascend and descend in the expansive space.

The soaring atrium of Conrad Singapore Orchard hotel.

Above, light streams rather gloriously through a glass skylight, the golden rays illuminating trails of leafy greenery hanging from the hotel’s 12 cascading floors. Way down below, restaurants, bars, sitting booths – even a water feature, extend into the grandiose lobby where the graphic exactness is disrupted by gorgeous spiral staircases.

A contemporary architectural masterpiece you might think? In fact, the property, now into its fourth decade, is an example of the famed grand atrium design which sprung into being in America during the 1960s and ’70s.

There are architectural precedents, but Atlanta architect and developer John Portman, who died in 2018, aged 93, is largely credited with bringing the unique design – with rings of rooms around four outer walls and a spacious lofty interior, to the hotel sphere.

In 1967, he opened the Hyatt Regency Atlanta to huge fanfare, with 14,000 people reportedly visiting on opening weekend, queuing up for rides in the glass elevators. The five-year forecast for overnight stays was said to be met in the first four months of operation.

Instead of opening onto hallways, 22 floors of rooms opened onto balconies with sumptuous views over an internal lobby. Glass elevators, a hanging garden, multi-storey bird aviary, and restaurants and bars were all found in a central space purpose-fit for socialising. On the rooftop, the restaurant (which recently reopened) slowly revolved.

The Conrad Singapore Orchard, with its Escherian interior and eye-popper triangular facade, opened as the Pavilion InterContinental Hotel in 1982.

This space age spectacle invited guests to turn their attention away from downtown Atlanta, which was then in decline. They could also leave behind the anxieties of airports and plane travel – another sign of the times.

The Hyatt Regency Atlanta was the forerunner to other grand atrium hotels including the 36-storey Marriott Marquis in New York City, built in 1985 and one of Marriott’s most successful hotels. Also, the 28-storey Hyatt Regency Dallas, built in 1978 and famously featured in the opening credits of tv soap opera Dallas.

The Parkroyal Collection Marina Bay Sands honours Portman’s influence in the hotel’s Portman’s Bar in the glitzy atrium centre.

In the 1980s and ’90s, with big name hotel chains such as Hyatt Regency, Marriott and Westin flying the flag, the atrium design proliferated around the globe. The inward-facing design meant the style was often imitated in less-than-salubrious locations, including near airports and expressways, but the grandest of them found homes in luxe locations.

The Mandarin Oriental Singapore has a 21-storey atrium that Portman designed in the shape of a fan.

Singapore boasts three of Portman’s grand atrium hotels. Mandarin Oriental Singapore, built in 1987 and renovated in 2023, has a 21-storey atrium that Portman designed in the shape of a fan to mimic the brand’s logo. The much newer Parkroyal Collection Marina Bay Sands, designed 1987 and built in 2021, also has a 21-storey atrium with Portman’s influence honoured in the hotel’s Portman’s Bar in the glitzy atrium centre.

This one, the Conrad Singapore Orchard, with its Escherian interior and eye-popper triangular facade, opened as the Pavilion InterContinental Hotel in 1982 before becoming the Regent Singapore, under the Four Seasons Hotel banner in 1992. In the decades since, it has retained a loyal following of returnee travellers (perhaps fondly nostalgic for the ’80s) and Singapore residents who routinely patronise the excellent eating and drinking establishments.

The Conrad Singapore Orchard has undergone a major refurbishment without losing its original style.

In 2022, under Hilton ownership, it was rebranded as Conrad Singapore Orchard and a major refurbishment with “great care taken to maintain a profound respect for Portman’s original vision” got underway. Accordingly, the architectural elements of the original 1980s design, including the incredible atrium, are still there to be admired, while the property’s 445 rooms, including 46 suites, have had a top-to-toe makeover to suit today’s Garden City, as Singapore is known.

Early critics of the atrium took umbrage at a design approach that tended toward indoors urbanism and lack of engagement with the locale. No such issue here. The leafy residential area around Conrad Singapore Orchard has undergone something of a revival in the past few years with new hotel openings bringing tourism to the area, and art galleries and shops bringing local activation to the surrounding streets.

The Singapore government has long been strategic in marketing the city’s green spaces to the tourism sector, including Gardens by the Bay and Singapore Botanic Gardens – the nation’s only UNESCO World Heritage Site, which is on the hotel’s doorstep.

Using ‘biophilia’ as a central theme, designers have capitalised on both these ideas, weaving local botanica into the space and emphasising the interconnectedness between the hotel and the local neighbourhood.

From the buzz of the place, the transformation has been remarkably successful.

In reception, the retro ’80s character, including a spangly chandelier, has been infused with contemporary Asian luxury. Large reception desks have been softened with faux leathers and pale stone and, on a central table, fabulous vases of big leaf bouquets bring the tropical outdoors inside. Recesses have been adorned with materials from revered Thailand lifestyle brand Jim Thompson Fabrics, and an enormous rug has patterns inspired by Indonesian ikat and batik designs.

Glass elevators run stealthily up and down in the Conrad Singapore Orchard’s atrium next to the glittery sculpture, Singapore Shower, by Japanese kinetic sculptor Michio Ihara

In the lobby, the eye is immediately drawn upward to the stealthy glass elevators and the sunlit atrium where a glittery sculpture – Singapore Shower by Japanese kinetic sculptor Michio Ihara, rains down from above. The metallic gold pieces catch the light as they ‘fall’ between floors “evoking the rejuvenating spirit of Singapore’s tropical rain”.

This nature play extends, ever so tastefully, into the rooms and suites.

Seven different room categories range from deluxe rooms (35 square meters) to the Conrad Suite (210 square meters). My King Deluxe Balcony Suite sits somewhere in between, with a spacey lounge, adjoining bedroom and double terrace. It is luxuriously serene – nothing gauche or glitzy from the past, and feels more like a city pied-à-terre than a hotel room.

Fittings and furniture, including a long lazy couch, are in a beigey palette of lattes, creams and nutmegs. Palm motifs in wall prints by Singapore photographer Joanne Tan are replicated in couch cushions and tropical potted plants, including a pretty pink orchid so perfect it looks fake. Cream plantation shutters sit either side of big windows that bathe the room in natural light.

The Conrad’s pool feels ’70s cool.

Lux additions include a Stagg electric kettle (with a bewitching slow pour spout), Dyson hairdryer, organic Byredo bath amenities and a filtered water tap. From a pillow menu I sleep-test a natural buckwheat pillow from Hokkaido (too hard) and a feather bolster (great for reading).

The hotel has no beauty spa, just a fitness room and salon, but in-room experiences successfully tap the wellness trend. I’m into the signature ‘sleep-to-wake’ ritual including a soothing auditory sound bath “designed to calm the mind and ease the body into a state of deep relaxation”. ‘Morning intention sessions’, with a rotation of yoga and meditation, are held by the ’70s-cool outdoor pool.

Unsurprisingly, the best of the hotel’s food and beverage venues have been retained. I happily check out Basilico, an Italian restaurant with a tasting room featuring more than 50 cheeses, and one-Michelin starred Summer Palace, one of Singapore’s beloved Cantonese restaurants.

Manhattan, a bar inspired by America’s ’30s prohibition era with waistcoated bartenders, studded leather couches and low-lit tables for covert conversations, is a regular contender on the World’s and Asia’s 50 Best Bars lists. It has its own rickhouse lined with barrels where guests can taste aged cocktails concocted by guest mixologists from the world’s top bars.

The Conrad’s bar, Manhattan, has its own rickhouse.

A Manhattan night out makes for a good excuse to lie-in, but the Garden City calls. Alexius Yeo, the author of a lovely botanical book that caught my attention in the lobby, is serendipitously now my host on the hotel’s edible garden walk.

Public gardens are taken seriously in Singapore and foraging is illegal, so instead we nibble and pick at lovely tangy leaves, succulent buds and sweet petals all the way to the Singapore Botanic Garden where a picnic of nature-inspired food awaits.

It’s not what Portman would have imagined for his atrium guests, but in a Garden City, I daresay the time-honoured architect would approve.

The details

Fly
Singapore Airlines operates multiple daily flights between Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth to Singapore. See singaporeair.com.

Stay
Rooms start from $SGD336 ($AS388) a night. See conradsingaporeorchard.com

More
visitsingapore.com

The writer was a guest of Conrad Singapore Orchard.