Built for the Public Works Department and other Hong Kong government offices, the Murray Building stood out for its height—a then-towering 27 stories—and the sculptural grid of its facades when it opened in 1969. Designed by British-born government architect Ron Phillips, the building was an elegantly robust concrete block lifted on arches, prominently sited in the Central district at the foot of the slopes leading up to the city’s famed Peak. It was as much a Modernist icon as Hong Kong ever produced.
But late last year, this relic of a bygone era was recast in the image of our current age—as a 336-room luxury hotel called the Murray. The renovation, led by Colin Ward and Armstrong Yakubu of Foster + Partners, remakes the building with all the luxed-up finishes the hotel’s upscale clientele might expect. But it also deftly corrects some of the original building’s shortcomings, in ways that give something back to the city as well.
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