The Murray, Hong Kong, a Niccolo Hotel

The Murray, Hong Kong, a Niccolo Hotel opened on 15 January 2018 inside the former Murray Building, a 1969 government office tower in Central converted by Foster + Partners under the government's Conserving Central heritage scheme. The 336-room hotel preserves the building's distinctive recessed-window façade, designed originally to reduce solar heat gain.

The place

22 Cotton Tree Drive, Central, Hong Kong Island, adjoining Hong Kong Park, a short walk from the Peak Tram lower terminus and the Central business district.

The concept

Completed in 1969, the Murray Building was one of the tallest government office towers in Hong Kong at the time, designed by government architect Ron Phillips with a distinctive grid of recessed, angled windows intended to cut solar heat gain without individual air-conditioning units. The Hong Kong government put the building out to tender for adaptive reuse under its Conserving Central heritage scheme, and Foster + Partners led the conversion into a 336-room hotel for Wharf Hotels' Niccolo brand, preserving the recessed-window façade and inserting greenery-lined arcades and a new porte-cochère at ground level. It opened on 15 January 2018 as one of the largest heritage-office-to-hotel conversions completed in the city.

Dining & wellness

Popinjays, the rooftop Italian restaurant and bar, has one of the largest wraparound terraces in Central. The Garden Lounge serves modern Cantonese dishes and the hotel's signature afternoon tea, MIÁN is an upscale Chinese restaurant, and Murray Lane operates as a cocktail bar just off the lobby.