Insights

EAST MEETS WEST ALL OVER AGAIN IN A CROSS CULTURAL, HYPER-REAL CREATION

By WATG
February 17, 2014

Global resort destination design firm WATG is delighted to announce groundbreaking on one of its latest projects, the Lisboa Palace at Cotai in Macau, for Macau’s Sociedade de Jogos de Macau, S.A. (SJM). The complex will comprise three hotels: the five-star Lisboa Palace with over 1450 rooms, the Palazzo Versace Macau with up to 270 rooms, and a fashion-branded luxury hotel with the same number of rooms. The built area of the complex, totaling over half a million square meters and covering nearly 7 hectares, will include approximately 27,000 square meters of gaming facilities, 34,000 square meters of retail shops, and 36,000 square meters of restaurants and entertainment.

But the impressive scale of the Lisboa Palace is by no means its most intriguing feature. The directors of SJM Holdings had a vision for the Cotai project: a masterpiece inspired by seventeenth and eighteenth century European royal residences fused with auspicious and positive traditional Chinese motifs. The result is an exuberant celebration of art and architecture stemming from the two-way cultural exchange between China and the West over the past 500 years, with Macau as the gateway.

This was a monumental undertaking and would not have been possible without the depth of experience and knowledge of WATG’s leadership team – Perry Brown, Senior Vice President; Tom Fo, Vice President; Ron Van Pelt, Senior Vice President; and Sharmila Tankha, Associate Vice President. Under their guidance, architects, landscape designers, and interior designers worked together to create a seamless and integrated experience. The interior design of the Lisboa Palace was created by Wimberly Interiors, led by Margaret McMahon, Vice President and Managing Director.

“We are delighted to showcase Lisboa Palace of which the concept and design embodies the rich history of Sino-Western cultural exchange in Macau,” said Dr. Ambrose So, SJM Holdings CEO. Lead architect Sharmila Tankha agrees: “The design of the Lisboa Palace is a great example of WATG’s creativity and imagination coming alive in response to SJM’s aspirations and the project’s rich cultural and historical context in Macau.”

About WATG

WATG is one of the world’s leading integrated design firms and ranked as 2nd in the world among hotel architectural firms. WATG’s interior design firm, Wimberly, was ranked 11th by Interior Design Magazine in their 2015 Hospitality Giants survey.

With over 70 years of design excellence, WATG and Wimberly, have become the world’s leading design consultants in the industry since starting in Hawaii in 1945. With offices in Irvine, Beverly Hills, Seattle, Chicago, New York, London, Miami, Istanbul, Dubai, Singapore, Shanghai and Honolulu, the multi-disciplinary design firm is best known for creating internationally acclaimed destinations in 160 countries across six continents. WATG offers integrated design solutions comprising strategy, planning, architecture, landscape, and interiors for urban, tourism and resort destinations. WATG’s projects are renowned not only for their design and sense of place but also for their bottom-line success.

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