Hong Kong-based property tycoon CS Hwang loved New York’s architecture, the 1920s Art Deco-era specifically. It was his crowning glory to open this glamorous Art Deco New York-looking skyscraper at Parkview Square in Singapore in 2002.

The building’s opulent ground floor lobby bar Atlas feels like a spectacular film set. It has soaring 15m high ceilings featuring fresco murals, and elaborate Art Deco and Art Nouveau cast and gilded details.

This project was considered to be more of a conservation project, both an insertion and a faithful restoration. The original 12m high wine tower now holds over a thousand bottles of gin, some of which date back to 1920, and beneath that is a rose gold champagne room stocked with over 250 labels of champagne. Access is much easier now with the added elegant mezzanine floor around the gin tower, where previously the server had to be awkwardly winched up the four stories. This gin tower now houses the world’s largest gin collection and is rightfully the focal point of the bar.

During this restoration project, significant space planning challenges in the lobby and bar area were also resolved. Lush velvets and tufted leather Chesterfield banquette sofas were added to the gilded gold and copper moulded details throughout the interior scheme.

Please note that this project was completed while Paul Semple and Matthew Shang were Principals at Hassell.