The designer’s work for the hotel company includes debuting a new concept, “The Food Store,” which the firm designed for Hilton as a casual and takeout dining solution for hotel guests.
At Hilton Adelaide, for example, the designers conceived a nod to the region’s coal mining history in a new restaurant, Coal Cellar & Grill. ‘Simply, the brief was to design a restaurant that did not feel like a hotel, a restaurant that would be a destination in and of itself for the local community’, comments Cheng, who has worked on multiple Hilton projects and locations. With an exposed concrete ceiling and columns, the simple material palette of dark timber, leather, stone and glass turns the focus to the guests and a popular new menu.
For the Hilton Papua New Guinea in the sprawling capital city Port Moresby, hotel leaders commissioned Landini Associates (LA) to design the hotel lobby, bar and restaurant as well as a café kiosk for the convention centre in the same complex, Star Mountain Plaza.
We were inspired by the country’s incredible diversity and pristine nature, and worked to create a contemporary vision with a modern take on local colours, patterns and materials, while also reflecting Hilton’s service excellence and sophistication.
Paul Gates, LAIn the two-level lobby with its impressive spiral glass staircase, local tones and vibrant primary hues of blue, red and yellow used in tribal body art, enliven the new furnishings. The timber ceiling, embedded with patterns inspired by a bark tapa cloth, becomes a hero element of the design. The library, café and restaurant offer subdued and inventive palettes of local timber, volcanic stones in the columns, locally made embossed precast concrete and brass mesh, as well as steel and copper details in furnishings and fixtures.
While the newer works began drawing acclaim, the designer earned attention for its work on a breakout restaurant project for the Hilton Brisbane, the 1985 icon by the famed modernist architect Harry Seidler and the only hotel building of his career.
In part an homage, the glamorous mirrored space fitted with vertical lights offers timeless simplicity. Set against a charcoal-hued raised platform with dark leather custom banquettes and walnut and ebony chairs, modernist red lounges complement the otherwise white interior conceived by the legendary architect associated with Walter Gropius, Marcel Breuer, Oscar Niemeyer and artist Josef Albers.
Adding to the homage, Landini unearthed original drawings from Seidler’s studio were enlarged and hung behind the monochrome reception console.