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The Orchard Road shopping belt has a ‘green’ addition to its skyline — a Jenga-like hotel building filled with hallowed spaces and anchored by 120-metre-tall pillars wrapped in lush foliage and lush plant-filled terraces.
Enter Pan Pacific Orchard, the latest flagship property of the Singapore-headquartered Pan Pacific Hotels Group, which opens today. Sporting a whimsical design by award-winning WOHA Architects, which also designed Oasia Hotel Downtown and Crowne Plaza Changi Airport, the 347-key, 23-storey hotel at Claymore Road brings a breath of fresh air to a more dated part of Orchard Road. The opening of the hotel comes five years after the original building was demolished in 2018. About half of the rooms are available for booking during the soft-opening period.
Open-air terraces and roomy patios
With its greenery-filled premises, the hotel exudes a resort-like vibe in a city, replete with verdant foliage and water features that dot around the 14,000-sq-metre space. A sprawling open-air lobby that opens out to a bar (and copious amounts of fans) greet visitors with cocktails and a view of the stately grounds of the neighbouring Thai embassy.
The hotel has four open-air terraces — Forest, Beach, Garden and Cloud — that are sandwiched within the building, creating semi-outdoor atriums.
On the fifth floor is a lagoon-like swimming pool set against emerald blue and sand brown-hued flooring, palm trees, bean bags and deck chairs. The pool opens out to pool bars and 10 beach club lofts, each with its direct pool access and seating pod.
Bringing the outdoors in, most of the hotel’s rooms have a patio, while some have balconies that are roomy enough to fit an outdoor sofa and yoga mat. In-room amenities include a 400-thread count cotton bedding and bath products by French fragrance house Diptyque. Room rates start from $460++.
The Cloud Terrace, which is perched on the 18th storey, houses the Claymore Ballroom, which can sit about 420 people. The pillarless ballroom is one of the few ones in Singapore that has a view — most hotel ballrooms are usually on the first or basement levels.
Mediterranean-Peruvian menu at Mosella
Food and drinks-wise, the hotel’s all-day dining restaurant Mosella offers a breakfast buffet, followed by a Mediterranean-Peruvian menu for lunch and dinner, while champagne and oyster bar Florette will open in July. The hotel has also tied up with homegrown gin distillery Tanglin Gin to create the Singapore’s Orchard Gin, which is exclusive to the hotel. The gin features botanicals inspired by the history of Orchard Road and the hotel’s in-house scent, which includes orange peel, oak chips and nutmeg.
Pan Pacific Orchard is the latest hotel to open in the Orchard Road enclave, after the fashion-themed Pullman Orchard Singapore opened its doors in March. Upcoming hotels in the area include The Standard Singapore at Orange Grove Road and Edition Singapore, which is run by the Marriott Group. It will have 204 rooms, a rooftop pool and five restaurants and bars.
On the refurbishment front, Grand Hyatt Singapore is expected to reopen later this year following a massive refurbishment. The hotel will house Le Pristine, a fine-dining restaurant by Dutch chef Sergio Herman, who runs Michelin-starred restaurants such as Le Pristine in Belgium and AIRepublic in the Netherlands.
