PROJECTS

Hilton Melbourne

DETAILS

Arch / Design:		Woods Bagot (web)
Consultant:		NH Architecture (web)
Type:		Hotel
Year:		2009
Location:		Melbourne
Photographer:		Earl Carter (web)

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PROJECTS BY ARCHITECT WOODS BAGOT

PROJECTS BY CONSULTANT NH ARCHITECTURE

PROJECTS PHOTOGRAPHED BY EARL CARTER

Architects Woods Bagot, in association with NH Architecture, drew heavily on the hotel's location - the banks of the Yarra in the newest bit of Melbourne between the Docklands and Southbank - to inform the interiors.

We're talking soaring seven-metre ceilings and timber, huge planks of it on the floor, ceilings and in between. There's steel, some of it rusted; walls of smoky glass; sophisticated, expensive lights; cobblestones; and red-and-brown-striped carpet in Sotano, the tapas bar. The sum of the often-surprising parts of the new Hilton is sensational.

Town planners, to say nothing of the Hilton hierarchy, are praying that this South Wharf precinct will take off in the way Southbank did 20 years ago.

There's plenty there. Views of the Polly Woodside, the river, the southern CBD beyond Etihad Stadium and Jeff's Shed, with more shops and restaurants in the pipeline. At the centre is the new Melbourne Exhibition and Convention Centre and the Hilton Melbourne South Wharf, which are connected on two levels.

Now all they need is guests who are not just conference delegates or business travellers. Which is where Michelin-starred Spanish chef, Ramon Frexia, comes in.

Frexia owns the Michelin-starred El Raco d'En Frexia in Barcelona. He also operates two other restaurants in Spain, one a Michelin red star. Here, Frexia is central to Hilton plans to establish the hotel as a destination for Melburnians.

"With so many fine restaurants in the city there has to be a reason to choose the hotel restaurant," says Jean-Luc Fourrier, vice-president of food and beverage for the Asia-Pacific region - one of the scores of Hilton personnel in town to see that the hotel opened on Thursday night in a manner Hiltons are supposed to.