MGM Cotai
KPF's stacked jewellery boxes on the Cotai Strip: about 1,400 rooms, a daylit glass-roofed atrium and a 2,000-seat theatre.
- Neighbourhood
- Cotai Strip
- Opened
- February 2018
- Design
- Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF), with Wong Tung & Partners
Why we recommend it
Where many of its neighbours borrow a theme from another city, MGM Cotai relies on contemporary architecture, and the shifted boxes break up what would otherwise be a very large slab. It is one of the few Cotai resorts that reads as a building first and a stage set second.
The Spectacle is the reason to visit even without staying. It is a rare daylit public space among Macau’s resorts, an indoor garden under a roof that holds a Guinness World Record as the largest free-span, self-supporting glazed gridshell. The art is the second reason: a collection of more than 300 works, from contemporary Asian painting to Qing dynasty imperial carpets, shown in the lobbies and not kept behind a door.
For the hotel itself, the choice is between the main tower and two smaller hotels within it, the Skylofts and the Emerald Tower, which suit travellers who want a quieter arrival and more space. For a comparison of the Cotai resorts as buildings, see our article on Macau as an exhibition of hotel architecture and our report on the opening of MGM Cotai as a stack of jewellery boxes.
Rooms & Suites
The resort has about 1,400 rooms and suites, starting at some 43 square metres. Within that number are two smaller collections with their own character. The Skylofts, the first outside the United States for an MGM concept, comprise 22 rooms and 16 duplexes with interiors by Kohn Pedersen Fox: high ceilings, neutral colours and a manner taken from the lofts of Manhattan, the two floors of each duplex joined by a glass-clad staircase. Skylofts guests have a dedicated check-in and the use of a Sky Lounge on the 33rd floor.
The Emerald Tower is more ornate, in umber and gold, with marble bathrooms and a lobby of green and ivory marble arranged on feng shui principles. Its suites separate dining, sitting and sleeping areas, and its 28 villas, on floors 25 to 30, have one to three bedrooms and take the imperial gardens of China as their theme. The Mansion, a further set of villas, forms a separate part of the building.
Dining
Restaurants are arranged on terraces around the Spectacle. Five Foot Road, the resort’s Sichuan restaurant, takes the high-society banquets of 1940s Chengdu as its starting point. CHÚN serves Cantonese and Shunde cooking. Bar Patuá, named after Macau’s Portuguese-based creole, mixes drinks on an East-meets-West theme; its house cocktail combines baijiu, Chinese gin and tawny port with spices.
Our gastronomic guide to Macau covers the city’s other tables.
Design
John Bushell, the design principal at Kohn Pedersen Fox, composed the resort as eight cantilevering boxes that combine two hotel towers into one abstract, stacked form. The shifted volumes and a large opening at the centre reduce the apparent bulk, and the façade, in MGM’s gold, draws on Chinese decorative imagery and the idea of a jewellery box. The towers stand on a two-storey podium containing the casino, a convention centre and shops.
The Spectacle, at the heart of the podium, is a column-free hall under a diagrid glass roof that admits daylight and a view of the sky. Inside it are a garden of more than 100,000 plants and large LED screens showing digital art. The MGM Theater, described by the resort as Asia’s first dynamic theatre, seats 2,000 on movable platforms before a 900-square-metre LED screen. Our guide to Cotai’s Zaha Hadid, Versace and Lagerfeld towers covers the neighbours.
Wellness & Spa
Tria Spa is designed to suggest an enchanted forest and includes a lounge for sound therapy, which the spa describes as the only one of its kind in Macau. The resort also has an outdoor pool and a gym with fitness classes.
The art collection is a facility in its own right. The Chairman’s Collection of contemporary Asian art includes work by Hsiao Chin and Xue Song, and 28 Qing dynasty imperial carpets are on display, of about 300 thought to survive.
Location
The resort is on Avenida da Nave Desportiva, on the Cotai Strip in Macau, a few minutes by car from Macau International Airport. Rooms look over the Cotai skyline or towards the hills of Coloane. The Spectacle atrium is open to all visitors.
- Address
- Avenida da Nave Desportiva, Cotai, Macau
- Website
- Official website
